Flashcell

Not really a battery tech as such. Still an interesting solution nevertheless. It appears to be some kind of supercapacitor. Even picked up an award.
Charges in a minute. Prob short useable life per charge.. Will find out haha. Had nothing to screw so far.
Got one as a gift..

This might be a 'how long is a piece of string' type question.

But how many screws can you, um screw before needing a charge?

Also they should team up with DC and make a limited edition Flash edition, lol

It's unlikely to store even 1 watt-hour IMHO, as I suspect it's using ultracaps and it isn't large enough to hold many.

When you get it, look at the maximum power the charger draws. I suspect it draws <50w, which would mean if it charges in 1minute, it's taking on under 1wh of energy.

Solves one problem anyway. I used to like those kind of screwdrivers for tiny delicate jobs, like cabinet hinges and the like. But then every time you needed it, the little nicads would have discharged themselves. Then a long wait to get it going again. Leaving them on the primitive charger would just cook em away though.

This looks cool, since you don't deal with such small screws everyday around the house. Looks ideal for an ES type. Might have tiny screws on controllers and chargers to deal with, but not all day everyday. Ready that fast would work ok. Lasts for 20 screws would be enough.

I do notice in the article nowhere is "runtime per charge" mentioned, just cycle life. Do you have to recharge for each screw? I'm guessing 3" deck screws wouldn't work too well :lol:
otherDoc

The charger is 2.4A @ 4.6V, so about 0.15Wh
It runs no-load for ~6 minutes and was able to place 6 large wood screws into MDF and take them back out
So ok for hobby work, but it won't impress your girlfriend Actually "GO ALL DAY" written on the box is def false advertising

Once again, it was a KK present - not the worst choice among boxes of chocolates, nerf guns, a 12V NiCa "performer" drill, a 6W 3xAA powered soldering iron and a barbie doll..

docnjoj said:

I do notice in the article nowhere is "runtime per charge" mentioned

Click to expand...

Care to define 'runtime'?

So have you taken it apart to see this battery/flux capacitor?
I demand you pull it apart and take pics and post them on the forum for our personal convenience and entertainment.

Of course mate

It appears to use 2x 22x45mm caps in series

Wow so really does use caps... does it say how many Farads? I remember doing my advanced cert in electronics 15 years ago and they were saying supercaps could play a big part in the future. I wondered when the day would come to see it used in everyday home electronics and now its here.
The great thing about caps is the practically unlimited recharges with no change in capacity. Problem has always been capacity to size and holding charge and I guess potentially cost of production.

Actually the market for this type of fast charge tech could be huge but no ones going to see it till its done.
I have a friend who is constantly needing a variety power tools off hand and I have lost count how many times I have seen him go to grab a power tool and go "oh stuff it I am going to have to put it on charge", hes usually got a deadline of some sort and his day gets completely stuffed by having to wait for gear to charge. This includes really big stuff like moving a few tractors around once a month, just long enough for the lead acid battery to go out on him. Mega caps could be the answer.

To be sticking it in this little drill suggests some of these problems are going out the door. Wonder how long it will be before we start seeing users harvest super caps out of drills etc for their ebike.

A quick search returned 300F each. Meaning 0.44Wh. Except only ~1/3 of which is useable as voltage drops too low very quickly. 5.5A continuous. 153A peak.

Only an idiot would try to build a deck with that tool. But it looks quite suitable to "go all day" for the tasks it was designed for. Small cabinet hinge screws, opening up controllers or other electronics boxes, etc. Anything less than a 2 min charge would be great, however short the run time.

Typical cabinet hang, you have to remove the doors to hang them. Either the doors interfere with the clamps, or you just get tired of whacking your head on em. Generally you do have to have a second weaker screw gun out just for the cabinet screws, or you go crazy adjusting your big one back and forth all day, so you don't wreck the little hinge screws.

So it's remove 16 small screws, hang a box, put 8 back, remove 8 more, hang a box. Definitely takes longer than 60 seconds to hang a box.

I'd have loved one of those, back when I built houses. The NiCad one I used would not go all day, even if you put it back on charge constantly. The charger was just too weak and slow. So it generally took two of them to go all day.

See I could see this ideal for someone that needs to use a tool loke this a few times a eyar where Nicd batteries would be dead and not recharge or NiMh. The caps would last a long time, so for this it's Ideal. ?