#9 Power when you need it

Happy Monday! No wait those words don't go together on non holiday weekend. We'll have to save it for next week.

One area of technology that hasn't improved as much as I would like is batteries. Every mobile device has them. And don't get me wrong, there have been improvements. The original Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cad) battery was a big improvement over lead acid batteries. They were lighter and had a faster charge rate. Down side was they had the infamous memory effect. If you started to charge the battery before it was completely discharged, the battery would "remember" and give you less capacity the next time.

Next came Nickel Metal Hydride(Ni-MH). This technology is still used today in Toyota Prius cars and many less expensive mobile phones. NiMH had a less of a "memory effect", but it is still a partial issue for this type of battery. Also size became an issue due to the way PDAs and Cell phones were getting smaller and smaller. NiMH batteries couldn't be developed small enough to power the tiny cell phones people wanted. Ni-MH batteries also "self discharge" That mean if you just let them lie around unused, they still discharge their energy. That's why some portable devices go dead if you just leave them on the counter for a period of time uncharged.

Our current state of battery technology is the Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) battery. It is lighter and produces more power then the other two technologies. It has no "memory effect" and can be shaped in odd sized that cell phone manufactures love. Ah, but not so fast my friend, there are of course some weaknesses in this technology. One is that they only have a limited number of recharges. For example a typical Li-Ion battery for a cell phone has approximately 500 charges before it won't hold a charge. That sounds like alot, unless you are like many and charge the battery EVERY night. Then you have only about 1.5 years of life. If you space out your charges you'll keep the battery longer, but then you risk the dreaded dead battery when you need it syndrome. Another weakness is that Li-Ion batteries have a shelf life. From the moment they are manufactured, they have approximately a 3 year life under good conditions. You can see the problem there. Laptops always need a new battery if you keep them longer then 3 years.

The latest news in power is Wireless Power. This technology allows for devices that can be charged wirelessly. Its been around since 2002, but not many viable products are out there. Imaging just setting your cell phone in a public charging area and getting automatically recharged. That's what I need to do on Mondays!

See ya soon.