Our battery tech BLOWS. When is the next breakthrough?

[Key West]

Look at EVERY mobile devices we use:

Smartphones, iPod, flashlight, fleshlight, cameras, laptops, netbooks, e-readers, PSP/DS, emergency defibrillators, everything!

We are still using the same battery technology from decades ago. We are still restricted and bound by the same problem that's been plaguing us since day 1.

When will the next break through come? I saw a vid about remote/wireless charging.... what happened to that?

No way to tell. It seems like I've read about promising battery technology using nanotechnology, but I dunno.

It could be next year or it could be 10 years from now. Hopefully we find something, though, because our battery technology does indeed suck.

 

[OCGuy]

"Our Batter Tech Blows"

I thought this thread was about fried foods. Now I am sad.

 

[foghorn67]

"Our Batter Tech Blows"

I thought this thread was about fried foods. Now I am sad.

this.

 

[ElFenix]

silver oxide (powered the apollo missions) is only used for hearing aids, what do you mean battery tech hasn't advanced? when was the last time you saw a nicad?

"Our Batter Tech Blows"

I thought this thread was about fried foods. Now I am sad.

i thought baseball. which is good with fried foods. and beer.

 

[Rubycon]

Betty Botter bought some butter...

Lipoly cells and charging is certainly not the same as secondary systems of 1990. Most were using nicad and newest using nimh.

As the watts/g increase so do the risks of mishaps. Lipoly fires are not be taken lightly.

 

[MaxFusion16]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/
a little offtopic, but we need this guy

a quote i found hilarious:
"BYD CEO Wang Chuan-Fu figured out how to make cheaper batteries than the Japanese by replacing machines with migrant workers." hahahahahahahahahahaah

 

[PokerGuy]

I've wondered about this myself... battery chemistry has changed a little, but we're essentially using the design that's been in place for 2000 years. Well, maybe 200, but the pot that works as a battery from 2000+ years ago uses essentially the same design.

You'd think with our society being so dependent on mobile energy that there would have been some major breakthrough by now.

 

[Key West]

Betty Botter bought some butter...

Lipoly cells and charging is certainly not the same as secondary systems of 1990. Most were using nicad and newest using nimh.

As the watts/g increase so do the risks of mishaps. Lipoly fires are not be taken lightly.

Think big man. It's still the same battery concept and improvements are marginal in the big scheme of things. No, they still outright suck. We still have to charge our phones & mobile devices nearly everyday. We did that 20 years ago too.

I saw a video in wimp.com regarding wireless electricity where ALL devices can charge wirelessly. And he envisioned all cities and eventually the world would have power nodes networked so you have infinitely wireless charge everywhere you go.

It was amazing. He showed a demo of a batteryless laptop with an adapter powering on wirelessly. Lemme find it.

 

[foghorn67]

Think big man. It's still the same battery concept and improvements are marginal in the big scheme of things. No, they still outright suck. We still have to charge our phones & mobile devices nearly everyday. We did that 20 years ago too.

I saw a video in wimp.com regarding wireless electricity where ALL devices can charge wirelessly. And he envisioned all cities and eventually the world would have power nodes networked so you have infinitely wireless charge everywhere you go.

It was amazing. He showed a demo of a batteryless laptop with an adapter powering on wirelessly. Lemme find it.

Are you thinking about Tesla?

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I've wondered about this myself... battery chemistry has changed a little, but we're essentially using the design that's been in place for 2000 years. Well, maybe 200, but the pot that works as a battery from 2000+ years ago uses essentially the same design.

You'd think with our society being so dependent on mobile energy that there would have been some major breakthrough by now.

Maybe if society today was more concerned about scientific advancements and not lining the top 1%s pockets as much as possible we'd have some. I say this mostly jokingly.

 

[deadlyapp]

Are you thinking about Tesla?

It sounds like it to me. People have made mini tesla nodes or whatever they call it that allow you to power things wirelessly, but I don't think it was feasible for large scale.

 

[zephyrprime]

Battery chemistry has improved but we do still use the same basic battery design as we always have.

Maybe this?
http://www.physorg.com/news180704455.html

 

[RagingBITCH]

Think big man. It's still the same battery concept and improvements are marginal in the big scheme of things. No, they still outright suck. We still have to charge our phones & mobile devices nearly everyday. We did that 20 years ago too.

