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[–]exclamationmarek[S] 128ポイント129ポイント  (26子コメント)

Some backstory:

They offer an attachment that you put over a standard AA battery to extend its life by a claimed "up to 800%". The device is meant to achieve this by boosting the output voltage of the battery with a tiny step-up converter, so that it always provides a stable 1.5V, instead of dropping down as the battery is discharged. They claim that most devices stop working when the voltage drops below a certain threshold (1.35V, according to them) and by adding that step-up converter to the battery, the entire energy stored in the battery can be used, instead of that initial 1.5V - 1.35V part. They even provide a real research paper claiming that a lot of the batteries found in random recycling bins in Switzerland were in fact disposed of while still having significant charge (30% on average, with 10% of the batteries being practically new)

That's all fine and great, BUT the study was made in the year 2002. They are solving a problem that existed 13 years ago and is extinct since then. Most battery powered electronics - ESPECIALLY those they show in their promotional material now feature such step-up converters built into the device. In which case the "batteriser" will produce absolutely no benefit at all

For a detailed debunking, I recommend this episode of the EEV blog

wow that sounded like an ad but it's a very informative show :P

What pains me most in their campaign is the blatant lying. At the bottom of the page they show this test with a wireless keyboard. The tested battery measures at 13%, and after installing the batteries the reading goes up to 100%. Very convincing, bravo. The problem is that the capacity of the battery is measured solely on the voltage that the battery provides. Boosting it up to 1.5V doesn't add any capacity to it, it just messes up the readout! This is literarily like pouring water to your gas tank just to point at the gauge and say "WOW a full tank of fuel for free!". It will NOT extend the actual life of the battery in that keyboard by any significant time. If anything it will decrease it, since that converter must have an efficiency of <100%. Sure there are some devices that will be helped by the bateriser. I can imagine TV remotes, simple LED lamps and such to show some improvement. But not most devices. Not by 800%. In fact, I will eat a questionably distasteful meal of your choice from my local Chinese place, reddit, if the bateriser improves the life of that wireless keyboard, measured in hours of typing.

/rant.

edit: fixed a link

[–]kirun 45ポイント46ポイント  (10子コメント)

Got to thank the Batteriser people, thanks to them I watched the EEVblog debunking the first time around and now I can't stop watching those videos. I don't even know much about electronics but the enthusiasm is contagious.

[–]Hadrosauroidea 23ポイント24ポイント  (7子コメント)

Dave Jones (of the EEVblog) is not always right, but he's always entertaining. And he's usually right.

He's also got a podcast with Chris Gammell that's worth following.

[–]lichorat 9ポイント10ポイント  (5子コメント)

How does he produce so much content? What about his job?

[–]tomkandy 11ポイント12ポイント  (2子コメント)

He's a professional youtubist these days

[–]Hadrosauroidea 15ポイント16ポイント  (1子コメント)

Yup. Although if he wants to make any money at it, he should switch to Minecraft mod reviews.

[–]DrFegelein 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know that's a joke but he's actually successful enough that he recently hired another person to help him produce content.

[–]exclamationmarek[S] 5ポイント6ポイント  (1子コメント)

This is his job. He openly admits to being sponsored by the manufacturers of some of the laboratory equipment he reviews. A company I worked at bought an oscilloscope based on his review and everybody was happy with it, so apparently he does this job well ;) And he's great to watch. Always watch him to my breakfast.

[–]lichorat 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

That's great. I mean if he is he never pushes something without explanation of why it's so good

[–]zimm3rmann 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Dave's videos have made me get a lot more into electronics and I've started working on my own project recently. Love the guy.

[–]lichorat 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Eevblog for life

[–]jhuynh405 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

If you love EEVblog you may like Electroboom (here's one of his most popular videos). To be honest I was surprised to find such well made YouTube channels about electrical stuff.

[–]SpikeRosered 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

The badness of this kickstarter requires specialized knowledge, thank you for enriching the sub by adding something besides lazy content creators and delusional artists. I have been educated.

[–]andrewia 7ポイント8ポイント  (1子コメント)

It doesn't end there. Batteriser tried to discredit EEVblog with fake social media pages and accounts. Here are some notes I took a while ago, some links may have expired or changed:

After watching the EEVblog video about the Batteriser, I commented on another video that repeating the marketing claims; it was refuted by a Batteriser "fan page". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOMYDkxUWt8&google_comment_id=z13hjnlwzsvnylmld22xur0ahqnie54y104

The commenter describes itself as "The Official Batteriser Fan Page! We release all of their latest videos and add our own fan videos! Disclaimer: We are not in any way affiliated with Batteriser, or Batteroo Inc. We are simply a fan page." and the associated Google+ account https://plus.google.com/+BatteriserBatteroo/ says "The Official Batteriser Fan Page! We release all of their latest videos and add our own fan videos!"

