Concept USB Flash Drive Doubles Up As an AA Battery

[tuanmai]

The only flash drive that can power a flash light!

Concept USB Flash Drive Doubles Up As an AA Battery : Read more

 

[DroKing]

Wouldnt that fry the memory in there? ^_^ Interesting concept nonetheless.

 

[shotgunz]

[citation][nom]DroKing[/nom]Wouldnt that fry the memory in there? ^_^ Interesting concept nonetheless.[/citation]

If it starts leaking acid, it may kill the memory and maybe something else in your pants...

 

[okibrian]

Now where did I put my USB flash drive? (Son takes it and puts it in one of his many toys)

 

[joytech22]

Hmm, not entirely sure how this would be useful to me.
I would probably get one just to say I have one, and should I ever need the battery at least I would have it.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

My wife has a small led flashlight attached to her keychain. It uses just one battery.

 

[face-plants]

Totally awesome. Although the usefulness of a single AA is questionable, the fact that an engineer was able to bring such a cool concept to market is the kind of thing that brings a smile to my face.

 

[face-plants]

Oh and btw, most ni-mh and ni-cd rechargeable batteries don't have as great a tendency to leak corrosive acid all over the innards of your electronics like alkalines do. I have about 300 rechargeables in everything in my house and have had them sit for years with no leaking.

 

[archange]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]My wife has a small led flashlight attached to her keychain. It uses just one battery.[/citation]

Joule thief?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief

 

[L0tus]

[citation][nom]face-plants[/nom]I have about 300 rechargeables [/citation]
For what?!

 

[Guest]

1x AA, enough for a magic flight box.

 

[aftcomet]

[citation][nom]jnjk[/nom]1x AA, enough for a magic flight box.[/citation]

Lay off the drugs you bum.

 

[unksol]

Totally awesome. Although the usefulness of a single AA is questionable, the fact that an engineer was able to bring such a cool concept to market is the kind of thing that brings a smile to my face.

Its not on the market. Its a concept. And its not an engineer. Its a designer. Who made some pretty pictures and will hand them to the engineer and say "do that". At which.point the engineer will tell him that sure, he can make a flashdrive look like a double A, but only an idiot would think you could fit a flash drive, charging circuit, mechanical generator, USB plug, and the current power of a rechargeable AA in the size of a AA

 

[teh_chem]

I can't think of anything I use other than the TV remote that takes a AA battery. Wonder what demographic they're targeting with this, other than the one that has so much money that they don't know what to do with it...

 

[cookoy]

My wireless optical mouse uses one AA battery. Hate that rodent. It has a mind of its own.

 

[Lord Captivus]

I just read two articles: Angry Birds slingshot and USB Battery.
One of them is a great idea...the other isnt...

 

[Guest]

Now if it had a Micro USB connection at the other end so you could put into your phone (A 2500 mAh AA holds more power than most phones) than could actually be useful.

 

[Guest]

Oh! In addiion, All you USB thumbdrive makers, Why do you not Print the READ and WRITE speeds of the USB thumb drives that YOU sell on the BOX/plastic container. The SD cards you sell has the speeds, but the USB drives do not! READ/WRITE SPEEDS SHOULD BE REQUIRED BY LAW!

 

[v1ze]

Need an ultra secure method of transporting critical data? USB Tampons!
Hungry for temporary data storage? USB Corn dogs!

 

[Guest]

The FU-W USB HUB/RAID will BE BUILT, see kickstarter!

 

[schnitter]

Great, now my girlfriend will never lose her USB flash memory, unless she loses her vibrator as well.

 

[dalauder]

So how is making my batteries that I put in my device (then forget about for several months) more expensive a good thing? Oh! You say if I decide not to use my device I could use it for a USB flash drive?

Okay, so how is making my flash drive more expensive and bulky a good thing?

If this flash drive has enough capacity and speed for me to want to buy it, why would I want to commit it to being a battery in a device? An Energizer AA battery costs ~$0.30. I'd rather buy one more of those than lose a flash stick.

 

[pythy]

If only they came up with this 20 years ago when I used AA batteries for my Gameboy. But then USB wasn't around back then as well, so...... yup, still useless

 

[TheRealArtlover]

[citation][nom]unksol[/nom]Its not on the market. Its a concept. And its not an engineer. Its a designer. Who made some pretty pictures and will hand them to the engineer and say "do that". At which.point the engineer will tell him that sure, he can make a flashdrive look like a double A, but only an idiot would think you could fit a flash drive, charging circuit, mechanical generator, USB plug, and the current power of a rechargeable AA in the size of a AA[/citation]
I think you should go and Google things like 'smallest usb flash drive' and 'smallest mechanical generator' as you would discover that a AA sized case provides more than enough room for everything proposed.

Flash drive electronics are tiny and can fit inside just the metal plug that connects to the port, the only reason they are larger is so that it is possible to physically handle them. Charging circuit, same answer. Smaller than a jumper from a HDD or mobo. Mechanical generators, smaller than a usb plug if you want them. Battery capacity isn't an issue either. Even using conventional battery tech like NiMh you could still get at least 1000-1200mah out of this as a final product because you can get that much from a smaller AAA. Of course if you want to talk Lithium or Lipo you could get a lot more in even less space.

This is completely feasible with current generation technology.

The real issue is what the heck good is a single AA battery. Other than some clocks and those crappy 1xAA flashlights that are as good as you would expect a single AA battery flash light to be, everything uses a minimum of two.

 

[TheRealArtlover]

[citation][nom]teh_chem[/nom]I can't think of anything I use other than the TV remote that takes a AA battery. Wonder what demographic they're targeting with this, other than the one that has so much money that they don't know what to do with it...[/citation]
Most battery powered clocks, video game controllers like the Xbox and Wii, wireless keyboards & mice, pocket flashlights, headphone radios and walkmen type things, lots of assorted kids toys, some laser pointers, lots of assorted electronics do-hickeys like scales, thermometers, digital cameras and picture frames, etc.. There is no shortage of devices that use AA batteries.