pfarrell;484659 Wrote: > This cynicism is not justified. > It's justified to me. I'm an engineer.
> > Rechargable batteries tend to go boom if > mishandled. > No, they really don't. Maybe you're thinking of defective Lithium cells that expanded during a charge cycle. You know, the big Sony battery fiasco of a couple of years back. NiMH and NiCd are very stable and I've not heard of any instances of them causing any issue when not in use, while being handled. Maybe dumped into a fire. In charging they're also very robust if your charger is designed and built well. > The engineers say that the package includes a > micro-controller and sensors to detect heat and charge rate, and make > adjustments to optimize battery life. That's not what it said in the other post. And it would be a very bad design to include a micro-controller in the battery pack as opposed to the charger (in the radio). What was said is that the packs contain a thermistor and a fuse. The thermistor, reporting back the temperature of the cells, is one way to tell when the charge cycle has completed. It's not the only way to tell and there are some nice charging ICs out there that can do fine without one. BTW, the packs contain 10 cells. The big danger with an open bay accepting standard AA cells is that someone might put an incompatible chemistry cell into the compartment. Such as dumping in 1 or more alkalines. There exist ICs that can detect alkalines and prevent a charge current - though I'm not sure if there are any available that can deal with 10 cells at one time. > Its not just eight random AA rechargeable battery units. > No, it's 10 regular NiMH AA cells wired in series with surface mounted thermistor and a few other bits of wire, then wrapped in black plastic, perhaps even heat shrink tubing. Logitech have used standard AA cells in the past for things like mice, while including a warning not to insert regular (or any other) batteries. Anyway, I'm not a fan of proprietary packs where they can be avoided, especially if they're just going to use regular sized cells (ie. the dimensions don't warrant something custom or less common). But as mentioned, what gets me the most is the extra cost and the fact it's bundled with a remote. These are streamlining/logistical measures and I'm sure Logitech will do fine with them. It doesn't mean I have to like it or a agree with it. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ -- MelonMonkey Bruno *'Twisted Melon - Fine Mac OS Software' (http://twistedmelon.com)* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MelonMonkey's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8466 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=70815 _______________________________________________ Radio mailing list Radio@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/radio
