IMHO the best is to allow usage of both AA and proprietary lithiums.
Best of the two worlds.
IMO, that's close to the best. It would be even better if the
"proprietary" lithiums weren't proprietary. Two ways I can think of to do
it:
- Make them almost the same form-factor as AA's, but include a funky
insulator on either or both ends. They could be put in regular AA
chargers, but electrically won't connect. Devices could have battery
contacts that could work for both AA's and the LiAA's.
- Make individual celled lithiums with cell monitoring built in. Make
them the same form factor as AA's. Safety features built-in at the *CELL*
level. No need to wrap proprietary-shaped plastic around them.
Of course both of these would reduce the tremendous profits that
OEM's make from shittily designing batteries and selling you overpriced
replacements after the originals die in 12-18 months.
-Cory
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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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