Elipsa Kobo Elipsa 2E

[Quoth]

Alkaline cells are not really rechargeable. Not in a practical way*. So needs to be NiMH.

The Alkaline AAAA cells can work out at 30c each and have a shelf life of 5 to 10 years, and 1500 hours continuous use in Kobo/MS type pens with no BT. Original design by N-Trig.
NiMH will self discharge in 2 weeks to 3 months (the higher capacity ones self discharge faster).

I've designed electronics and specified battery systems. High consumption things benefit from rechargeable cells or batteries. Single use cells on anything low consumption, like MS type Pen without BT, keyfob, wireless doorbell button, smoke alarm, electret microphone (not actual condenser type) or Digital multimeter etc is pandering to fashion. Makes no operational or financial sense.

[If an Alkaline cell is only 1/3rd used and very slowly recharged, they can be charged somewhat. Any attempt to sell such systems since 1970s has always failed. Reliability & safety issues. Either you have low drain using disposable Alkaline (1V to 1.6V per cell) or Lithium Primary (2.75V to 3.3V per cell) or Zinc Air (always on use in hearing aids or cattle Fencers) or you use rechargeable for high current drain such as NiMH, Lithium Secondary, or if weight & size is no issue, Lead Acid).
Zinc Carbon should be banned.
There is a rechargeable Silver based cell, but only used in 1950s to 1970s military.
Other cell types exist but are very niche.]

Maybe best site on batteries on the Internet https://batteryuniversity.com/
Obsolete battery information for 1922 to 2000 radios and batteries for other electrical stuff from 1890s. http://www.blaukatz.com/

[Aleron Ives]

Rayovac made rechargeable alkaline batteries some years ago, so it is possible. My guess was NiMH, but you never know.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Rayovac made rechargeable alkaline batteries some years ago, so it is possible.

They were just good quality Alkaline with use instructions and a special charger. The idea was a failure. Discharge more than about a third and they won't charge. Also not very safe.

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I bought a battery charger and two rechargeable AAAA batteries off Amazon for under $15. I highly recommend it. I get about 6-9 months of usage per charge.

AAAA batteries (alkaline or rechargeable) don't seem to work with me. I have no idea why. I've had several different pens and all the good ones (tilt detection, higher pressure sensitivity, etc.) end up "dying" relatively quickly. If I screw the cap off and then screw it back on I can anywhere between 15 minutes to just 30 seconds.

Since I actually use these pens for work I use them several hours every day and their crapping out on me like that really sucks.

So far my best results have been with the Lenovo Precision Pen 2. The Bamboo Ink Plus which is rechargeable is ok but the charge lasts just 4 days. The Lenovo one, well, its first charge lasted me 6 months. It even works with the Elipsa but the writing feel is not the best (it's a softer tip so it feels like it is wearing away much faster and the tips are hard to source.

That's why I was thinking about the 2E stylus.

I've gone through several alkaline AAAA and have given up on the rechargeable AAAA. I know they work for some people but for some reason they don't with me. Maybe it's solar flares hitting the region, maybe it's elves coming out at night and using my pens on their surface pros and wacom pads, but whatever it is, it's a no go.

[Quoth]

Wacom system doesn't use a battery in the pen/stylus of any version.

Are these actual N-Trig "no-bluetooth" pens eating AAAA cells? The proper N-Trig protocol (Surface 3 & later without BT and Kobo) are about 1500 hours use and 6 months to a year standby. The BT function on Surface pens (reprogamable "magic button" for OneNote etc) either uses a separate battery to the writing bit, or the entire pen is recharageable (sealed). There are two kinds of Wacom (neither has a battery, digitiser powered), Apple Pencil, N-Trig (Kobo/Surface 3 & later), Pen Alliance system, composite pens that do more than one system and probably some proprietary ones I don't know of. A particular maker may use different technology on different models (MS, Lenovo, Samsung have done that).

Did you check use by date? (should be 3 to 5 years time).

Are you somewhere very hot?

Don't leave a pen lying on a screen or close other than an official "dock" as it may keep awake.

Rechargeable AAAA are really poor, some maybe 1/5th of running time of Alkaline and cheaply made NiMH have a high self discharge rate compared to Alkaine or Lithium (which are 3.2V to 4.7V depending on type so can't replace single AAAA, AAA, AA, C, or D cells.

[Nightyume]

Last I checked Wacom has Wacom AES 1.0 and 2.0 which use powered pens. EMR doesn't use battery powered pens and is powered by the digitizer but it's not Wacom's only product.
And yes, I am somwhere warm and also with lots of tech, my desk has various devices with which I work and which it would not behoove me to scatter to the four winds in hopes of better battery life.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

Last I checked Wacom has Wacom AES 1.0 and 2.0 which use powered pens. EMR doesn't use battery powered pens and is powered by the digitizer but it's not Wacom's only product.
And yes, I am somwhere warm and also with lots of tech, my desk has various devices with which I work and which it would not behoove me to scatter to the four winds in hopes of better battery life.

