OSNews:

OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/21555/Netbook_Runs_on_AA_Batteries Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:06:13 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Old? http://osnews.com/thread?365263 http://osnews.com/thread?365263 Hasn't this been discussed before? I can't remember the article though. The consensus was that alkaline batteries don't last very long compared to regular lithium notebook batteries and it may also be somewhat hard to find them in different parts of the world (France comes to mind). Mon, 25 May 2009 12:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Buck) Comments RE: Old? http://osnews.com/thread?365264 http://osnews.com/thread?365264 I remember that they used to be bloody expensive, when compared to other countries. Mon, 25 May 2009 13:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (moondevil) Comments D size batteries? http://osnews.com/thread?365265 http://osnews.com/thread?365265 If they are going to stuff that many batteries, couldn't they have considered D size ones?

-Ad Mon, 25 May 2009 13:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (adkilla) Comments Ahh, memories! http://osnews.com/thread?365266 http://osnews.com/thread?365266 Reminds me of the good 'ol Game Gear days... Mon, 25 May 2009 13:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Piranha) Comments RE: D size batteries? http://osnews.com/thread?365267 http://osnews.com/thread?365267

If they are going to stuff that many batteries, couldn't they have considered D size ones?

-Ad

Not really, unless they wanted the battery pack to be thicker than most netbooks. D's are also pretty heavy by comparison to four AAs; even one D size ways about as much as four of the little ones and four AAs give a bit more power than one D, as well as being easier to find in some areas.
However, if 4 AA's can give 4 hours of charge... imagine what 4 D's could give if you really needed that much battery life. Mon, 25 May 2009 13:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (darknexus) Comments Well, it is cheap anyway... http://osnews.com/thread?365271 http://osnews.com/thread?365271 ...but it has to be a dog. Even running an optimized linux. Battery life of 4 to 6 hours isn't too bad. Cure tho'.

I wonder if we could rig our Prius to run on those batteries? Maybe a few thousand of them crammed together?

Mon, 25 May 2009 14:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tuishimi) Comments batteries http://osnews.com/thread?365272 http://osnews.com/thread?365272 Whole point behind batteries is to have a solution that is user repairable, unlike batteries we see in notebooks. If one tries to source battery for out-of-production notebook, it usually means high price for low quality battery.

So in my opinion, battery life when using AA batteries is not that important. More important is 'open format' that batteries use. Mon, 25 May 2009 15:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (z80a) Comments RE: Well, it is cheap anyway... http://osnews.com/thread?365273 http://osnews.com/thread?365273 If you all want to do is check your email and surf the web, this netbook will do it. Even with Firefox. Install Icewm and Firefox and off you go. Mon, 25 May 2009 15:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (twm_bucket) Comments RE: Old? http://osnews.com/thread?365274 http://osnews.com/thread?365274

The consensus was that alkaline batteries don't last very long compared to regular lithium notebook batteries

The batteries are not alkaline -- they are NiMH (nickel metal hydride). NiMH batteries have a greater power density than alkaline, but the NiMH voltage is slightly lower.

However, I'm guessing that one could use alkaline AAs in an emergency, which is a plus!

Here is a set of the new, "low-discharge" NiMH AA's: http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/delkin-aa-2300-mah-low-discharge...

Li-Ion batteries require special protection circuitry, and the Li-Ion cells are twice the voltage of other battery types. Here is an "unprotected", 3.6V, AA Li-Ion cell: http://www.batteryjunction.com/li14reaasi38.html

Note the warning in all caps!

and it may also be somewhat hard to find them in different parts of the world (France comes to mind).

Here is an outfit selling NiMH AAs in France:
http://www.all-batteries.fr/1001PILES/FicheProduit.aspx?site=1001&a... Edited 2009-05-25 15:47 UTC Mon, 25 May 2009 15:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tupp) Comments RE[2]: Old? http://osnews.com/thread?365285 http://osnews.com/thread?365285

Here is a set of the new, "low-discharge" NiMH AA's: http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/delkin-aa-2300-mah-low-discharge...

when talking about low-discharge batteries you should mention sanyo eneloopEdited 2009-05-25 19:32 UTC Mon, 25 May 2009 19:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smashIt) Comments Should of guessed http://osnews.com/thread?365300 http://osnews.com/thread?365300 never thought manufacturers would settle to using these batteries instead of the common rechargeable one's that most portable electronics rely on now a days.

Guess you have to give emerging economies a chance. Mon, 25 May 2009 22:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Calo Viva) Comments RE: Should of guessed http://osnews.com/thread?365313 http://osnews.com/thread?365313

never thought manufacturers would settle to using these batteries instead of the common rechargeable one's that most portable electronics rely on now a days.

