This smartphone-sized pocket battery is being marketed for emergency starting of cars with flattery-battery-syndrome, but if the manufacturers specs are believable it would make a fantastic power pack for quads etc. More than twice the energy density of typical hobby-grade LiPos (typically <600kJ/kg) and with a good punch of the current to boot! (50C, allegedly!)
At only $99.99 ($69.99 for pre-sale purchase - see website) it's not bad value compared to the lower energy-density Panasonic NCR18650B cells.
FWIW
Comments
please someone answer me that. s possible to modify external laptop battery to use instead of lipo batteries ????
http://www.getbatterybox.com/
Two more things to add to this discussion, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube of users jump starting cars using hobby LiPo batteries so it's definitely in the realm of possibility even for the cheaper imported LiPo batteries.
http://youtu.be/iflMpvM21Pk
For the charging via USB, it's just a matter of waiting long enough. I have a 12,000mAh USB power pack (manufactured by Anker) and it takes overnight to charge when completely discharged. Again, it's charging the cells in parallel at 3.7 volts (lowered down from 5V that USB provides).
I think they're misrepresenting the specifications of the device to make it sound a lot more impressive than it really is. It's likely three cells at 2,000mAh each that can be used in parallel for charging USB devices (6,000mAh at 3.7 volts) or in serial for starting a car (2,000mAh at 11.1 volts). It's unlikely a 6,000mAh pack at 11.1 volts which they don't necessarily confirm or deny in the specifications.
USB power pack capacity is often advertised without any voltage because they are usually all only one cell, 3.7 volts. So in this case they can say 6,000mAh because that's what it would be when used in parallel like every other USB power pack on the market. Also consider this is their main business looking at the other products they offer.
In other words, there's nothing special about the battery in this device, they're just using it in parallel for one task and serial for another task and fudging the specifications by not specifying the voltage or cell count along with the capacity. If configured that way there are certainly cells on the market today that are comparable in terms of the discharge rate and specific energy. For example this battery below is comparable, just tap into it in parallel for some tasks and serial for others.
http://www.thunderpowerrc.com/Products/2250-mAh_3/TP2250-3SPF70
@ Project Nadar: Great idea, let's kickstart that party! I'll see your 20A 200g battery and raise you a 200A 20g battery! Why not? Wheeee! ('...and lightning shot out of his ass, ta da!"). PS: Bridge in Brooklyn still for sale, batteries included.
A few weeks back a mate, who builds cafe racers from old 70-80s japanese sports bikes, mentioned that he was considering purchasing one of these and one of these. What he was after was a battery that could be completely concealed from view.
I suggested he save $70 straight away by purchasing one of these, and pointed out that the Ballistic EVO2 range of batteries consist of a 4S1P, 4S2P, 4S3P, 4S4P, etc array of these (or simular) in what appears to be a high impact polypropylene case.
After some discuss we decided to grab one of these to test in his application, as it best fit the area we had to work with (and could be cased easily).
State of charge will be permanently monitored by one of these (current consumption is negligible) in order to ensure that the DOD never exceeds ~50%, based on internal resistance of battery, so to limit charge to ~2C. Provided cell shape is checked and cells balanced periodically, it should suit the application.
Difference in cost is $84.81 verses $219.90.
I have however told my friend to be extremely careful using hobby grade batteries in such an application and forewarned him of all possible outcomes. The battery will be properly protected from heat sources and risk of puncture and located in such a way that should it become an incendiary device, the problem can be isolated.
Still a massively different risk profile to using equivalent lead acid.
i wanna see how this actually performs
I just ordered one, I guess I will have to wait and see how it works.
Smells like BS to me!
I would not retail a product like this to the end user. Too much to go wrong.
Interesting that there is no arc when paralleling across lead acid. This suggests that here is little difference in terminal voltage (ie - lead acid is above 12VDC). If there is no difference in terminal voltage, then the lead acid is not flat.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next