you always have to manage a million different cables for each one, and they all suck. why can’t we just use AAA batteries instead of these shitty lithium ones? it’s so fucking frustrating. where can I find gadgets that work while plugged in, or at least don’t need to be recharged every two fucking days?
Interesting. I hate AAA batteries and only buy things that I can charge with USB cables. I hate having to replace and throw away batteries all the time.
I assume op was talking about rechargeable AAA batteries. At least then they’re hot swappable.
Maybe in buying the wrong AAA batteries but I’m struggling to make them last longer than a few cycles
That sounds like you need better brand. when the inventor got 500 cycles on their patented design 60 years ago… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel–metal_hydride_battery
Even better would be if more devices used the lithium ion cylindrical cells. Higher power and energy density, while also being a standardized form factor that can be switched out as needed.
Key is standardisation, we should all move to li-ion but not at the cost of random shapes and non-swappable. Everything should have similar 3-4 form factor batteries and easily replaceable. Also the charging connector, everything should have USB c, barrel connector should be banned or be forced to just use one single size
You’re gonna want a room full of AAA batts if you want your phone to last a year, not to mention that you have to set the date and time every time you reboot your device since it’s got no charging port and you have to replace the batts which contain date and time information.
Rechargable AAA batts are not very easy to find where I’m from. I’m probably guessing that’s not the case where you live.
And don’t even think about playing graphically intensive video games on that thing, the batt is gonna die within 3 minutes due to the insane power consumption.
And your phone better have a DC input incase you DON’T wanna use the batt, but then you have to leave it plugged into the wall when you wanna use it, so it basically becomes a house phone (but it’s smrt).
The only solution is to wait until the EU enforces replaceable batts on everyone, then move to an EU country. I recommend Belgium if you lack self-love like I do.
Also, did you notice that I never called them “batteries” until this point. Because I also hate them. But they’re super important nowadays.
but even with new eu regularities, phones most probably won’t be forced to have swappable batteries
For sure. When I get something new, regardless of what it is, I tend to look for whether it takes regular batteries or not.
Take bike lights, for example. So many use non-removable batteries. Why? If you run out of power with one, you’re SOL. The best ones I own take 18650 batteries, you can swap them, upgrade them, and carry as many as you need as spares.
I hate, absolutely HATE the fact that phones don’t have swappable batteries like they used to. Right now, the only reason I’d have to replace my perfectly good phone is because of battery degradation. Previously, I’d just buy a replacement, pop it in, and I’m good to go for another few years at least.
But even back then, every phone model had a different battery. Now it would just be worse with how specialized those have become.
I’d buy it as the use case if you want to carry a spare battery (like you could currently carry a portable charger), so obviously a replaceable battery makes or breaks that. However, you’re giving the use case of replacing your battery when it goes bad, but phone batteries easily last 2+ years and are not that expensive to replace. This seems a lot to go through just to be able to save a little on the cost of replacing your battery once in the lifetime of your phone
Well, Lithum has way better energy density than the other rechargeables hence tends to be chosen for devices that draw more energy such as stuff with microprocessors and/or large screens.
However that battery tech puts out a much higher voltage (at around 3.8V instead of 1.5V) than they typical rechargeable or discardable batteries, plus it needs extra circuitry to avoid excessive discharge (which kills the battery), which is probably why you don’t see devices using AA and AAA rechargeable LiPo or Li-ion rechargeables.
What we need is some kind of proper and legally enforced standard for Lithium battery form factors like we have with the AA, AAA (and D and others).
Ultimatelly it’s a political problem derived from living in an age were the dominant political discourse is all about less regulation - there is simply no will to “interfere with the Free Market” and regulate this to reduce waste, so in the end the Environmenf suffers so ultimatelly we all suffer.
I use lithium rechargeable AA and AAA batteries, and they are way better than NiMh or Alkaline. You can even charge them directly (literally plug a USB-C cable into the battery itself!
If those aren’t an option, 18650 or 21700 cells are perfectly fine many devices.
Manufacturers don’t go that route because of planned obsolescence. That’s it. That’s the only reason why.
I looked it up and the only direct 1.5V compatible AAA battery tech I found (source for the curious) seems to use lithium iron disulfide and are not rechargeable.
The rechargeables I found in AA/AAA format use lithium iron phosphate which outputs 3.2V so they must have internal circuitry (and hence losses) to make them output around 1.5V and thus be drop-in compatible with other AA/AAA (batteries in a standard format with non-standard voltages are a great way to get non-expert users to blow up their electronics devices). The internal electronics probably explains why they’re so much more expensive than other rechargeables and (from what I found looking around) their capacity not be much more than NiMh (about 10-20% more).
nickel zinc are 1.6V, which could be fine for many things, but could still blow up a few things.
The advantage liion has with the AA size is that it maintains its voltage better than nimh as nimh can only supply 1.2V and some applications that use AA batteries start to not work when nimh have a lower charge because of the voltage drop being smaller than the required voltage.
The main con with liion is its a fire hazard and is fairly toxic
Yes, and yes.
I do see that LiFePO4 AA batteries seem to be available, which could mitigate the safety concerns, but I still don’t think it would be as safe as alkaline or NiMh.
You also need to consider that lithium batteries have a significantly longer shelf life vs Alkaline and can be safely operated well below freezing. They also weigh less, if that’s a concern.
Pros and cons to both, but at least standard battery form factors have options! When a company decides to use some proprietary, hardwired battery pack in their device, they’ve basically given you a big FU!
I think single-use batteries should be banned. Whenever I go to the weed store and I see them selling/advertising disposable vapes I can’t help but feel a hint of rage. All my AA and AAA batteries are rechargeable now. Hopefully soon everything will use USB-C and graphene batteries and supercapacitors will be common.
I go camping and have some lights that have rechargeable batteries but you can swap disposable batteries in if needed which is really nice to have as a backup when any sort of charging isint available
I think single-use batteries should be banned.
Unfortunately, some devices simply don’t work unless you have the voltage curve of an alkaline/lithium battery, or they’ll show a “low battery” even with a relatively fresh NiMh rechargeable batteries.
If devices could all accept lithium rechargeable batteries, or something else better than NiMh, then there’d be very little reason why you’d need to use single-use batteries.
I’d love to take advantage of super capacitors if they became more readily available. Many dashcams use them instead of internal batteries, and they make a HUGE difference when using them in the cold, and they are safer than using lithium batteries in the summer heat, too.
I’ll infuriate you further. Most of those disposable vape products actually have rechargeable lithium ion batteries inside, but they’re just designed so you can’t recharge them. Why? Well, the same form factor reasons as why other gadgets use lithium ion batteries, and due to economy of scale they’ve decided that’s the cheapest way to do it.
If you’re a hardware hacker type you can grab discarded disposable vapes and dismantle them to get the batteries out, then use them for other projects.
