I need to share this funny story and offer a warning about the methods used to secure a battery in it’s place. Those of us with emergency lighting know that there is usually a 12V battery hiding inside to power the lights when the power decides to vacate. Now, unless you live in California and have to deal with earthquakes these rarely need to deal with vibration that would require you to strap the battery down.

It seems however, that a helpful technician thought the battery might sneak out and escape or something and decided to glue the battery into the case. This makes replacing the battery a bit problematic as the plastic protective shell and the casing has apparently become rather enamored to each other and do not want to be separated.

Unfortunately this leaves the person in charge of replacing the battery one heck of a headache to deal with. Now unless they manage to develop a permanent battery you really do NOT need to glue a battery in. At least I have yet to see a good reason to do so.

Written by
  Ken

I am a frequent reader of the website www.eeTimes.com. It is an interesting site that has various information about upcoming technology.

Today I was reading about some lithium-ion batteries that seem to have not been made with the best of quality control. Apparently, AT&T bought some batteries from the now defunct Avestor. So far, 4 of these batteries have decided to either catch fire or explode. Seems as one of the latest exploded with enough force to rip a 50-60 lb. steel door clean off and throw it 5 feet. It shows why we need to make sure we are getting our batteries from companies with proven quality.

If you search the web it is easy to find where some sub-standard battery fails. Unfortunately these batteries have a bad habit of catching some people unaware and have burnt a few people. The good news however, is that on a percentage, the failed batteries are actually very minimal. Even with the 4 batteries that are giving AT&T a headache they had purchased 17,000 of them that’s actually the highest ratio I’ve seen at a little over 2%. I believe the normal in failed batteries is closer to .01 to .05%.

Granted that doesn’t make you feel any better if you happen to be one of the lucky recipients of a bad battery. However if you can hit those kinds of odds you should run out and get a lottery ticket. How afraid are you of the batteries that are hiding in your pocket, purse, on your lap, or being held to your head?

Written by
  Ken

The designs and technical specs of our batteries change frequently. The chemistry technologies seem to advance like the wind, constantly changing, adapting, and becoming more efficient. Unfortunately this also changes the requirements to charge the batteries. Some batteries like a slower, less amperage charge, while others can charge quite rapidly.

What battery charger manufacturers are doing to keep up with the various changes is to make their chargers smarter. They are adding more IC’s (integrated circuits) to change the voltage and charging algorithms as needed for the particular battery. I’m sure you’ve noticed that more devices are being able to be charged through USB ports. This actually requires an IC to watch the fluctuating power that comes through and adjust accordingly. Some do so with a simple two-tier approach usually 500mA and 100mA depending on the situation. While some of the more advanced ones actually change the algorithm and charge level to charge the device more efficiently.

Some of the newer SLR digital cameras and GPS systems are beginning to have multiple subsystems requiring different power management often having dual-powercells in series. This of course requires the charging system to handle the dual batteries and any variations that they incur.

This got me thinking about the various chargers at my house; I use rechargeable NiMH for my mp3 player, all the different cell phones in the house, my rechargeable book light among others. It seems to me having a universal charging bank to handle all the various chemistries and configurations would be useful.

What do you think? How many chargers do you use for your GPS, mp3, cell-phone, blackberry, motorcycle and other toys we use?

Written by
  Ken

The brains over at MIT have been trying to come up with a replacement technology to the good old battery. For the most part batteries really haven’t changed much since Alessandro Volta came up with the basic battery back in 1800. Granted there are many new chemistries, new materials, shapes and sizes. Now what MIT has been working on is the Ultracapacitor.

MIT is working on using nanotubes to increase the efficiency of Ultracapacitors. Ultracaps have been around for some time (since the 1960’s) they do however have had a few disadvantages. As I’ve said they have been relatively expensive and they have needed to be up to 25 times larger than a comparably sized battery. With more and more companies researching and improving nanotechnology, the potential for nanotubes are going to begin to be realized. Carbon nanotubes are around 1/30,000 of a human hair and around 100,000 times longer than they are wide. With the carbon structure being vertically aligned and organized they are far more efficient than the standard activated carbon that is currently used.

With a little more playing and advances with this technology we should be able to get the awesome benefits of the Ultracapacitors but retain the energy density of our reliable battery that we’ve come to know and love.

Written By
  Ken

Some of the brains at Carnegie Institution are working on new materials for piezoelectrics. An odd sounding word that basically means: when certain compounds or materials are stressed (squeezed) they tend to generate electricity. Sometimes this can be done through temperature, or pressure.