The Google+ "fan page" made a post linking to their YouTube video https://plus.google.com/+BatteriserBatteroo/posts/PwvVj6Qp9j9 , saying "Batteriser prooves to be effective on new devices! Here is a test we did with a new apple blue tooth keyboard." Note that the page said "we" for a professionally produced video. The official Batteriser Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Batteriser made a post to the same video hosted on Vimeo https://www.facebook.com/Batteriser/posts/872332676147717 under the account Tavan Media https://vimeo.com/130292451 . Why would a "fan page" claim a professionally produced video as their own?

There was some more shady stuff on the Facebook page comments, where two users raged at anyone posting the EEVblog video. I won't link to them because witch hunting isn't cool.

[–]odhinn178 11ポイント12ポイント  (0子コメント)

While you are mostly correct, the real reason why the device is BS has more to do with the laws of electricity. As the voltage of the battery drops (because of an increase in internal resistance due to its chemistry), to provide the same power to a device requires an increase in current. Boost converters, the type of regulator required to bring a low battery up to 1.5V, are also not 100% efficient and as a result end up wasting more power in the form of conversion loss, resistive, etc., than the device would draw on its own. Drawing more current from a battery decreases its capacity at an increasing rate. Most alkaline batteries have a threshold of voltage where they stop being useful (some are as high as 1.2V), and as you draw an increasing amount of current from the battery this threshold approaches at an increasing rate.

For devices that draw very low currents, like a TV remote, that don't already use boost converters, this might give you a little extra time on your battery. You already mentioned this. Most electronic devices manage low power pretty well already, so I don't think it will work in most cases. The claims are pretty absurd. You don't get something for nothing.

Source: I'm an electrical engineer who executes hardware design (including power management) and firmware development for very low power embedded systems.

[–]Hal_Nein_Thousand 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

They claim that most devices stop working when the voltage drops below a certain threshold (1.35V, according to them)

That's funny, because NiMH batteries (the most common rechargeables) operate at 1.2V and I've never had any trouble with them.

[–]_Xaver 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

EEV video @ 9:22... :D

[–]skiguy0123 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

TIL you can step up DC voltage without converting to AC.

[–]jcpb 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

I thought we had a thread about this exact "product" many months ago.

[–]mrfatso111 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

It was the same with the solar power roadway, there can never be too many of such threads.

[–][deleted] 0ポイント1ポイント  (4子コメント)

They're missing the true key usage of this device: stepping up 1.2V rechargeable batteries to a more useful 1.5V. Some devices don't work with rechargeables, as the voltage is too low and the device assumes it's a nearly empty alkaline.

[–][deleted] 5ポイント6ポイント  (3子コメント)

Some devices don't work with rechargeables

I haven't seen such a device since the 90's, do they really still exist?

[–][deleted] -4ポイント-3ポイント  (2子コメント)

Yeah, stuff like TV remotes, wireless mice and keyboards, some digital cameras (the ones which still take AA batteries).

[–]DrFegelein 5ポイント6ポイント  (1子コメント)

Are you sure? Because most devices (especially low current devices like the ones you mentioned) have a $0.02 boost converter for exactly that purpose.

[–][deleted] -4ポイント-3ポイント  (0子コメント)

I have never seen these in action. I've lost count of the number of said devices that tell me my freshly charged batteries are almost flat.

[–]Anshin 32ポイント33ポイント  (2子コメント)

The second I saw the "only tap into your batteries full potential" I thought it sounded exactly like the whole "we only use 10% of our brain" bullshit

[–]Audreyu 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

The amount has doubled since this was posted... People are so quick to believe and throw money at anyone who says, "Look how much you're being taken advantage of! The big guys don't care about you! But we got your back. Here's something we made that will give you the upper hand against the man! Oh it costs money but we're only trying to help you because we care!"

[–]erikpurne 1ポイント2ポイント  (3子コメント)

Well, caveat emptor, I guess.

[–]Doriphor 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

caveat emptor

Sure, except some bastards are undeservedly raking in money with a scam...

[–]erikpurne 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

True, but when it's an absolutely asinine idea that's been tried (and debunked) a million times before, I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for the people who fall for it.

[–]Doriphor 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't feel sympathy for the people who fall for it, I just feel antipathy for batteroo.