Showing posts with label Battery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battery. Show all posts

Feb 8, 2019

New Battery

John Goodenough, an engineer and professor at the University of Texas who Quartz writes, "has dominated the world of advanced batteries" for nearly 40 years. He is known around the world for his pioneering work that led to the invention of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery.


He and his team announced that they have created a low-cost, all-solid-state battery that can store twice the energy of modern lithium-ion batteries, can be fully charged in minutes, and is noncombustible. The new battery uses glass, which the researchers claim enables the anode to be made from pure lithium or sodium metal. This has a huge amount of potential energy. In the case of sodium, it is incredibly cheap. Either can charge more quickly. The team believes it will be commercially available within a few years.

Mar 4, 2016

Hoverboards and Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries serve as the power source for everything from smartphones, laptops, hover boards, to electric cars such as the Tesla. They are rechargeable and have four to six times the energy of standard nickel-cadmium batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries in those technologies are made by experienced and highly reliable manufacturers. They know how to construct them in a way that balances the amount of power produced with the amount of power consumed by the device during operation.

This type of battery has three primary parts: Two electrodes, an anode made of graphite, and a cathode made of lithium cobalt oxide or a similar metal oxide. Between is a thin, but porous polyethylene separator that keeps the two apart.

The electric current flows between the anode and the cathode via a liquid, called the electrolyte. If the anode and cathode are not engineered correctly for the power draw or the separator is imperfect, a short circuit can result. When that happens, the electrolyte heats up, the cathode and anode become unstable, and the two react violently with the electrolyte. The temperature may cause the battery to eject its hot internal contents, which catch fire or explode when they come in contact with oxygen in the atmosphere.

Hoverboard  manufacturers had many less-than-expert battery suppliers using possible defective materials or improper engineering of parts. Hoverboards pose additional risks. They draw energy from batteries much faster than cellphones and laptops do, which strains the electrodes and raises the internal heat. They are also subject to more mechanical abuse. When they fix the battery problem, I still want/need one.

Jul 10, 2015

Tech Tidbits

Many people are afraid to charge their phone or tablet overnight because they think it might overcharge and destroy the battery, but modern electronics automatically stop charging and will not overcharge.

Do not leave your gadget in the car or outdoors as extreme heat and cold will harm both your battery life and battery health. Cell phone batteries can swell and be destroyed within hours due to extreme heat. In extreme cold areas batteries run out very fast

Older Nickel-Cadmium batteries had a memory effect that meant you had to drain them every time. Newer lithium-ion batteries do not have that problem. In fact, li-ion batteries last longest when you keep them between 40% and 80% charged.

Whether you shut down your computer nightly comes down to personal preference and the vagaries of Microsoft operating systems. If you never shut down your computer, it tends to slow down over time, so a restart every now and then will keep the speed up.

If your Internet connection is slower than usual, try unplugging both your modem and router from the Internet source for 10 to 15 seconds. This usually works to speed things up. Unplugging many from the power source does not work as they have internal batteries, so using the reset button another way to solve this.

Every Web browser has a private mode. When private browsing mode is on, the browser will not record where you go and it wipes most of the information someone could use to piece together your online travels. However, private browsing isn't foolproof. It doesn't hide your browsing from your Internet service provider, the sites you visit, or any law enforcement that happens to be watching. Companies typically log sites visited. Private just means that it is harder to find.

May 8, 2015

International Battery

The battery has changed much over the years, but the core principle is still the same. The battery was invented during 1800, by Alessandro Volta (an Italian). He called it the Voltaic Pile and was combined layers of copper, zinc, and cardboard soaked in saltwater.

Almost early every stage in the evolution of the battery has come from a different country. An Englishman improved on Volta’s battery, a Frenchman developed the first rechargeable battery, and a Swede invented the nickel-cadmium battery. The only American influence came from Benjamin Franklin, who was the first person to use the word battery.

Jul 30, 2010

Vibrating Battery


No, not battery vibrator. Brother Industries Ltd developed small vibration-powered generators that can replace AA and AAA batteries.

Think of a flashlight that can be shaken to generate power to keep the light on. Reminds me of those wind up flashlights.

The new generator will semi-permanently eliminate the need to replace batteries and contribute to reducing the amount of wastes," Brother Industries said.
The generator can be used for a device that does not always consume electricity and has small power consumption, such as a TV remote, or LED flashlight.