Any hope for removable, rechargable battery standards?

It's not a standards problem but a market incentives one. Companies make too much money off expensive shitty proprietary batteries. It's the razor blade model + brand lock-in for powered goods, especially power tools and vacuums and such. They can sell you $5 worth of batteries inside a $80 plastic shell. No company is going to give that up willingly.

If you standardized them, it'd be a race to the bottom and China would win.

Maybe the EU would have that kind of willpower (like they did with micro usb) but it'd be politically impossible in the US, and every company from computer to power tool manufacturers would lobby against you.

There are semistandard cylindrical Li-ion cells. Common sizes include 14500 (14x50mm; AA-size), 18650, and 21700. Many devices with built-in or proprietary batteries use these cells, but it seems like flashlights are the only category where they're usually removable and not housed in a proprietary case.

I've owned bluetooth speakers and handheld fans that run on a single 18650. For many other product categories, the reasons they don't are mostly counter to the interests of consumers, but market demand doesn't seem to be strong enough to change this.

The closest we've got nowadays is, IMO, 18650 cells - they're manufactured by a lot of different companies, and you can (usually) put them in anything that expects that size + capacity.

Any hope for removable, replaceable razor blade standards?

Any hope for removable, replaceable inkjet cartridge standards?

There are standardized battery formats in industry. For example professional video. There are also industrial products standardized around consumer battery formats.

But for consumer commodities like cordless drills, there are financial incentives toward bespoke interfaces protected with intellectual property laws.

I run mower batteries in my eBike (40V) but it requires a 3d printed adapter to pigtail leads.

The main gripe i have is the greenworks started adding DRM on one of the pins so I can't run in reverse: my large non greenworks 40V battery cannot power any of their tools.

Milwaukee M12 tool batteries are a little different, their cells are not protected from over discharge internally (the tool uses 3 pins to monitor). So this is something to watch out for.

A standard battery would be ideal. 4.2V fully charged cells are everywhere and if protected, series/parallel configurations could cover so many bases and eliminate a lot of waste.

Where could we pressure a few cross platform uses? So far it's been eBike/Lawncare batts for me. Pretty safe if you respect the discharge/charge rates.

For power tools at least they're mostly if not all 18v these days. You can get adapters to use tools from brand A with batteries from brand B. Works great in a pinch, but I'd certainly prefer an open standard.

Has anyone here used power tool battery adapters? https://powertoolsadapters.com/

Hey! You might be interested by what we're building at Gouach

We're engineers/designers from France, and we've built the Ultimate DIY Battery that you can repair and refill!

It works with 90% of the bikes/motor brands on the market, so I assumed that some people here might be interested, if they got a non-functional batteries but they still want to use their e-bike?

We believe that everybody should have control about stuff they own, and we should fight against planned obsolescence!

Here are a few videos about our founder on the battery itself, why we built it, and how to assemble it:

- What is the Gouach Battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsuW1NPkvNk

- Presentation of the pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLoCihE0eIA

- Presentation of the fireproof and waterproof casing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJpt7RDbRM

Here are the juicy bits: https://docs.gouach.com

We'd love some feedback from the e-bike DIY builder community

Oh, and it's launching as a Kickstarter in September and there is an offer for early-backers here https://get.gouach.com/1 for a 25% discount on the battery!

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gouach.batteries to get the latest news!

I get close enough by standardizing on Dewalt tools. Large catalog of good tools use it. there are other good choices the larger point isn't the brand but the decision before buying to choose which battery system to get on and then stay on it. if dewalt introduces a different battery I will look at their competion again.

I photo/video lights from Neweer that use a Sony standard battery which may or may not be made by Sony. This seems to be because media creators already have these batteries/chargers. So maybe sometimes the market does give people what they want. It has to be enough to influence the puchasing decision.

For external battery packs 3D printed adapters are starting to become more available. Unfortunately there's too much profit in proprietary packs and device replacement due to failed internal batteries. Safety concerns are just plausible enough that nobody in government wants to stick their neck out for it.

The batteries inside the case are mostly the same: 18650 cells or something close to that. What varies is the number of cells and the plastic case they're wrapped in.

There exist case adapters that allow you to use e.g. a Makita battery on a B&D tool; you can find them on Amazon. As long as the voltages are close, they work. (Don't use adapters for charging! Only use them for powering equipment.)

If you know what you're doing you can even replace the cells in the case yourself. But I must emphasize the caveat above; this can be incredibly dangerous if you are not an expert. Even if you are a seasoned EE, you might not know enough to be messing with high-energy stores that cannot be shut off.

There is an open standard - USB PD - 48V 240W. If that's not enough (e.g. boiling water for coffee) you can always chain a few in parallel.

You don't really want to restrict yourself to just changing batteries because chemistries improve (e.g. LiFePO4, NIBs) etc.

Some of the voltage differences aren't even real.

https://www.protoolreviews.com/20v-max-vs-18v-battery-power/

There are tons of rechargeable standardized batteries I have cr2032 coin batteries, the 18650 (iirc).

Regarding adapters, I have been replacing them with USB-C-to-barrel connectors and even got three devices off a single GAN charger. I have been trying to find the pitfalls of this but it’s awesome in theory!

There doesn't seem to be much of a network effect to propel any given proprietary 'standard' to prominence, and so the only solution to this will be state enforcement. The EU is doing a decent job here IMHO, eg with mandatory USB phone charging.

For home-use power tools there is https://www.powerforall-alliance.com/en/#technology

On Ryobi 40v if you stick a resistor between the tx and ground I think (look it up on youtube) you can charge with a standard 10s li-ion charger or cc/cv source.

Dyson vacuums have a 3D printable adapter to take power tool batteries, so there's that.

Not until the eurpean union steps in and forces some sense in the market.

I know this is going to be perceived as controversial but so far it’s the only way I’ve seen good things happen (eg: gdpr, digital markets act, usb-c everywhere - iPhones included)

I bought my first 3D printed object, an adapter from one brand to another. (second and third where battery and tool holders for the wall, I thought that was cool there are practical mini-factories in peoples homes now)

It works well, I leave it in one tool (blower) we use a lot.

But I think theoretically mixing them might increase the chance of a fire or tool damage because the packs are different. Something something current cutoff, low voltage protection, no idea in practice if it's a real problem.

Battery tools are amazing and getting more Star Trek every year, try not to get the EU to slow them down too much.