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This AA battery has a tiny dynamo inside it, turned by a spring and emitting electricity.
You put it in a regular electric recharging unit to recharge, and a tiny motor inside rewinds the spring for another 10 hours of electricity.
The thing with springs is that it is durable and predictable.
Not like the rechargeable batteries that I just bought which are never aligned to each other, and always fail to completely recharge.
Discussion from 2008
https://www.physics...l-batteries.252432/
[a1, Jul 14 2023]
Discussion from 2018 on here
Automatic watch battery
[pocmloc, Jul 15 2023]
Seiko Kinetic
https://www.seikowa...e/kinetic-knowledge
[bs0u0155, Jul 17 2023]
[link]
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Can't imagine anything mechanical that is small enough to fit inside the space of a AA battery being able generate even a micro voltage. A suitcase size version could work though and be used as a type of portable power supply. |
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[MB] calculated on the Automatic watch battery discussion that it was mechanically feasible. |
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//[MB] calculated on the Automatic watch battery discussion that it was mechanically feasible// |
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Watches don't draw much power. I once had a watch which wound itself up through movement of the arm throughout the day.
Unfortunately, it was quite expensive, you were apparently supposed to send it off for maintenance every year or two, and after a few years (maybe three or four) it stopped working. |
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My current watch is about 20 years old, was maybe half the price, and only needs a new battery every two or three years. And it keeps good time. |
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Realistically, it's just not worth it - even for watches. |
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Maybe for something which needs to sit around doing nothing for long periods, but then needs just a little power for a short while.
There were mechanical torches like that - I got one, but it was fake, and stopped working when the battery ran out. |
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//mechanical torches ... it was fake//
That's so ridiculous it's not even funny. Why would they even bother?
I had a squeeze-handle dynamo torch back in the 1980's; a superior design to the newer "crank handle" type, as you can't (easily) point a cranker as you crank (1-hand vs. 2-hand, in particular). |
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There are mechanical, "automatic" watches which have a n off center weight that swings around through movement of the wearer and a clutch/gear mechanism to "wind" the spring. Alternatively, the same principle is used as an electrical generation system in eg. Seiko Kinetic watches. So mechanical>electrical is viable as long as the electrical load is low. AA batteries* are used in a wide variety of applications, so the success of a product like this is very application dependent. |
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//Can't imagine anything mechanical that is small enough to fit inside the space of a AA battery being able generate even a micro voltage.// |
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Like with the watches <link> this is totally feasible. Magnets moving past coils works at almost any scale and you can almost choose your Voltage/current. The way to go with an AA sized application would be linear, a magnet inside a tubular coil with springs at the end. |
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Cells really, a battery is a collection of cells, but an AA is just one cell. A lead acid car battery is a battery, it's 6 ~2V lead-acid cells in series to make a ~12V battery. |
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