OK, so 4 Wacom systems, two using local power. The Wacom pens without internal power are more common (1990s original and current EMR).
Thus there are maybe at least six powered pens/stylus for digitisers.
None are going to use up a battery in even 30 minutes, never mind 15. That's a faulty cell or pen. The Kobo/MS Surface MPP/N-Trig based pen for writing only (not using BT function if fitted) is 1500 hours of use on Alkaline AAAA and 6 months to a year standby. The cell is 5 to 10 year shelf line from manufacture if cool.

I've had several different pens and all the good ones (tilt detection, higher pressure sensitivity, etc.) end up "dying" relatively quickly. If I screw the cap off and then screw it back on I can anywhere between 15 minutes to just 30 seconds.

Either you bought rubbish expired battery cells, or have faulty pens, or you are mistaken.

Apple Pencil (rechargeable only) seems to be the worst for battery life.

Wacom quote about 6 months for an AAAA cell in AES and users claim a solid 8 hours writing is no problem. It's very similar to N-Trig/MPP, hence some screens and some pens support both Wacom AES and MS protocols. The first two generations of Surface used the incompatible Wacom stylus powered by the screen.

EDIT: Researched more on battery life.

[readthinksurvive]

is it OK if i use a 45 watt to cahrge my elipsa 1?? will that blow it up the screen

[Quoth]

As long as the default output of a charger is 5V the Elipsa or any other 5V USB device will only take as much power as it wants. A charger has to match the required voltage (5V for phones, tablets, ereaders) and as a minimum supply the current. Power in Watts is Current x Volts. Thus 1.5A at 5V is 7.5W. The Elipsa (or any other ereader) must only get 5V no matter what the Watts rating is. The device decides the current to take.

A true USB-C charger can do higher voltages (some up to 20V 5A = 100W), but if it does more than 5V by default it's rubbish, should be returned and possibly banned from market as the FCC / CE / CSA etc mark must be fake.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

A true USB-C charger can do higher voltages (some up to 20V 5A = 100W), but if it does more than 5V by default it's rubbish, should be returned and possibly banned from market as the FCC / CE / CSA etc mark must be fake.

I would suggest avoiding chargers supplied by/for some phone manufacturers as well. One friend of mine fried his Kindle when they used the fast charger for his phone. Evidently, a USB-C plug does not mean guaranteed compliance with the USB-C Power Delivery specification. His old Android phone charger started at 9V though whether that was a issue with the Qualcomm quick charge technology, the hardware implementation of the charger (not sure if it was a Xiaomi supplied charger or a third party charger) or the hardware implementation in the Kindle was not clear.

[Quoth]

Any USB-C charger that starts at other than 5V is garbage.

If in doubt only use a charger with a USB-A socket outlet marked 5V.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Any USB-C charger that starts at other than 5V is garbage.

If in doubt only use a charger with a USB-A socket outlet marked 5V.

No argument there. But I thought a warning that mixing and matching devices and chargers can be a Very Bad Idea was in order.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

No argument there. But I thought a warning that mixing and matching devices and chargers can be a Very Bad Idea was in order.

Yes, it is. Even when it's not "fatal" to the gadget, I find that I have multiple 2A 5V USB chargers, but some gadgets will only charge at more than 0.1A or 0.5A at their full 1A or 1.5A on a particular charger. None of my generic 2A chargers work any gadget at more than 0.5A.

The reason?
With true USB-C and USB 3.x at both ends there is negotiation of voltage and current via serial data. But if the charger is using USB 1.x to USB 2.x and just the four wires of USB-A (or a USB-C wired like USB-A), or the gadget with USB-C socket only uses the micro/mini/USB-B 1.x to 2.x wires, then the USB data pins D+ and D- have either fixed resistors or fixed voltages. The gadget (ereader, phone, tablet, mp3 player, camera) then measures those which indicate the maximum current the charger can supply. Unfortunately there are maybe three incompatible standards for what the measurement means. If the gadget can be sense of it then it will charge at only 0.1A or 0.5A, rather than 1A or 1.5A. The charger never "pushes" extra power on the 5V system. The state of the D+ and D- pins merely indicate the available current (power = current x volts). It's even possible for a badly designed 5V charger that can only do 1A or even 0.5A to look like a 2A charger, then something that takes 1.5A will eventually cause the charger to fail.

The idea of only supplying a cable and making chargers separate to reduce costs and waste is good. Unfortunately there are many clueless makers of gadgets or chargers.

So DNSB is 100%, the best idea is using the "official" charger, or one that works for same make of gadget with same current marked on it. The available charger current at 5V should equal or exceed the current marked on the 5V gadget, though as explained above the gadget may charge slower than it should.

