battery News - Page 10 of 12 - CNX Software

November 2, 2017November 2, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Panasonic Showcases Flexible Batteries with Wireless Charging System

Flexible batteries such as PowerStream lithium polymer batteries can be integrated into new application such as smartcards, and could help wearables have longer battery life by adding batteries into clothes, wristbands or chestbands for example. You’d still need to charge them however, and in some cases adding a USB port (micro USB or type C) may negate the benefit of having a thin flexible battery, but Panasonic has a solution as the company added wireless charging capability to their flexible batteries. The solutions showcased at Ceatec Japan 2017 on October 3-6, 2017 were flexible lithium-ion rechargeable batteries with 0.45mm thickness, and 18, 42 and 65mAh capacity. Battery voltage is 3.8V, charging voltage 4.35V, and the batteries can be bend up to a radius of 25 mm, and twisted by up 25°. Such batteries are meant to be attached to human body and clothes for medical and health management applications, or […]

October 20, 2017October 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Banana Pi M2 Magic Board Now Sold with Allwinner A33 Processor for $23

Banana Pi M2 Magic development board was first unveiled in February of this year with an Allwinner R16 SoC, 512 MB RAM, and 8GB eMMC flash, and its main selling points were support for MIPI DSI LCD displays, CSI cameras, and 3.7V LiPo batteries. AFAIK SinoVoIP never sold that version of the board, at least on Aliexpress. Possibly due to the intricacies of Allwinner business units, the company has now officially launched Banana Pi M2 Magic (aka BPI M2M), but replaced Allwinner R16 by the similar Allwinner A33 processor, and removed the 8GB eMMC flash to bring the price down to $23 plus shipping. The “old” Allwinner R16 based Banana Pi M2 Magic board will apparently be sold as M2 Magic Plus soon. Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic (A33) specifications: SoC – Allwinner A33 quad core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage […]

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

PowerStream Lithium Polymer Batteries are Bendable and Ultra Thin (0.5 to 2 mm)

Electronics components and boards are getting smaller and smaller, and for battery powered devices, the battery may take a big chunk of the volume, and in some cases like smart cards, typical battery are not suitable. PowerStream has designed ultra thin bendable LiPo batteries that aredesigned for smart cards and RFID tags that needs their own power, but I could envision that if battery capacity increases, and/or energy harvesting becomes a more common feature, they could be used for wearables, for example by placing them inside the wristband. The main features for the battery as listed by the company: Operating voltage – 3.6V High energy density No memory effect Self-discharge is less than 3% per month Charge/discharge cycle characteristics are excellent Safety characteristics are excellent Processing temperatures for these cells is 100°C for less than 60 seconds, 120°C for less than 20 seconds and 140°C for less than 5 seconds. […]

April 15, 2017April 15, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

MAXOAK K2 Laptop Power Bank Review – Part 2: Tests with Laptops, Phones and Development Boards

MAXOAK K2 is a large capacity (50,000 mAh) power bank designed for laptop with ~20V and 12V outputs, but it can also charge USB devices thanks to its 4 USB ports. Since I’ve already checkout the device and specifications in the first part of the review, I’ll report results from my tests with the power bank in the last couple of weeks. Since the power bank had some charge, more exactly between 50 and 75% (2x LEDs on, 1x LED blinking, 1x LED off), I decided to start by charging my phone, Vernee Apollo Lite, which is equipped with a 3,180 mAh battery. So I connected the phone to one of the two 5V/2.1A USB port, together with USB Charger Doctor to monitor voltage and current, and with 50% charge, the phone would draw around 5.07V @ 1.15 A. Note that the voltage and amperage will change depending on battery […]

March 28, 2017March 30, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

MAXOAK K2 is a 50,000 mAh Power Bank Designed for Laptops, Cameras and Mobile Devices

Most of the time I receive samples by courier 3 or 4 days after the company sends it, but sometimes I’m being sent devices over airmail which may take 2 to 3 weeks, or even more. Today, I received such a parcel with no clear description on the package, and a relatively heavy blank carton box. But I remembered somebody told me they’d send a large power bank for laptops. Could it be it? Sure enough. The power bank is called MAXOAK K2, and claims to offer a 50,000 mAh capacity using a Polymer Li-on battery. All connectors and buttons can be found on one side with the DC jack, four charging/capacity LEDs, the power button, 20V/3A and 12/2.5A barrel outputs, and four USB ports with 5V/2.1A or 5V.1.0A output. Most of the laptops I’ve used were powered by 19V or 19.5V adapters, so I’m not sure it’s safe to […]

March 22, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Google Releases Android O Developer Preview with UI & Audio Improvements, Better Performance, etc…

Nearly exactly one year after Android N developer preview release, Google has now announced the release of Android O developer preview in order to get feedback from the developer community before the official release of Android 8.0? Oreo? in Q3 2017. So what’s new so far in Android O? Here are some of the changes: Background activity limits – Automatic limits on what apps can do in the background for implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates. Notification channels – New app-defined categories for notification content for better control from the use, as user may only block or change the behavior from one channel, instead of applying the same behavior to all notifications from a given app. For example, a News app may have notifications for Technology, Sports, Politics, International, etc… Autofill APIs – Platform support for autofill, where users can select an autofill app, similar to the way they […]

February 22, 2017June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic is an Allwinner R16 Development Board with LCD and Camera Interfaces

Allwinner R16 is a quad core Cortex A7 processor found in Nintendo NES Classic Mini game console, but so far there was no development board based on the processor apart from Allwinner Parrot board that does not appear to be for sale. But Banana Pi has designed their own R16 development board, and released some information about BPI-M2 Magic board. Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic specifications: SoC – Allwinner R16 quad core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash (option: 16, 32 or 64GB) + micro SD slot Display Interface – 4-lane MIPI DSI connector Camera Interface – CSI connector supporting up to 5MP sensor, 1080p30 H.265 video capture Video Decoder – Multi-format FHD video decoding, including Mpeg1/2, Mpeg4, H.263, H.264, etc H.264 high profile 1080p@60fps Audio – On-board microphone Connectivity – Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE […]

December 13, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-M64 & BPI-M2 Ultra Boards PDF Schematics Published

SinoVoip has recently released PDF schematics for both of their Banana Pi boards, namely BPI-M64 board powered by Allwinner A64 processor, and BPI-M2 Ultra board based on the latest Allwinner R40 SoC with an on-chip SATA interface. For most boards on the market, this should not be news, but SinoVoip does not always release schematics in a timely manner, so you may want to be noticed when it happens: BPI-M64 schematics – https://bananapi.gitbooks.io/bpi-m64/content/en/bpi-m64schematicdiagram.html BPI-M2 Ultra schematics – https://bananapi.gitbooks.io/bpi-m2-ultra-open-source-single-board-computer/content/bpi-m2ultraschematicdiagram.html The clear benefit of BPI-M2 Ultra is the presence of a SATA connector NOT implemented via a slow USB 2.0 to SATA bridge, but instead directly through the SATA interface of the R40 quad core processor. As for BPI-M64 ($46), it can be compared to Pine64+ with 2GB RAM and a WiFi module ($39), and despite the higher price it does come with some benefits like adb over OTG working, it is […]