

Batteriser: How to Measure Battery Cutoff Voltage - userbinator
http://www.eevblog.com/2015/08/12/eevblog-779-batteriser-how-to-measure-battery-cutoff-voltage/

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userbinator
Previous discussion of the Batteriser here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9644931](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9644931)

The first debunking:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9677900](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9677900)

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TTPrograms
It's funny to think of the Batteriser in the context of the recent post about
"assuming stupidity" in your competition.

IE "Current device manufacturers are stupid! There's all this energy left!"

~~~
greenyoda
This is a good point. If it's so easy to get longer battery lifetimes, why
wouldn't device manufacturers just build the equivalent of the "batteriser"
circuit into their devices? After all, longer battery life would give them an
edge over their competition. But maybe it isn't really that easy...

For reference, here's a link to the recent "Presumption of Stupidity" post:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10034883](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10034883)

~~~
TD-Linux
The Batterizer circuit is more widely known as joule thief [1]. It's a boost
converter that produces a constant output voltage regardless of the battery
voltage. Some sort of similar switching power supply is standard in things
like cell phones and laptops. For cheap toys, cost is key and the circuit
would be too expensive.

"5 times more battery life" is kind of crazy though. Alkaline batteries start
falling off quickly as they become discharged - in fact, this is a prized
feature of the chemistry as the voltage stays pretty level through most of the
life of the cell [2].

What surprises me is that they can build the Batterizer for $2.50. That seems
awfully low for a completed product like that. How many amps can it handle?

Even at the $2.50 price point, you'd be better off buying NiMH cells. That
would do much more for the environment than the Batterizer.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief)
[2] [http://www.powerstream.com/AA-tests.htm](http://www.powerstream.com/AA-
tests.htm)

~~~
cnvogel
I think the idea of a "jule thief" basically is a extremely low power boost
converter to run a LED as a nightlight on the remaining few % of an otherwise
depleted battery.

A standard switching power converter wouldn't be called that way, even when
modern chips used for that purpose obviously try hard to be as power efficient
as possible.

In a typical circuit nowadays you'd also avoid the use of a two coil
transformer, and just have a "one coil" inductor to save on copper. The second
winding is needed to control the.transistor in the simple circuit shown on
Wikipedia.

Also the simple circuit doesn't provide for any regulation. The more elaborate
gameboy schematicsuses mentioned in the parallel comment to mine uses feedback
(look for the 4.7v Zener pulling down the transistor) to accomplish that.

But of course nowadays one would use a simple 4 to 8 pin IC integrating almost
everything except the inductor.

------
DINKDINK
I highly recommend subscribing to EEVblog he's like the EE version of the
Applied Science YouTube channel.

~~~
cnvogel
I really like watching his videos, but frankly they often lack depth. Take for
example the series of videos about the "Batteriser". Three videos, hours of
footage, and the same facts repeated all over again. He very often mentions "
tricks of the trade", especially when tearing down high quality measurement
equipment, and that's something one cannot easily learn from without spending
the bucks to buy some yourself. But for actual education about basics,
the.information density is much higher in , and time spent more efficiently
learning from a good book.

As a physicist I'm much more fascinated by Ben's applied science videos, they
explain phenomena covering a much broader field. Also I think Ben chooses his
words much more wisely, and therefore in the end is a better educator. The
density of information hence is also much higher.

He lacks a Crocodile Dundee's Knife, though... :-)

