What with the weird freebooting article? This ‘article’ is just a description of Alec’s video with the clickbait cranked up to ten. Gotta love a major corporation using small creators’ work for free ad revenue…
You could add the link so people don't contribute to ad revenue if you feel strongly! https://youtu.be/zsA3X40nz9w 💜
I'm fairly sure that the image is even a screenshot from the video. Uncredited I notice.
It is, I just watched the video an hour or so ago.
edit: In fact, until I read this thread, I didn't notice the URL and thought this was a link to the video.
That's enough YouTube videos just recapping an article. But I agree it's lazy
Huh?
I think they mean the same thing happens alot in reverse: YT vids about news articles. Not wrong, but whataboutist.
also not relevant to Alex's content either.
Video on technology connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsA3X40nz9w
"Wait, is that a Duracell battery check?"
Oh man that transition. Chef's kiss. Amazing
But the video purports that normal people don’t really test batteries.
Yeah, it was a novelty that increased the price to manufacture and didn't actually add anything of value to users.
Either you put batteries in something and they worked or they didn't, and if they stopped working the next step is try different batteries whether or not the little gauge showed it had charge left.
Now if it was added to rechargeable batteries, it would be pretty useful because tou could do something with the knowledge of a battery being at 50%. But a lot of systems with rechargeable batteries have them built in and some other way to show remaining charge like a percentage on a screen.
Now if it was added to rechargeable batteries, it would be pretty useful
I think the reason we haven't seen that is that NiMH rechargeables have fairly stable voltage during discharge while alkalines don't.
I think all of your points were covered in the video, sometimes almost verbatim.
I concur about rechargeables - it doesn't seem common for devices that take AA or AAA to have a battery gauge and it would be nice to be able to check the level on my rechargeables stock so I can know if I should top them off without needing to put each of them into the charger.
It was pretty useful as a kid for feeding my Gameboy and Game Gear with batteries I rescued from the junk drawers of friends and family. If they were low, I knew I had to save more often to avoid losing progress if they went dead while I was playing.
I was a kid then, but I remember that I had to push so hard my fingers hurt... I used a multimeter.
Well the pros and cons of the multimeter are addresses in the video! He uses a meter on a dead battery and it still shows a deceptively reasonable voltage when not under load. The built-in tester draws more current.
My technique is to use the 10a mode on the multimeter and check the battery. A full AA will do nearly 10 amps and dead ones much less. Careful with larger cells or rechargeables since you might blow the fuse in your meter.
That sounds a little like testing matches "Yes, that one works. I mean: worked."
It turned out that batteries randomly lying around are always empty. Functioning batteries are still in the device it's operating or in the box it was sold in.
It broke too many thumbs.
This guy is great. He can make anything sound interesting.
He makes everything sound interesting.
Ftfy
He used old batteries, but I actually had new Duracell batteries with this feature very recently, in 2022 or so (Germany).
Did the power check work or was it snakeoil I remember trying to see it while hurting my hand.
It did, see Technology Connections' latest video on it, he explains fully how it worked. Quite clever tbh.
The video is in the article.
Although, he admits in the video to "faking" his footage of it working, by using a off-camera heat source. (His batteries were quite dead.)
But, as someone that lived through this time, they did work, as long as you pressed hard enough in the right places. It was hard to tell if the battery was dead or if you weren't pressing hard enough
It never went away. I have a duracell battery with power check sitting next to me on my desk
Does anyone remember the battery testers that were built into the packaging? I think they were based on the same concept.
They are mentioned in the video.
I have a really distinct memory of finding a bunch of these in a friend’s house when I was a kid and every one was empty. After watching the TC video I think it’s more likely I just wasn’t pressing hard enough and had no way to know that. Anyway, I can see why they stopped making them.
Yea, you have to press till it hurts, lol
I remember those.
Would be nice to have them on my 18650s
The voltage-to-capacity radio for lithium is much less linear compared to alkaline so it wouldn’t really work well :(
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
