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Technology Stocks : Energy Conversion Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Retiarius who wrote (3225)	2/19/1999 5:31:00 PM
From: Ray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

It is great to see articles about NiMH batteries and battery operated stuff. It does bother me, though, that this typical article (all of them?) is so flawed. On a quick read, I saw three things in the EDN article that appeared wrong or misleading. On page "52", the author mentions that the NiCad suppliers claim to have narrowed the capacity gap for NiCad/ NiMH to 15%. I think the author should have checked this out - it appears to me that the comparison he quotes compares the new NiCads to the older NiMHs. On page "60" the caption for the B&D cordless drill claims B&D is sticking with NiCad. Not so - the very drill they show is provided with both NiCad and NiMH replacement batteries by B&D. The NIMHs are stated to provide 60% more capacity and cost about 50% more. I think page "62" overstates the "new charger" problem somewhat. B& D appears (I am speculating a bit here) to get around the problem by supplying, along with most of its "VersaPak" tools, a 6 hour charger that uses low enough current to be safe for both NiCads and NiMHs. They say to use the same charger for both types of their VersaPak batteries. By the way, I bought some of the VersaPak tools for Christmas - I really like them, though they are not designed for heavy duty (only up to 7.2 volts at present). The 'Powerbuster" hand vac actually has enough suction to lift the pesky gravel from my car floor. Ray

To: Retiarius who wrote (3225)	2/22/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: fred whitridge	Respond to of 8393

Retiarius-- Ovonic has received four new battery patents over the past few months: 5,861,225 1/19/99 "Nickel Battery Electrode having multiple composition nickel hydroxide active materials" 5,856,047 1/5/99 "High power NiMh batteries and high power electrodes for use therein" 5,851,698 12/22/98 "NIMH batteries having high power electrodes and low resistance electrode connections. 5,840,440 11/24/98 "Hydrogen Storage materials having a high density of non-conventional useable hydrogen storing sites." I haven't read these myself yet, but would like your feedback if you see anything interesting. Sounds like we are doing good deeds however. In other battery news ECD's Mike Fetcenko is presenting at a battery conference in Florida next Tuesday on advanced materials for 100+wh/kg NiMh batteries. Hopefully I will have more on that next week.