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Lmao what I found in the battery recycling bin at my uni.

joeyss

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Jul 23, 2008
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I found a lenmar usb charger at the start of the semester. I think it was trash. I hooked it up to the usb part on my power on board box the other night. to my suprise after i charged it it worked fine. charged my iphone 5 30% and every thing that takes usb charges from it. it's only a small one 7.8 watt hours.

why the hell would you throw it out.

I also found a dell battery pack I just took the top off and they had 6 red cells any idea what they are?

edit looks like they are 2600ma cells
 
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I also found a dell battery pack I just took the top off and they had 6 red cells any idea what they are?

edit looks like they are 2600ma cells

Most laptop battery packs have 18650 batteries, if you're asking what brand they are there's no telling unless there's more printed on them than 2600mAh. You should be able to salvage them and use them.

Alan
 
Been doing that. Got a bunch of soney cells and samasung pink 2600ma that work fine in my yellow and 3Watt laser.
 
Depending on how old and how used it is, the capacity may be half (or less) what it was when new. The internal resistance will also be higher. The state of a lithium cell isn't binary. They degrade with time and use. It may have been tossed for this very reason - poor capacity. 2100mAh when new. Take 10-20% off that for the boost converter, then cut that in half for the age.

You can get a new one for <$3 shipped, so it's not exactly a huge find. :undecided:
 
I've lost count how many times I've seen this happen. As I used to buy portable power packs for people

"It worked for awhile, then stopped"

"I actually have to charge it?"
 
We've sold countless mobile phone "portable" chargers in our shop, people going to the festivals buy them to use in the fields, generally they all come back within a few days saying " I got one charge out of it then it died" , when I reply with "have you charged it up?" , I'm usually met with a red face saying "oh I wondered what that little black thingy was for in the box" .


I often wonder who ties these people's shoe laces in the morning.
 
It is the economy of today though, people discard items because they are obsolete, not because they malfunction per se.

If you are in luck you can grab a 3 year old laptop with perfectly good batteries from waste disposal. The cells may or may not have some wear on them - sometimes laptops are connected to mains 99% of those 3 years.

You'd be amazed at how many products tossed in the trash are actually fully funcional across the range. If you pick something like a microwave oven, chances are high it is perfectly fine but the previous owner just got a kitchen with a fitted one, descarding the still working, table top, previous model.
 
LOL, my microwave is simply too dirty and a few years old too, I was thinking of just tossing it and buying a new one instead of cleaning it. How's that for disposable technology. It's sad to think there are poorer people out there that could use it if I could only get it to them. I sometimes think there is too much waste here in the U.S. and probably many other countries, we should do more recycling.

Alan
 
LOL, my microwave is simply too dirty and a few years old too, I was thinking of just tossing it and buying a new one instead of cleaning it. How's that for disposable technology. It's sad to think there are poorer people out there that could use it if I could only get it to them. I sometimes think there is too much waste here in the U.S. and probably many other countries, we should do more recycling.

Alan

I've hung onto my microwave for long enough. It doesn't care to heat my food up as much these days lol

We do throw things out a lot but at the same time products aren't made to last long either. In fact they seem to get cheaper and cheaper I'm sure due to companies finding cheaper methods to manufacture their products. "Cutting corners" so to speak.
 
THis 7.8wh battery pack is charging myi phone from 1% for over a hour (I turned my phone off since it only gives out 700ma) Why was this thrown out it works fine WTF at some people.
 
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Depending on how old and how used it is, the capacity may be half (or less) what it was when new. The internal resistance will also be higher. The state of a lithium cell isn't binary. They degrade with time and use. It may have been tossed for this very reason - poor capacity. 2100mAh when new. Take 10-20% off that for the boost converter, then cut that in half for the age.

You can get a new one for <$3 shipped, so it's not exactly a huge find. :undecided:

they work fine in my 3 watt zero laser the cells were 3.74 when i extracted them and it takes 2.
 
Depending on how old and how used it is, the capacity may be half (or less) what it was when new. The internal resistance will also be higher. The state of a lithium cell isn't binary. They degrade with time and use. It may have been tossed for this very reason - poor capacity. 2100mAh when new. Take 10-20% off that for the boost converter, then cut that in half for the age.

You can get a new one for <$3 shipped, so it's not exactly a huge find. :undecided:

He never said it was a huge find. :undecided:
 
I've hung onto my microwave for long enough. It doesn't care to heat my food up as much these days lol

We do throw things out a lot but at the same time products aren't made to last long either. In fact they seem to get cheaper and cheaper I'm sure due to companies finding cheaper methods to manufacture their products. "Cutting corners" so to speak.

Yes like contracting out the manufacturing to China, Bangladesh, Mexico, etc. This brings us cheaper things but also eliminates jobs so am not sure if it's a good thing or not. It does over time help improve the standard of living in those countries though and eventually they will spend money on consumer goods like we do. As long as large companies continue to have the power and influence that they do, we will continue to see manufacturing shift to third world areas where you can have teen age kids working 12 hour days for $3 a day.

Alan
 


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