The Nortech netbook runs on rechargeable NiMH batteries (as mentioned in the article). It also has an internal power-supply/charger. Mon, 25 May 2009 23:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tupp) Comments That's a lot of power drain http://osnews.com/thread?365336 http://osnews.com/thread?365336 I have some old NiMH AA batteries with 2050 mAh each (as I understand it, Alkaline AA batteries run 2750 mAh or something) so, assuming the more modern ones in this netbook are similar, or the new precharged low-drain kind... that's 8x2000 mAh = 16000 mAh.
An Asus EeePC can supposedly get roughly 7 hours of battery life with ~8000 mAh batteries? I'm sure my figures are a bit off, but either the Eee is amazingly good or this machine has some source of massive power drain... Voltage conversions? Tue, 26 May 2009 03:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DigitalAxis) Comments Now all we need is an ARM processor http://osnews.com/thread?365352 http://osnews.com/thread?365352 I think that this is a great idea. I've love to have a netbook that accepted standard rechargeable AA batteries. When netbooks based on the ARM processor become available (late 2009 to early 2010), you'll probably get 10 hours (or more) running time on a single charge.Edited 2009-05-26 05:12 UTC Tue, 26 May 2009 05:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ozonehole) Comments RE[2]: D size batteries? http://osnews.com/thread?365355 http://osnews.com/thread?365355 The problem here is that you need 8 AA batteries not just 4. Also D size batteries are shorter in length.

-As Tue, 26 May 2009 05:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (adkilla) Comments RE: That's a lot of power drain http://osnews.com/thread?365357 http://osnews.com/thread?365357 wrong... ohm's law time here.

Power = Voltage * Current

And remember, you multiply current in parallel, or voltage in series, not both.

Asus battery is 4400 mAh * 7.4V = 32.56 Watt Hours.
8 AA 2000 mAh is 1.25V * 16000 mAh or 10V * 2000 mAh.

That's 20 Watt Hours. 20 Wh/4h = 5 watts consumption or power.

If your eee gets 7 h / (8000 mAh * 7.4V) = 8.45 watts.

Though there's lots of fudge with these numbers, you could say you had 2500 mAh batteries at 1.5V for 4 hours, then it'd be 30 Wh/4h = 7.5 watts.

So we don't really know what the draw of this laptop is, but we can ballpark it as being less than 8W, screen on and all that, not too bad, and if it's 5, that's a lot better. Tue, 26 May 2009 06:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (adager) Comments Comment by Arawn http://osnews.com/thread?365376 http://osnews.com/thread?365376 'With its 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 keyboard, ...'

Guess we will finally have a 'Any' key...

Now seriously, the AA rechargeable batteries are a blessing in a sense of cost and availability. We have to see how behaves in real tests, though. The only hassle I see is that if you want to have a 'spare battery', you'll have to carry around 8 small ones. There are plastic containers to place them, though.

The replacement CPU/RAM board is a nice idea, also. It will depend on the cost of spare boards, if available.

The only problem that I see with this netbook is that the keyboard is too small. It seems to be exactly the same small keyboard the EeePC 70x, 900 and 900A have, meaning it's a pain to use. Specially if you have large fingertips, like I do. A slightly larger case with a larger keyboard would have been nice, and I guess it wouldn't add more than $5 - $10 to the final price.

Now, said that, I wouldn't mind buying one of these. Tue, 26 May 2009 09:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Arawn) Comments Does it run Windows? http://osnews.com/thread?365396 http://osnews.com/thread?365396 This is the principal question :-) Tue, 26 May 2009 10:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Temcat) Comments RE: Does it run Windows? http://osnews.com/thread?365398 http://osnews.com/thread?365398 Reply to myself: yes it does, RTFA. Tue, 26 May 2009 10:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Temcat) Comments A movie featuring this beast http://osnews.com/thread?365486 http://osnews.com/thread?365486 Right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQWMKxlL4c on youtube.Edited 2009-05-26 17:18 UTC Tue, 26 May 2009 17:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (twitterfire) Comments HERE IS THE SECRET.....they are all AA batteries anyway http://osnews.com/thread?365511 http://osnews.com/thread?365511 Here is the dirty little secret of laptop batteries.....

...they are all just little packs of regular AA/AAA NiCad or Li batteries all wired up together in series/parallel anyway.

And then stuffed into a molded plastic box that will snap into the custom laptop case for that model.

So there is NO reason for them to cost more from one model to the next etc...and the difference between what someone calls a '4 cell' or '6 cell' battery or whatever is just how many AA's the laptop has inside its plastic box.

See and example of a disassembled laptop battery pack here:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/rebuilding-laptop-battery Edited 2009-05-26 19:53 UTC Tue, 26 May 2009 19:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Milo_Hoffman) Comments RE: HERE IS THE SECRET.....they are all AA batteries anyway http://osnews.com/thread?365711 http://osnews.com/thread?365711

...they are all just little packs of regular AA/AAA NiCad or Li batteries all wired up together in series/parallel anyway.

i have to disapoint you, but they are not AA cells
the cells used in laptops are longer and thicker than AA-cells and have a voltage of 3,6V instead of 1,5V

but you are right, all packs for laptops should have approximately the same price/cell Wed, 27 May 2009 20:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smashIt) Comments