NEC – 30 Second Battery Charge Fast Enough for You?

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C2691/' target='_blank'>http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C2691/</a><br /><br /></div>Every have those days when you need to get out in a hurry, but then realise that your PPC is at 10% power and your digital camera batteries are so low that the low power LED warning won’t even blink? Well then, this is for you. Mobilemag report that “NEC has developed a battery that is capable of being fully recharged in only 30 seconds. The organic radical battery can be charged to a similar level of power as nickel-hydrogen cells for portable MD players, digital cameras and other electronic devices.” They reckon the price should not be too much higher either, which is nice. <br /><br />“NEC will first roll out the battery as a commercial computer emergency power source, later we will see hybrid gasoline/electric motors for cars, cell phones and just about anything else you would use a battery with.“ So there you go then - everything else you would use a battery with. Fancy that! :wink: <br /><br />Recharging in 30 seconds is quite a feat, but I wish they would make a breakthrough in the power to weight ratio first. :? Moore's law holds true for many things in IT, but battery power potential is not one of them. We’ve only really got fuel cells to look forward to and even then, it’s not clear just what increase we can expect from them. Oh well, this is progress of sorts I suppose. So – would a 30 second recharge time make much difference in your lives? :?:

[bjornkeizers]

Cool. Being the geek that I am, I have a ton of devices that need charging at just the wrong moment: cellphone dead, Ipaq only 30% charge left, laptop battery dead as a doorknob, MP3 player fresh out of juice... we've all been there.

I would definitely use this, provided it doesn't fry the battery after a dozen times 8O

[Howard2k]

That would be Moore's law. Not Moor's law :) Great potential though.

[luiskim]

that would change the world... i whish they are gonna come out for sure though...

[surur]

This is brilliant news. This opens up the scope for public recharging stations, where you want have to wait 30 minutes for your device to recharge. Its also a shoe-in for electric cars, especially if it really does not contain expensive parts. It will not take longer to fill up the battery than fill up the tank.

I hope this comes to the market soon.

Surur

[Jonathon Watkins]

That would be Moore's law. Not Moor's law :) Great potential though.

Fair point, easily sorted. :)

that would change the world....

In what way do you reckon LuisKim?

[Tom W.M.]

Very interesting. It's good that we are finally seeing some progress in battery technology—things have been pretty much stagnant for too long.

[Julio]

Yes! This is definitely useful! I travel a lot, and so many times, I find myself with only a few minutes between flights and a PPC battery down to the last 10% (or below!). Being able to quickly juice-up the PPC would be a god-send.

Julio

[ctmagnus]

Nifty!

Slightly ot: anyone else find that when recharging their Pocket PC (iPaq 5550, specifically) that it usually takes around the same amount of time to get from around 70% (what mine dips to with my level of overnight usage) to around 97% as it does to get from 97% to 100%?

[chris234]

So, assuming a 1000mAh battery (probably reasonable for many PDA-ish devices), that's a charge current of 120 amps. Wow.....

[theone3]

Nifty!

Slightly ot: anyone else find that when recharging their Pocket PC (iPaq 5550, specifically) that it usually takes around the same amount of time to get from around 70% (what mine dips to with my level of overnight usage) to around 97% as it does to get from 97% to 100%?Don't worry. It's actually charging at a steady rate. %-left is usually measured via the voltage output. This graph should explain the rest
http://www.dhscuba.co.kr/images/li-ion_Graph.jpg
The whole shebang ends up inverting itself while in use leaving you with (logically) linear battery decrease. I'm not sure how much compensation the programmers put in for this, but it appears to be not enough ;)

[theone3]

that would change the world....In what way do you reckon LuisKim?
Purely Chaotically speaking (butterfly theory) a lot ;).

It will prevent someone from being fired for being late for work again, allowing them to move up to "senior executive mailroom clerk" where they could lose a piece of mail that could mean millions of dollars for some poor jerk. This could cause him to go on a murderous rampage killing a dictators great great great great great great grandfather. 300 years of corruption and general misery could be avoided.

There is no doubt that these batteries are a very good thing indeed.

(for those of you who believed the 2210 pocket knife thing, yes, i am joking. :wink: )

[Kiki]

This would only be useful to me if these 30 second batteries could themselves be charged from other portable power sources. If I need an outlet, it wouldn't be so great, just welcome.