Are there any plans for alternative battery boards to fit larger capacity flatter batteries? It seems that the thickness is ultimately due to 18650 batteries being quite fat, so slimmer batteries could allow the shell to be thin all the way down rather than just at the top.
I really like the idea of the 18650s on the DevTerm where you can easily replace them just by opening the compartment. It seems a bit odd to me to have them locked away inside the uConsole by hex screws meaning you have to have the tool with you to change batteries on the fly. Of course one of the things makes Clockwork pretty cool in general is just how modular all the internal components of the devices are so having a different battery module is just adding another part for fairly limited benefit.
Honestly I don’t really care much about the depth of the device, the battery bump doesn’t really cause me any issues and, if anything, makes it actually easier to hold and whilst they might not be the perfect size or form factor, 18650s are very easy to get hold of and replacement of them is stupidly easy without needing to battle with tiny connectors.
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Yeah, i certainly see the benefits of using a standard battery like the 18650, even if they aren’t readily available in stores. Now I’m thinking about using regular AA rechargeables…The modularity is so nice.
I’d really like to add my own grip when I like and remove it when I don’t, so the permanent thickness is only useful for half the time for me. I guess i could compromise by cutting out that part of the back plate and replacing it with a removable battery cover and get even more flexibility from it. I really like the metal even if just for the heat sink capability, so doing a non-metal replacement isn’t something I want.
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that’d be a lot of aa batteries.
So if there already some room for a bigger battery, why not some regular blocky-battery that fit in that size. It can got significant larger capacity. The downside is the “spicy pillow” problem if things went wrong.
“spicy pillow problem” lmfao
Yeah I was thinking there are realistically only two viable alternatives to cylindrical cells like 18650s.
- “Pouch” cells which are far easier to damage (leading to spicy pillows) and come with the annoyingly fiddly JST connectors but are easy to purchase online in all kinds of sizes
- “Hard” cells like the replaceable mobile phone batteries they took away from us that have the connectors built in and just slot in place but it can be a lot harder to find these, particularly in larger capacities.
I wouldn’t rule out using cylindrical cells. There are cells that are longer than 18650s with higher capacity at the same voltage that should fit in the battery bump. Wouldn’t take much work to replace the plastic battery holder with one that can fit larger cells.
Plus, i don’t know about you guys but it already feels like it takes ages to fully charge my 18650s. I cant imagine how long it would take to charge using a high capacity pouch cell. I don’t think i have the patience.
I think you’d really want to stick to the more common batteries so they are easy to replace in the future. That rules out the specific phone batteries.
4AAs would be higher capacity than two 18650s but it looks like you’re only gaining 4mm less depth. You could go even flatter with AAAs but you’d need at least six.
The lithium pouch style comes in all kinds of sizes and the space back there is pretty big so you could swap them out pretty easily even if you can’t exactly match the size of your previous one.
Except each cell is less than half the voltage of an 18650. They are only 1.2-1.5v.
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Depending of what is needed by uconsole 4 AA batteries should be able to provide 5V but what about current?
About 18650, there are diffrent versions (protected or not, from 1800 to 3500 mAh, and ICR, INR, etc.). Is there any recommended type or not?
There is already a good thread on those - Battery model recommendation. I ended up getting some protected 3500mAh cells. I got the protected ones, not because the DevTerm/uConsole needs it (it has a proper battery charging circuit) but it just means i can use them fairly universally in my overall 18650 stash.
Depending of what is needed by uconsole 4 AA batteries should be able to provide 5V but what about current?
What I meant was that you can get the voltage by putting them in series but the uConsole and DevTerm (I’m pretty sure) run the 2x 18650s in parallel so you get 7000mAh from the cells I use. Getting the same out of the AAs is greatly going to reduce the total capacity.
Thanks, I’ll read.
And would probably go for protected ones for the same reason.
About AA, I’m afraid we would get 3000mAh max.