I saw a video in wimp.com regarding wireless electricity where ALL devices can charge wirelessly. And he envisioned all cities and eventually the world would have power nodes networked so you have infinitely wireless charge everywhere you go.

It was amazing. He showed a demo of a batteryless laptop with an adapter powering on wirelessly. Lemme find it.

So...why is it society (by society I mean the city, county, state, business you happen to be in or driving by) responsible for investing hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars in infrastructure for you, joe consumer, to be able to talk infinitely on your cellphone without losing a charge? There's this small concept called, oh I don't know, an AC adapter, that lets you plug all of your devices that require a charge and run them for unlimited amounts of time.

In regards to no technology advances being made:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery#Developments_since_2005

But again, one has to ask - what's cheap and what's small? The current lithium-ion batteries, which according to the Wiki - the technology still isn't fully matured yet. I'm sure the technology of better rechargeable devices exists (muchlike Tesla as mentioned) but what the hell do you need technology that costs $100 now in a $10 office calculator? Just like current batteries - once the technology gets more in demand - learning curves decrease as well as costs and it slowly becomes more accepted. In the end, it's just a numbers game and how much costs one can save by putting a cheap, readily available technology into current technology.

 

[Malak]

Battery tech and solar energy are the two things I keep an eye on the most. I don't think people realize how important these 2 techs are and how they will change so much.

 

[dmcowen674]

Look at EVERY mobile devices we use:

Smartphones, iPod, flashlight, fleshlight, cameras, laptops, netbooks, e-readers, PSP/DS, emergency defibrillators, everything!

We are still using the same battery technology from decades ago. We are still restricted and bound by the same problem that's been plaguing us since day 1.

When will the next break through come? I saw a vid about remote/wireless charging.... what happened to that?

OP FAIL

It's called a battery not a generator for a reason.

 

[swanysto]

I think battery tech has made pretty decent steps. I mean a battery now could probably keep a cell phone from the late 90's charged for days or weeks at a time.

We are creating electronics that just eat up more and more power, yet we are able to continually some up with ways to keep them charged for a day. The screens they are making these days are really tough on the batteries.

I have one of those Acer laptops that advertise 8hr battery life(in reality I get about 6). But most laptops I have owned start at about 2 hrs and go down gradually.

 

[CycloWizard]

If you can think of a better one, you'll be rich as hell very quickly. So what are you waiting for?

 

[Hacp]

No problem with batter tech actually. We have batteries that will last decades. Environmental wacko's and "health" professionals won't let us use them though, so we're stuck with this stupid lithium ion shit.

 

[Rubycon]

Go ahead and complain.

The 18650 cell is the best thing since sliced bread. Endless power and the device list this cell powers grows daily.

 

[Key West]

OP FAIL

It's called a battery not a generator for a reason.

Talk about tunnel vision.

 

[Wyndru]

I saw a vid about remote/wireless charging.... what happened to that?

My toothbrush has had wireless charging for the past 4 years. Doesn't make it charge quicker or keep a charge longer though, it just doesn't require a direct contact, it has a charging pad.

 

[KeithP]

Maybe super-capacitor batteries might be the next big thing but I haven't heard much about them lately.

-KeithP

 

[StrangerGuy]

If batteries somehow get 10x the charge stored compared to the ones now imagine what happens when they catch fire/explode. Right beside your balls inside a handphone.

 

[xSauronx]

Think big man. It's still the same battery concept and improvements are marginal in the big scheme of things. No, they still outright suck. We still have to charge our phones & mobile devices nearly everyday. We did that 20 years ago too.

20 years ago you couldnt surf the internet, play music, watch movies, keep a huge address book (with pictures, no less) and have an animated background with customized hip hop ringtones on your phone...you carried it in a bag and you were happy that you got to remember the numbers you needed to dial

 

[Pheran]

Maybe super-capacitor batteries might be the next big thing but I haven't heard much about them lately.

-KeithP

Yeah I keep thinking that high-tech capacitors should replace batteries, but it hasn't happened yet. This IEEE article from 2007 has some nice details on ultracapacitors.