Handy Tech Under $100 Ep. 11 - All charged up!!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,647 words · ~8 min read
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I'm sorry I've been so preoccupied with
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useless expensive crap lately that I've been neglecting the stuff that actually
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works and does so on the cheap well I'm
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getting back to my roots today welcome to Handy Tech under $100 episode
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11 full sale university offers degree programs both on campus and online
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combining creative problem solving with real world experience learn more at the
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link below so first up I've got a bit of
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an odd one I have to confess I just take
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my disposable batteries with me for recycling whenever I have the hankering
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for Swedish meatballs from the cafeteria of the local Ikea I had never heard of
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recharging alkalines but apparently it's been a thing for over two decades with
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the first consumer disposable battery recharger the Buddy L supercharger
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having been released in 1993 now that one didn't really last
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thanks to its tendency to stop charging the batteries early and the extremely
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difficult battery insertion process but I have its great great grandson the
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mighty charger if you throw away disposable batteries you're throwing
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away money as far as I'm concerned and as seen on TV badge might as well read
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shoddy useless gimmick but I figured what the hey let's give it a shot
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so I devised a test putting a set of three Kirkland ablea batteries in one of
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my kids toys recording the discharge time and then with all those warnings
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about leakage or explosions in my mind I
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set up a safe space to recharge them with nothing flammable within 4T in my
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garage my recharged batteries ran for
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less than half of the time of my original test but I've since done a lot
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more research on the topic and yes alkaline batteries can be recharged
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n you can't recharge disposable batteries now you can with Mighty
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charger it needs to happen in bursts to
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keep the battery acid from leaking out the pressure release valve and it works
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best if the batteries aren't fully drained and then even so you'll only get
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10 consecutively shorter Cycles recharges dead disposable alkaline
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batteries up to 70 times that's right if you're lucky compared to hundreds or
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thousands on a proper NIMH but for items
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like kids toys where I don't want to invest in expensive rechargeables that
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I'll probably end up losing when they leave their junk outside in the rain
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this is a great solution here's how to
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order moving on it's no secret that I
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love high-end audio crap the most expensive headphones I own is a pair of
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Odyssey LCD 2s that I picked up used for
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still over over $1,000 Canadian a couple
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of years ago but that doesn't mean that I can't also appreciate value and item
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number two is both the cheapest pair of headphones that I've ever gotten from
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anywhere other than a dollar store and arguably the best bang for thee Buck
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audio device I have ever laid my hands on as far as packaging product
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appearance and included accessories go the Venture Electronics monk plus is
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actually pretty comparable to those Dollar Store earbuds you get the earbuds
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themselves these marvelous foam pads that serve to well pad your ears a
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little bit and increase friction helping keep them in your ears complete with
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bonus color cating red for right blue for left and you get this carrying bag
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that dank memes aside is just a bag it's
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actually made out of shockingly thin plastic and doesn't even reseal it's not
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much better than the free bags at the grocery store for putting your apples in
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funny story though when they first started charging for the regular
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shopping bags at our local grocery store my wife would actually take a bunch of
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those free ones and then put our groceries in them at the checkout she
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only stopped doing it when I refused to continue to go shopping with her out of
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embarrassment anyway I digress what's remarkable about the monk plus is that
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they actually sound pretty darn good the
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closest thing to a fair point of comparison that I have would be apple
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Earp pods which have more thump at the low end and that I personally find a
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touch more comfortable but whose mids are relatively veiled making vocalists
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get a little lost by comparison so yes
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in spite of the price difference I found
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the monk plus more pleasing to listen to
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than Apple earpods wait what's that I didn't tell
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you the price yet oh they're five bucks
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on AliExpress plus a few bucks for shipping I mean sure the build quality
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is nothing special and they don't include an inline microphone or
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controller but at 17th the price if
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you're one of those people and you know who you are who loses your earphones all
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the time come on man just buy seven of
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these and then don't stress about anymore am I right I'm right moving on
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have you ever wanted to recharge your doublea batteries only to go damn it I
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don't have a battery charger on me and even if I did there isn't a wall outlet
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for miles yes the next handy Tech is another
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battery item these are called USB cell batteries and they're made by moxia
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energy limited the difference between these and any other nickel metal hydride
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batteries are several first they are
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only 1300 milliamp hours which both theoretically and in practice is much
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less than the 2,000 milliamp rating of Amazon Basics rechargeables and closer
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to 13 the capacity of a disposable alkaline second they are about
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$10 per battery or about five times the
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price of the aforementioned Amazon Basics so uh
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lonus why well this is pretty cool don't
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let its appearance deceive you the USB cell includes in addition to the
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internal cell DC to DC voltage conversion circuitry a charging
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indicator LED and a USB plug under the
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positive terminal they can be recharged in about 5 hours over USB and while I
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wouldn't recommend buying a ton of them the capacity to cost ratio just doesn't
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justify it if there was a double A battery that I was going to carry around
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in my bag with me for emergencies the convenience here is
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undeniable the last item is another always with me always with you item and
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charging related again in the old days
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every device used a different proprietary vill charger which was a
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total nightmare then everything switched to micro USB a
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completely different nightmare one that's finally almost over with
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lightning hav't taken over all of Apple's mobile devices and USB type c
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riding in on its white Steed covered in shimmering armor for everyone else one
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small problem it means for techies you're carrying around a minimum of
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three charging cables if you want to be ready for your own needs and those of
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your friends so pick up one of these I'm
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not married to a particular brand here but these converter tips are available
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individually or in packs and are much less bulky to carry around than a bunch
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of cables I keep them in my at all times
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bag all right so then as always with handy Tech here's the disclosure bit the
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mighty charger was purchased by me out of morbid curiosity I wanted to know
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what melted batteries look like and I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't
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see them the USB cell batteries were a similar story and the monk plus
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earphones were provided by massdrop a conflict of interest if I ever saw one I
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mean $5 of sponsorship here yeah that's
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right as for my two examples of cable tip adapters uh one was included with a
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ZTE axon 7 engineering sample and the other was purchased by Brandon for his
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own personal use and was then stolen by me when he showed it to me what aing
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chump which brings us to today's episode sponsor full sale
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more about full sales web and Technology programs visit full sale. edu Linus
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techtips Linked In the video description so thanks for watching guys
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