If you have a 500 W 5V PC PSU and wired it to USB +5V and 0V and connected the correct voltages/resistances on D+ and D- wires, then the 1.5A max charging ereader will still only take 7.5W maximum. If the D+ and D- connections don't seem to suggest a 2A PSU, then the ereader or other gadget will use either 0.1A or 0.5A, that's 0.5W or 2.5W. Even if it's a 500W or even a 1000W power supply.

Similarly if you have a PC mother board and graphics that only takes 180W max via an ATX connector, a 1000W ATX PSU will not hurt it, and likely less than 180W is used.

In most of Europe the main board of the house can at a minimum do about 15000W (or maybe 20000W). A continental socket is 16A max (3520W), but a kitchen radio or USB charger may take less than 10W. UK/Ireland and some other places use a 13A plug which allows 3120W in the UK (240V), but other places use 230V or 220V. The actual power taken is depending on what's plugged in. I have a 5W mains LED lamp on a 13A 230V socket (about 3000W), though Ireland pretends it's European 220V (Makes no difference to most things). So it's using 5W. If you plugged in heaters and kettles and toasters on all sockets and put oven, grill, rings, microwave, dryer, shower, water heater, washing machine all on at once likely trips or even main fuse would go on your distribution board.

The USA has 110V (approximately) sockets, but the house will also have 220V for wired in appliances. The sockets using flat blades are 15A, so a nominal maximum of 1650W. No fast boil 3000W plug in kettles like in 220V to 240V outlet countries. Hence in USA a dryer or washing machine is usually wired into the 220V.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, it is. Even when it's not "fatal" to the gadget, I find that I have multiple 2A 5V USB chargers, but some gadgets will only charge at more than 0.1A or 0.5A at their full 1A or 1.5A on a particular charger. None of my generic 2A chargers work any gadget at more than 0.5A.

The reason?
With true USB-C and USB 3.x at both ends there is negotiation of voltage and current via serial data. But if the charger is using USB 1.x to USB 2.x and just the four wires of USB-A (or a USB-C wired like USB-A), or the gadget with USB-C socket only uses the micro/mini/USB-B 1.x to 2.x wires, then the USB data pins D+ and D- have either fixed resistors or fixed voltages. The gadget (ereader, phone, tablet, mp3 player, camera) then measures those which indicate the maximum current the charger can supply. Unfortunately there are maybe three incompatible standards for what the measurement means. If the gadget can be sense of it then it will charge at only 0.1A or 0.5A, rather than 1A or 1.5A. The charger never "pushes" extra power on the 5V system. The state of the D+ and D- pins merely indicate the available current (power = current x volts). It's even possible for a badly designed 5V charger that can only do 1A or even 0.5A to look like a 2A charger, then something that takes 1.5A will eventually cause the charger to fail.

The idea of only supplying a cable and making chargers separate to reduce costs and waste is good. Unfortunately there are many clueless makers of gadgets or chargers.

So DNSB is 100%, the best idea is using the "official" charger, or one that works for same make of gadget with same current marked on it. The available charger current at 5V should equal or exceed the current marked on the 5V gadget, though as explained above the gadget may charge slower than it should.

If you have a 500 W 5V PC PSU and wired it to USB +5V and 0V and connected the correct voltages/resistances on D+ and D- wires, then the 1.5A max charging ereader will still only take 7.5W maximum. If the D+ and D- connections don't seem to suggest a 2A PSU, then the ereader or other gadget will use either 0.1A or 0.5A, that's 0.5W or 2.5W. Even if it's a 500W or even a 1000W power supply.

Similarly if you have a PC mother board and graphics that only takes 180W max via an ATX connector, a 1000W ATX PSU will not hurt it, and likely less than 180W is used.

In most of Europe the main board of the house can at a minimum do about 15000W (or maybe 20000W). A continental socket is 16A max (3520W), but a kitchen radio or USB charger may take less than 10W. UK/Ireland and some other places use a 13A plug which allows 3120W in the UK (240V), but other places use 230V or 220V. The actual power taken is depending on what's plugged in. I have a 5W mains LED lamp on a 13A 230V socket (about 3000W), though Ireland pretends it's European 220V (Makes no difference to most things). So it's using 5W. If you plugged in heaters and kettles and toasters on all sockets and put oven, grill, rings, microwave, dryer, shower, water heater, washing machine all on at once likely trips or even main fuse would go on your distribution board.

The USA has 110V (approximately) sockets, but the house will also have 220V for wired in appliances. The sockets using flat blades are 15A, so a nominal maximum of 1650W. No fast boil 3000W plug in kettles like in 220V to 240V outlet countries. Hence in USA a dryer or washing machine is usually wired into the 220V.

I've never seen an electric dryer, stove, or washing machine that is "wired in" in the USA. The stove and the dryer use the special plugs that look similar to one of these

Washing machines use a regular grounded plug like most other electronics.


Shari

[John F]

Originally Posted by shalym

I've never seen an electric dryer, stove, or washing machine that is "wired in" in the USA. ...

I haven't seen any either, and I would guess that "wired" appliances wouldn't be up to current local building codes.