Hello,
I just picked up a beard trimmer and found that it had an Li-ion battery in it rather than the old NiCd type they used to use. This is interesting and very good for consumers for a couple reasons.
First, the device runs well on these types of cells, and second the charging regimen for Li-ion cells is such that it forces the manufacturer to develop a charger that terminates the charge at some point and therefore does not keep constantly charging the cells over and over again and thus causing the cells to prematurely fail. So they are forced to charge these cells correctly and that means they will look good in the long run because they appear to have developed a good product. So everybody wins. I see this in portable drills too and as the cell prices come down we will see mostly these kinds of cells in everything i think.
This particular product was a low end model and although the build quality seems good it doesnt have a charging indicator. That was a mistake i think because the user can not tell if the charger is doing anything once it is plugged in. Everything else i have like this as least has one little LED that tells you that the charger is plugged in even if it does not tell you the charge state, and most things i have has at least some indication of what the charge state is. One such device has four tiny LEDs that indicate zero, 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent charge state. But even an LED that goes off when the charge is complete is good. This trimmer has none of that though, so checking it with the power meter i can see that ti really does work and turns off when the charge is complete.
I was thinking of making a wall wart adapter that accept the connector from the wall wart (looks like a 3mm power type) and plugs into the tool, and has a single LED in it to indicate that the charger is plugged in. I'll probably have to order the connectors though as i dont think i have any of that type only the 2mm type.
But anyway, the trend to use Li-ion seems to be a good thing in this world where many new products have a down side to them as well as being improved in some way.
I just picked up a beard trimmer and found that it had an Li-ion battery in it rather than the old NiCd type they used to use. This is interesting and very good for consumers for a couple reasons.
First, the device runs well on these types of cells, and second the charging regimen for Li-ion cells is such that it forces the manufacturer to develop a charger that terminates the charge at some point and therefore does not keep constantly charging the cells over and over again and thus causing the cells to prematurely fail. So they are forced to charge these cells correctly and that means they will look good in the long run because they appear to have developed a good product. So everybody wins. I see this in portable drills too and as the cell prices come down we will see mostly these kinds of cells in everything i think.
This particular product was a low end model and although the build quality seems good it doesnt have a charging indicator. That was a mistake i think because the user can not tell if the charger is doing anything once it is plugged in. Everything else i have like this as least has one little LED that tells you that the charger is plugged in even if it does not tell you the charge state, and most things i have has at least some indication of what the charge state is. One such device has four tiny LEDs that indicate zero, 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent charge state. But even an LED that goes off when the charge is complete is good. This trimmer has none of that though, so checking it with the power meter i can see that ti really does work and turns off when the charge is complete.
I was thinking of making a wall wart adapter that accept the connector from the wall wart (looks like a 3mm power type) and plugs into the tool, and has a single LED in it to indicate that the charger is plugged in. I'll probably have to order the connectors though as i dont think i have any of that type only the 2mm type.
But anyway, the trend to use Li-ion seems to be a good thing in this world where many new products have a down side to them as well as being improved in some way.