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Category Archives: battery
Lessons in Li-Ion Safety
If you came here from an internet search because your battery just blew up and you don’t know how to put out the fire, then use a regular fire extinguisher if it’s plugged in to an outlet, or a fire extinguisher or water if it is not plugged in. Get …read more
Protect Your Batteries Before You Wreck Your Batteries
[Jan] is solving a problem many of us have had, deeply discharging our project’s batteries and potentially damaging the cells.
His board can handle batteries from 6 to 34 volts and supports both LiPo or Lion batteries. The board can be flexible about its cut-off voltage. It also has a …read more
Posted in battery, lion, lipo, protection, The Hackaday Prize, The Hackaday Prize 2019
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Better Battery Management Through Chemistry
The lead-acid rechargeable battery is a not-quite-modern marvel. Super reliable and easy to use, charging it is just a matter of applying a fixed voltage to it and waiting a while; eventually the battery is charged and stays topped off, and that’s it. Their ease is countered by their size, …read more
The Amazon Dash Button: A Retrospective
The Internet of Things will revolutionize everything! Manufacturing? Dog walking? Coffee bean refilling? Car driving? Food eating? Put a sensor in it! The marketing makes it pretty clear that there’s no part of our lives which isn’t enhanced with The Internet of Things. Why? Because with a simple sensor and …read more
Electric Dump Truck Produces More Energy Than it Uses
Electric vehicles are everywhere now. It’s more than just Leafs, Teslas, and a wide variety of electric bikes. It’s also trains, busses, and in this case, gigantic dump trucks. This truck in particular is being put to work at a mine in Switzerland, and as a consequence of having an …read more
Posted in battery, dump truck, electric, energy, mine, regenerative braking, transportation hacks, vehicle
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An All-Iron Battery Isn’t Light, But It’s Cheap
Rechargeable batteries are a technology that has been with us for well over a century, and which is undergoing a huge quantity of research into improved energy density for both mobile and alternative energy projects. But the commonly used chemistries all come with their own hazards, be they chemical contamination, …read more
Posted in battery, cell, chemistry hacks, electrochemistry, iron, science
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PackProbe Reports Laptop Battery Health
The 18650 cell has become a ubiquitous standard in the lithium battery world. From power drills to early Tesla vehicles, these compact cells power all manner of portable devices. A particularly common use is in laptop batteries, where they’re often built into a pack using the Smart Battery System. This …read more
Epsom Salts Restores Lead Acid Battery
Despite a lot of advances in battery technology, lead acid batteries are still used in many applications due to cost and their ability to provide a lot of surge current. But they don’t last forever. However, [AvE] shows that in some cases a failed battery can be restored with — of all things — epsom salts. If it makes you feel funny to use the stuff grandpa soaks in when he has a backache, you can call it magnesium sulfate.
You can find a complete explanation in the video below (which includes [AvE’s] very colorful language), but fundamentally, the magnesium …read more
Posted in AvE, battery, chemistry hacks, epsom salt, epsom salts, lead acid battery
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Fail of the Week: How Not to Electric Vehicle
If you ever doubt the potential for catastrophe that mucking about with electric vehicles can present, check out the video below. It shows what can happen to a couple of Tesla battery modules when due regard to safety precautions isn’t paid.
The video comes to us by way of [Rich], a gearhead with a thing for Teslas. He clearly knows his way around the EV world, having rebuilt a flood-soaked Tesla, and aspires to open an EV repair shop. The disaster stems from a novelty vehicle he and friend [Lee] bought as a side project. The car was apparently once …read more
Pedal Far With A Solar Powered Tricycle
More and more electric bikes have been rolling out into the streets lately as people realize how inexpensive and easy they are to ride and use when compared to cars. They can also be pedaled like a normal bike, so it’s still possible to get some exercise with them too. Most have a range somewhere around 10-30 miles depending on battery size, weight, and aerodynamics, but with a few upgrades such as solar panels it’s possible to go much, much further on a charge.
[The Rambling Shepherd] had a tricycle (in the US, generally still considered a bicycle from a …read more