On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:26:38 +0100, Dave Liquorice wrote
(in article et):

On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 08:52:54 +0100, Mike Lane wrote:

If it's that power-hungry it should be designed with its own built in
charging system and batteries like a mobile phone or laptop.

Oh great more wall warts to clutter the place up, get lost or not be with
you when you need it. Far simpler to have standard sized batteries and a
single charger. At least you can always buy standard batteries from a
corner shop or garage should you need to, can't do that with kit that has
built in or proprietary batteries.

It's this fiddling about changing batteries every few days that a lot of
people seem to rather enjoy but drives me crazy and should be quite
unnecessary.

It's this fiddling about with multiple, incompatible, chargers every few
days that a lot of people seem to rather enjoy but drives me crazy and
should be quite unnecessary.



Leaving aside the childish sarcasm, what you say doesn't make much sense to
me.

Rechargeable cells using NiMH technology are quite unsuitable for high power
portable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. No one in their right
minds would try to design anything like that using AA rechargeables; the
various flavours of Lithium battery are obviously the way to go in this case.

Low power devices, of which most of us have many (clocks, timers,
thermometers etc.) last so long with alkaline batteries that normal NiMH
cells would self-discharge, and have to be changed much more frequently. You
could make a case for the newer hybrid NiMh cells, but I doubt actually if
they make much economic sense when you consider the extra cost.

I suppose there are some intermediate power devices where rechargeable AAs
are an advantage. In fact come to think of it, the handsets of my DECT
cordless phone use 2 rechargeable NiMH AAA cells each. They last a day or two
in use on battery power, but in this case they normally sit in a recharging
cradle when not in use (they have to go somewhere), so there's no need to
change the batteries except after a couple of years when they eventually lose
their capacity. I see nothing inconvenient or awkward about that and to my
mind it's an example of how portable devices should be designed.

As I said, I don't possess any devices that would benefit much from
rechargeable AA cells with a separate charger. I've tried that and given up.
Possibly kiddies toys are where a lot of these are used, but in this case
convenience is not really an issue. I suspect that fiddling with the
batteries is all part of the fun here.

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire