Post by GenRam on Sept 12, 2007 3:48:34 GMT 8
Although I am not a technical person I can speak from my own experience selling batteries and interacting with “experts” in the field (Sorry but while Elfxx has acquired some experience being the sole player in the field it is not true expert). And while technical terms are too alien for me I can speak with some authority – that the future belongs to lithium – at least within the context of present technologies.
Based on sales, NiCd and NiMH are dead insofar as airsoft is concerned (Well, almost). True, NiCds and NiMH are friendlier on your aeg and has a longer life (higher charge-discharge cycle) especially when taken care of properly, but many of us have come to treat batteries as highly disposable items. We sacrifice a battery’s life in exchange for convenience or ease of maintenance and power.
If we speak about lithium-polymers or lithium-ion batteries, and whether we love or hate Chinese made products, the inescapable truth is that FireFox introduced a lot of us (and skeptics alike) to the world of lithium. Of course there are other brands.
Over Rating and Over Labeling
The best selling Firefox is the 1600 mAh rectangular shaped Li-poly the size of a NiCd/NiMH mini-battery. Our tests confirms our suspicion that the Firefox 1600 mAh’s capacity is only 1200mAh. Firefox may have intentionally mislabeled it’s battery or simply uses a more generous (but inaccurate) method in computing the mAh.
A very reputable Japanese battery company whose name starts with “S” and has “n” and “y” in its name for example, computes their NiCad and NiMH from 1.4v (freshly charged state right off the charger) down to 1v per cell (or was it 0.9v – the voltage of a practically dead battery) and uses the 0.4v range to compute the mAh. Some other battery firms compute the mAh based on a high 1.3v (a more typical charge of a battery several hours after charging) and a low of 1.1v (the voltage at which a battery cannot run most applications effectively but is not dead). Naturally, with a difference of only 0.2v, the resulting mAh computation will be lower (but more realistic or reflective of when we use and when we stop using a battery).
Disclaimer: As I said earlier, I am not an expert and do not know the actual forumala for the computation but with different parameters in their computation two batteries with different specs are labeled as having the same specs - the wonders of marketing.
As laymen, we simply say that Battery X of 1600 mAh is better than battery Y of the same mAh but in reality, we are comparing 2 batteries with different specs. In sports, they say “no contest” – like pitting the legendary Golden Boy de la Hoya against the disgraced Mike Tyson.
And yes, the energetic bunny is also “no contest” for a German brand (which I use for my NiMH needs) but the former claims to be the longest lasting and spent millions of dollars every year to project this image. It is better than most batteries though
Life of a battery (Charge/Discharge Cycles).
The life of a battery can be measure by the number of charge and discharge cycles it holds before a significant deterioration in holding charge. Meaning, your battery will fire less and less magazines per charge. For reference, firefox deteriorates rapidly around 50 charge/discharge cycles and can fire around 9 hi-cap magazines when new (SP120 upgrades). Better quality Li-polies or those that use the more realistic method of computing for their mAh can fire upto 12 mags or more.
Industrial Grade Lithium Batteries
Current developments in lithium battery technology enable energy-hungry power tools to run for prolonged period of time on mobile battery power. Leading US branded power tools now comes with 3 years warranty on their batteries. Charged and used twice a week, the battery will last 3 years. And in the US warranty promises are fulfilled.
And yes, why do Li-polies Burn?
Some say impurities in the manufacturing process is the culprit among other reasons but I don’t really know. But let me share with you a juicy gossip. If I were a battery Fiscal, I’d say there’s sufficient evidence to file rape charges against the charger for getting the Li-poly pregnant.
Ideally, a lithium battery should be charged only at 0.5-1C to 2C maximum. At a constant 2C and higher you risk impregnating the lithium battery. Low cost wall chargers, which usually monitor only the charge of the center cell, fails to monitor when the lithium battery pack is fully charged. Some packs don’t have an IC or has an inferior IC installed. The IC communicates with the charger when charging. The absence or poor IC is also a cause for unwanted lithium pregnancies.
But if the mAh of lithium are overrated or mislabeled how do we determine the proper “C” at which to charge the lithium battery? The answer is that we can only guess – unless we use a tester or an intelligent balanced charger that currently retails for P10,000.00
Intelligent balanced chargers will automatically charge the battery initially at half “C” then increase charging rate to 1 “C” and a maximum of 2 “C”. Why only 0.5 “C”? Insofar as lithium batteries are concerned the ideal charging rate is 0.5-1 ”C” and prolonged charging at 2 “C” or higher is like unprotected sex - the risk of pregnancy (and STD) is pretty high. Doctor James’ advice: PRACTICE SAFE SEX. With the proper protection you can JUST DO IT! . . . I mean balanced charger.
