why aren't there standard li-ion battery sizes?

[ucjffj]

is there a technical reason?

do companies make more money by making proprietary ones? although because of the ever changing pace of pda's, cell phones, laptops, etc, i would think it's easier to just make some standard sizes.

 

[Mark R]

I think it's partly due to oneupmanship on the part of the OEMs. There's a lot of competition between who has the best battery, and the battery technology itself has evolved at a remarkable rate.

This in itself brings problems, because Li-ion is a delicate technology, which needs a lot of care in charging: even relatively subtle changes, or small changes in capacity could mean that a new charger is required.

Some manufacturers have tried to standardise - e.g. Canon uses the same battery pack in virtually all of it's pro and 'high-end' consumer cameras. But I can't help but think that at least some of it is an attempt to control the market and keep prices up.

 

[Shalmanese]

Li-Ion batteries generally go into applications where size and weight are important limitations. The ability to be moulded to fit the applicacation outweights the cost reduction of standardisation.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Shalmanese
Li-Ion batteries generally go into applications where size and weight are important limitations. The ability to be moulded to fit the applicacation outweights the cost reduction of standardisation.

I generally agree with this. For the Canon S Elph series, they have very specific needs for shape that another company may not need.

 

[ucjffj]

if you gathered all the batteries from popular electronics you could come up with ~4 sizes that could accomdate them all. make them rectangular and keep the leads on the side so they're stackable (side by side or one atop the other or both)

like the canon elph battery. ever seen gameboy advance sp battery? if gba battery were standard, 3 of those stacked would be similar to canon elph battery

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: ucjffj
if you gathered all the batteries from popular electronics you could come up with ~4 sizes that could accomdate them all. make them rectangular and keep the leads on the side so they're stackable (side by side or one atop the other or both)

like the canon elph battery. ever seen gameboy advance sp battery? if gba battery were standard, 3 of those stacked would be similar to canon elph battery

How does the Watt-Hr compare? If you can get more energy by building one solid block vs using 3 smaller batteries, then you'd want to use the 1 big block because battery life is a big selling point.

 

[Shalmanese]

But at the level of minutarization we are talking about, every gram and every cm^3 counts. Batteries have the luxury of being able to form non-regular shapes so they can cram in between other components. If your PCB is 11.35cm and your casing is 14.25 cm, then you only have so much space to work with so you cram as much possible W/hr in there as possible and damn the standards.

 

[wacki]

Pila makes AA li-Ion batteries and much more. Expensive, but loads of Voltage and Power!

http://www.pilatorch.com/products_access.htm

There are other companies too.