The way I understand it the material Lead Titanite seems to have the best response in generating electricity. New advances in this technology open up possibilities of harvesting the energy created where batteries are impractical in the application. Their ability to convert mechanical energy into electrical makes them sought after in medical devices such as ultrasound. With all the various studies going on to come up with ways to generate or capture all the energy around us, I see quite the power revolution ahead of us. What are your thoughts on this? Do you work in the field? What are the benefits of piezoelectric devices?

Written by:
   Ken

The University of Michigan has come up with a novel idea. Apparently they had asked themselves “Why can’t we power our own cell-phones and other devices?” Playing with the regenerative braking systems that are in some Hybrid vehicles they came up with a knee brace that captures the kinetic energy released as we walk.

This could be a huge step forward to those of us with prosthetics allowing them to generate power for various bio-medical devices. Those of us that like to go hiking and camping (me me) it would come in very handy to have a device that could charge a flashlight, GPS, or emergency radio. There always comes a moment when camping that you could use a little extra power, at least there always is with me.

They’ll need to tweak the design some as the current prototype is around 3 and a half pounds. I think it’s a pretty good idea, what about you? Think of all the power a mail-carrier would generate. They would just need to add some type of battery for storage and voila. Maybe I’m too much of a geek lol. What about you? Could this benefit you?

Written by:
   Ken

With a 6 Million dollar grant from the Department of Energy, Berkley Labs, with the help of a couple other Institutions, is working on extending the life of Lithium-Ion batteries.

What they are doing for the first time is to study the batteries at a microscopic level. The demand for lithium batteries lasting 10-15 years is essential as we weed our economies off of oil. In order to reach this goal they need to understand what causes the batteries to deteriorate and lose charge and power capacity. If they can get a grip on these and extend the life of our batteries, we could see quite the revolution in our technical devices.

Imagine an Ipod lasting a week on a charge or a cell phone battery that you don’t need to replace after a year. The possibilities in our power hungry society for portable energy are astounding as the new technology and chemistries are produced.

What about you? How many devices do you lug around that require batteries? How will you benefit from longer life lithium-ion batteries?

Written by:
   Ken

Zap is a California based company that is riding the current trend to produce more and more alternative fuel-based vehicles. Zap which stands for Zero Air Pollution® has recently announced the ZAP Alias and the Zap-X Crossover SUV. They have joined up with Lotus Design in order to create some interesting new designs. The ZAP-X is estimated to run around $60K and the smaller Alias around half of that.

Now as I’m browsing through their webpage (www.zapworld.com) it seems they are trying out some pretty cool ideas. Showing solar cells built into the glass, regenerative braking, and bio-degradable Lithium batteries. Now we’ll have to see if the actual product meets the specs that they are stating; such as 644HP and 350 Mile range in the ZAP-X and 322HP hiding in the sleek Alias. Granted it will take actual usage to see how they really work and what difference it makes in the pocketbook.

With most vehicles edging closer and closer to averaging around the $30K mark could this bring electric vehicles into mainstream? With some of the luxury SUV’s pushing well into the $90’s and up does the ZAP-X intrigue you?

Written by:
     Ken

In the continuing search for more energy sources the Australian company CSIRO has managed to make bio-fuel out of various types of trash. Using forest thinnings, waste paper, crop residue and garden waste they have worked out a technique to convert this into fuel. Granted this is still in the test mode and will be a couple years before the pilot plant is opened up and they can start testing in larger quantities. The lead brain behind this is a Dr. Steven Loffler.

How do you see the trend in bio-fuels affecting you? Are we going to be pulling our bikes up to McDonalds and asking for gallons of waste french-fry oil to go? Do you think with the expanding technologies in battery chemistries we will be driving all electric motorcycles, ATV’s, and snowmobiles? What are your thoughts?

Written by:
   Ken

General Motors is banking on rising gas prices and Americas love of trucks in order to sell their new hybrids. GM is stating that they have increased gas mileage by 25% without losing performance in the 2009 GMC Sierra. They are using the touted two-mode system that they developed for the 2008 Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, & Chevy Silverado.

The two-stage hybrid basically runs on just the electric motor and it’s 300 volt battery during low speeds, then kicks in the gas motor when needing more power with the electric motor adding extra power, especially during towing. During those short trips GM says that the new Sierra can drive 30 miles on electric alone. That will make those short trips to the corner store, or a quick jaunt to lunch gas free keeping more of our hard earned cash in our pockets.

The question is this: how much are we going to lose in performance (if any) and are you willing to pay the higher hybrid price in order to save it in gas prices? With the cost of gasoline soaring and no end in sight do you pay a bigger sticker price or take it in the wallet at the pump?
NEWS

Written by:
   Ken

Hybrid Trucks | Electric Motor | Increase Gas Mileage | 300 Volt Battery

hybrid trucks, trucks electric motor, trucks increase gas mileage, hybrid 300 volt battery, hybrid gas mileage