Anyone try "1.5v" "Li-Ion" batteries with a MicroUSB charge port yet?

[Citizen_B]

[the86d]

Wow, those aren't even really batteries.... It's a usb power bank in the shape of a D-cell. Lithium can't produce 1.5 volts. They should print "anti-gravity-battery" on the side too...

I was wondering how you get 1.5 volts out of a 4.2 volt lithium ion battery.

Magic...

A voltage regulator. I don’t know how that particular battery is constructed, but my guess would be a switching type regulator. If one was able to put that battery on a load and monitor with o-scope, it’d be obvious the type of regulator and output voltage quality.

The same way you get ~5v from a power bank as they all (pretty-much AFAIK) run on a 3.7v (~4.2v MAX) Li-Ion battery, only reversed, but with different components to step-UP the voltage...

[WalterJones]

So if you throttle back a battery from a higher voltage, shouldn't it last longer powering a device?

For example...battery A lasts 12 hours in my gps at 1.5V, battery B should last 24 hours regulated from 3.0V down to 1.5V ?

[Citizen_B]

So if you throttle back a battery from a higher voltage, shouldn't it last longer powering a device?

For example...battery A lasts 12 hours in my gps at 1.5V, battery B should last 24 hours regulated from 3.0V down to 1.5V ?

The way a switching voltage regulator works is by chopping up the energy, then smoothing it out with capacitors/etc. Any kind of voltage regulation/conversion will have some loss of efficiency (typically between 80% and 95%). This is why watt-hours are the better measure of total energy capacity when comparing sources, vs. amp-hours which is also a measure of energy capacity but it's dependent on the supplying voltage.

So for your example, that would be sort of true (ignoring regulation losses) IF battery A and B had the same amp-hour rating. The difference would be battery B provides twice the voltage of A, so it would have twice the stored energy capacity.

Generally speaking, the physical size of a same-chemistry battery gives you a rough idea of total energy capacity. Two cells within a battery pack can be put in parallel (which doubles the cell capacity rating but at the same voltage) or in series (which doubles the voltage but keeps the same cell capacity rating), or a combination of both with more cells. In either scenario, the total energy capacity is roughly the same.

[SkyHawk]

Such as these:


I AM GUESSING that 10000 mWh is a bit exaggerated...

10,000 mWh @ 1.5V is 6.66Ah, or 6,600mAh

for comparison, Duracell D size alkaline batteries are good for about 12,000mAh with a .25A load

So these rechargeables are a bit less capacity

[sonofeugene]

I use these with NiMetal Hydride batteries:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OUM1BGQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[the86d]

OH-HELL, THOSE are a damn good price!!!

I am not actually looking for D-Cells myself, but the pic is a good representation of what I was curious about... although D-Cells COULD be put in a sled...
But I do have some of those-type, and NiMH 2000MaH x3 is still 6000Mah... 1/2 a D-Cell Alkaline? ( I would have to drop these in a sled for external power too, as all my Anti-AntiFA lights are AA, or AAA, even if I rewired some USB HF lights to take direct USB 5v, which melted just a bit in lengthy testing, so I need to calc. a low-val [?] resistor in-line... )

An eCig modder made me want to swear by RCA jacks, so they should be here before the election, and let's hope AntiFA doesn't get violent, as many can't get ammo, but MANY of us have OODLES of primers, a progressive reloading press, and @ 400-600/hour in 9mm Luger, even for rifles... after freedom-week, I... PRAY for their souls they don't go to violence... ... ....

[sonofeugene]

I've got some very nice LED lanterns that require D cells. I couldn't find any NiMH batteries in D size so I found the holders I linked to in my previous post. Yes, they're only about half the capacity of an alkaline D cell, but they are rechargeable and I have a lot of them. Works for me.

[SkyHawk]

I've got some very nice LED lanterns that require D cells. I couldn't find any NiMH batteries in D size so I found the holders I linked to in my previous post. Yes, they're only about half the capacity of an alkaline D cell, but they are rechargeable and I have a lot of them. Works for me.

Yes, the rechargeable feature definitely makes up for capacity for all but the worst case SHTF scenarios.

[sonofeugene]

Yes, the rechargeable feature definitely makes up for capacity for all but the worst case SHTF scenarios.

Yep. And in this case, the larger lantern lasts for 60 days, 24 hours a day, on low. I figure if I need to charge once a month rather than once every two months, that's not a big deal. The smaller lantern will last a similar 30 days nonstop.

[SkyHawk]

Of course the real question, is why. You can get D-cell NiMH with 10 times the capacity for half the price on the same website...

One for sure reason: Li-ion is much better for storage, with a much lower self discharge rate than NiMh

One other reason - the NiMH has a nominal working voltage of 1.2V vs 1.5V for the Li-Ion or Alkaline. In a 6-cell series application this is a difference between 7.2v and 9v. However the alkaline batteries usually only give this voltage for the first 20% and only for lower draw loads.

One other possible reason, and I can not say for sure because I have not seen detailed info on these Li-ion cells, but it is possible these Li-ion D cells actually have a higher voltage than 1.5V (perhaps 3-4v) and a voltage regulator that gives regulated 1.5v, in which case they could be superior to even the alkaline battery in certain applications. But I have no idea if that is the case.

And I doubt there are any NiMh D cells with 10x capacity or anything remotely close (60,000 mAh)

[sonofeugene]

Lithium ion is always 4.2 or so. Thus it must be running circuitry to adjust the voltage down.

[SkyHawk]

I looked again and they do allude to voltage regulation:

Steady Voltage
Keep steady 1.5V voltage until the whole cell is depleted, makes the devices work more stable. The advantage of lithium battery is no memory effects, you can charge the battery anytime whatever fully or partially drained.

These LiIon cells have overcharge protection and under volt protection too, plus other protections. NiMh will not have that.

Supports over-charged, over-discharged, over-voltage, over-current and short circuit protection, ensures complete safety for you and your devices.

However one thing you need to be careful of is accidentally putting these cells into a conventional charger instead of using the USB cable. Ask me how I know

The mistake is particularly easy to make if you have a mix of cells with different charge interfaces, that look exactly the same. I have some Nitecore AA cells that do. I accidentally put one of the USB cells into a charger and it smoked immediately. I gave the rest of the USB cells away after that.

[Citizen_B]

I looked again and they do allude to voltage regulation

I'm certain there is an internal voltage regulator (likely a switching type). Because batteries are based on a chemical reaction, the output voltage will vary pending its charged level and discharge rate. The only way to maintain a constant voltage is through a regulator.