A sidenote: A battery with a true “5C” rating is more than adequate for airsoft. Li-poly range from 5C-36C while NiMH ranges from 0.25C-20C. An aeg motor uses only 4000 milliamp so a 5C Li-poly with 1200 mAh (6000 milliamp) is adequate. Highly upgraded aegs may require around 8amp so a Li-poly with true 1600mAh (12900 milliamp or a 1200 mAh with 12C (14400 milliamp) is more than enough. BTW, high C also means high discharge.
Bremen Haus Elektrich Industrial Grade Li-poly BATTERIES and Intelligent Balanced Chargers
We believe that the time is ripe and the public is now more aware of the advantages (and disadvantages) of lithium-based power source. For this reason, we will be bringing in he 3 more common configuration of Li-polies.
1. Mini-type rectangular Li-poly
2. Chicklet Config Li-poly
3. Tootsie Roll Config Li-poly
One may notice that there is no stick type Li-poly for the MP5 and AK47 folding. That is because there is still no cylindrical or “AA” sized Li-poly yet and those that you see in the market are actually li-ions. They are still powerful though.
The Bremen Haus Elektrich Super 1600mAh is a True 1600mAh battery (Firefox 1600mAh battery is tested to have a rating of only 1200mAh.). In this regard Bremen Haus Elektrich has 33% more mAh than firefox.
Bremen Haus Elektrich Li-poly Batteries are manufactured using the same technology and under the same specifications and standards as the Li-poly’s used in the newer industrial grade li-polies used in power tools in the US and Europe(meaning Bremen Haus Elektrich li-polies are capable of 300 charge/discharge cycles or has 6 times more useful life than cheap li-polies).
We will also bring in not only 1 but 3 Bremen Haus Elektrich Intelligent Balanced Charger
1. Standard 1 Amp Intelligent Balanced Charger
2. Professional 3 Amp Intelligent Balanced Charger
3. Universal 5 Amp NiMH/NiCd/Intelligent Balanced Charger
Bremen Haus Elektrich Li-polies and Intelligent Balanced Chargers should be available by mid to late September.
9.6v Li-Polies
Will be available in the future depending on how the market accepts Bremen Haus Elektrich
c/o sir Bro James of ACM
Based on sales, NiCd and NiMH are dead insofar as airsoft is concerned (Well, almost). True, NiCds and NiMH are friendlier on your aeg and has a longer life (higher charge-discharge cycle) especially when taken care of properly, but many of us have come to treat batteries as highly disposable items. We sacrifice a battery’s life in exchange for convenience or ease of maintenance and power.
If we speak about lithium-polymers or lithium-ion batteries, and whether we love or hate Chinese made products, the inescapable truth is that FireFox introduced a lot of us (and skeptics alike) to the world of lithium. Of course there are other brands.
Over Rating and Over Labeling
The best selling Firefox is the 1600 mAh rectangular shaped Li-poly the size of a NiCd/NiMH mini-battery. Our tests confirms our suspicion that the Firefox 1600 mAh’s capacity is only 1200mAh. Firefox may have intentionally mislabeled it’s battery or simply uses a more generous (but inaccurate) method in computing the mAh.
A very reputable Japanese battery company whose name starts with “S” and has “n” and “y” in its name for example, computes their NiCad and NiMH from 1.4v (freshly charged state right off the charger) down to 1v per cell (or was it 0.9v – the voltage of a practically dead battery) and uses the 0.4v range to compute the mAh. Some other battery firms compute the mAh based on a high 1.3v (a more typical charge of a battery several hours after charging) and a low of 1.1v (the voltage at which a battery cannot run most applications effectively but is not dead). Naturally, with a difference of only 0.2v, the resulting mAh computation will be lower (but more realistic or reflective of when we use and when we stop using a battery).
Disclaimer: As I said earlier, I am not an expert and do not know the actual forumala for the computation but with different parameters in their computation two batteries with different specs are labeled as having the same specs - the wonders of marketing.
As laymen, we simply say that Battery X of 1600 mAh is better than battery Y of the same mAh but in reality, we are comparing 2 batteries with different specs. In sports, they say “no contest” – like pitting the legendary Golden Boy de la Hoya against the disgraced Mike Tyson.
And yes, the energetic bunny is also “no contest” for a German brand (which I use for my NiMH needs) but the former claims to be the longest lasting and spent millions of dollars every year to project this image. It is better than most batteries though
Life of a battery (Charge/Discharge Cycles).
The life of a battery can be measure by the number of charge and discharge cycles it holds before a significant deterioration in holding charge. Meaning, your battery will fire less and less magazines per charge. For reference, firefox deteriorates rapidly around 50 charge/discharge cycles and can fire around 9 hi-cap magazines when new (SP120 upgrades). Better quality Li-polies or those that use the more realistic method of computing for their mAh can fire upto 12 mags or more.
Industrial Grade Lithium Batteries
Current developments in lithium battery technology enable energy-hungry power tools to run for prolonged period of time on mobile battery power. Leading US branded power tools now comes with 3 years warranty on their batteries. Charged and used twice a week, the battery will last 3 years. And in the US warranty promises are fulfilled.
And yes, why do Li-polies Burn?
Some say impurities in the manufacturing process is the culprit among other reasons but I don’t really know. But let me share with you a juicy gossip. If I were a battery Fiscal, I’d say there’s sufficient evidence to file rape charges against the charger for getting the Li-poly pregnant.
Ideally, a lithium battery should be charged only at 0.5-1C to 2C maximum. At a constant 2C and higher you risk impregnating the lithium battery. Low cost wall chargers, which usually monitor only the charge of the center cell, fails to monitor when the lithium battery pack is fully charged. Some packs don’t have an IC or has an inferior IC installed. The IC communicates with the charger when charging. The absence or poor IC is also a cause for unwanted lithium pregnancies.
But if the mAh of lithium are overrated or mislabeled how do we determine the proper “C” at which to charge the lithium battery? The answer is that we can only guess – unless we use a tester or an intelligent balanced charger that currently retails for P10,000.00
Intelligent balanced chargers will automatically charge the battery initially at half “C” then increase charging rate to 1 “C” and a maximum of 2 “C”. Why only 0.5 “C”? Insofar as lithium batteries are concerned the ideal charging rate is 0.5-1 ”C” and prolonged charging at 2 “C” or higher is like unprotected sex - the risk of pregnancy (and STD) is pretty high. Doctor James’ advice: PRACTICE SAFE SEX. With the proper protection you can JUST DO IT! . . . I mean balanced charger.
A sidenote: A battery with a true “5C” rating is more than adequate for airsoft. Li-poly range from 5C-36C while NiMH ranges from 0.25C-20C. An aeg motor uses only 4000 milliamp so a 5C Li-poly with 1200 mAh (6000 milliamp) is adequate. Highly upgraded aegs may require around 8amp so a Li-poly with true 1600mAh (12900 milliamp or a 1200 mAh with 12C (14400 milliamp) is more than enough. BTW, high C also means high discharge.
Bremen Haus Elektrich Industrial Grade Li-poly BATTERIES and Intelligent Balanced Chargers
We believe that the time is ripe and the public is now more aware of the advantages (and disadvantages) of lithium-based power source. For this reason, we will be bringing in he 3 more common configuration of Li-polies.
1. Mini-type rectangular Li-poly
2. Chicklet Config Li-poly
3. Tootsie Roll Config Li-poly
One may notice that there is no stick type Li-poly for the MP5 and AK47 folding. That is because there is still no cylindrical or “AA” sized Li-poly yet and those that you see in the market are actually li-ions. They are still powerful though.
The Bremen Haus Elektrich Super 1600mAh is a True 1600mAh battery (Firefox 1600mAh battery is tested to have a rating of only 1200mAh.). In this regard Bremen Haus Elektrich has 33% more mAh than firefox.
Bremen Haus Elektrich Li-poly Batteries are manufactured using the same technology and under the same specifications and standards as the Li-poly’s used in the newer industrial grade li-polies used in power tools in the US and Europe(meaning Bremen Haus Elektrich li-polies are capable of 300 charge/discharge cycles or has 6 times more useful life than cheap li-polies).
We will also bring in not only 1 but 3 Bremen Haus Elektrich Intelligent Balanced Charger
1. Standard 1 Amp Intelligent Balanced Charger
2. Professional 3 Amp Intelligent Balanced Charger
3. Universal 5 Amp NiMH/NiCd/Intelligent Balanced Charger
Bremen Haus Elektrich Li-polies and Intelligent Balanced Chargers should be available by mid to late September.
9.6v Li-Polies
Will be available in the future depending on how the market accepts Bremen Haus Elektrich
c/o sir Bro James of ACM