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Re: 1957 LED

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On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 02:23:34PM -0500, Michael Black wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Dec 2015, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> 
> >On Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at 3:02:18 PM UTC-5, Michael Black wrote:
> >>Since the photocell dropped resistance with light, I initally couldn't
> >>figure out how that would work.  When the light wasn't interrupted, the
> >>photo cell would let the voltage from the battery to the bell (I was
> >>thinking in terms of "burglar alarm"), but it was when the light was
> >>interrupted that you needed the bell.
> >
> >I don't know the specific technology, but in the 1950s-1960s there
> >were two types of camera meters.  (Originally the meter was a
> >separate device, then later miniaturized to fit into the camera).
> >
> >Anyway, the earliest meters just measured the light and used it
> >to drive the meter scale.  I think it was plain photo cell.
> >
> An actual "solar cell".  But that would give the same problem, voltage 
> only when the light isn't interrupted.
> 
> >Later, better meters required a battery and used a different
> >photo cell (Cs?).  That measured the difference and was
> >supposedly more accurate.
> >
> Cadmium photocells, or something, they varied resistance with light, 
> rather than generating voltage.  That's what I had, and since the 
> resistance went up with the beam of light was broken, still not useful.
> 
> Like I said, it was early on in my learning about electronics, and at the 
> time I couldn't see a solution, though later I could.
> 
> 
> >My old Nikon required a tiny battery for the meter; everything
> >else was manual.  The meter battery lasted forever.  My
> >digital Nikon has a battery the size of the Empire State
> >Building and needs regular charging.  A replacement is $50.
> >
> The only good camera I had had batteries, but that also powered the
> built in flash.  I seem to recall it used two "N" cells, half the length 
> of an AA, and not so commonly available.  But the batteries did last long.
> 
> >(I suspect when that battery no longer holds a charge, a
> >replacement won't be available, and I'll have to buy a
> >whole new camera.  Admittedly, I do like digital better
> >than film, but the rapid obsolescence is a turnoff.)
> >
> I found a decent Olympus point and shoot, something like 6MP so it was 
> fine for most uses.  Even came with a 1gig memory card, useful since it 
> used XD cards. But it didn't use standard batteries, and I'm not willing 
> to spend the money on a new battery unless I know that the camera works, 
> and without the battery, I can't test the camera.
> 
> I'd never buy a new camera that didn't use AA batteries, so if I was 
> really stuck, I could put in alkaline bought at the corner store.
> 
> Of course, most digital cameras also have some button cells, to keep
> settings intact, and who knows what else.

Some consumer devices use serial memories for settings and the like,
others probably use nand flash chips with a bus interface.  It will
depend on the embedded architecture in actual use.  Things continue to
move quickly on that front.  I took apart a possibly 2005-ish vintage
LCD monitor once and found two low-capacity i2C serial flash devices
as well as a SPI serial flash chip. 1-4KB capacity if I recall
correctly.  I have difficulty imagining why they needed three and of
two bus varieties.

The 16550 LiON battery form-factor continues to be popular, but not
for most portable devices.  Many portable "power packs" use them, and
of course they ended up in zillions of laptop battery packs.  I think
they may be used in hybrid vehicles as well.  Some cameras,
particularly the compact hand-held point-and-shoot variety are too
small for that form factor, but a whole lot of DSLR cameras aren't.

It would be nice if there were more standardization on battery formats
for such things, but then that would interfere with planned
obsolescence.

LED flashlights which take 'AA' format batteries are fairly common,
and I have standardized personally on those models.  Flashlights have
now become a 'thing' and all the really snappy varieties use
high-quality 16550 rechargeables.  Mostly they seem optimized for
throw rather than endurance.  I once had a little one 'AA' task light
that was rated for 100 hours continuous operation on a standard
alkaline battery.  So of course someone stole it from my tool bag
while I was at work.  The replacement now lives in my pocket.



-- 
We all cannot be intelligent, but at least we can all be polite.

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1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-10 11:03 -0800
  Re: 1957 LED Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2015-12-10 11:06 -0800
    Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-10 14:44 -0500
      Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-11 07:41 -0800
        Re: 1957 LED Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-11 16:37 +0000
        Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-11 14:42 -0500
    Re: 1957 LED philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2015-12-10 13:56 -0600
      Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-10 22:59 -0500
        Re: 1957 LED "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-11 08:20 -0600
          Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-11 14:33 -0500
      Re: 1957 LED Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-13 07:58 -0800
        Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-13 13:00 -0500
      Re: 1957 LED Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> - 2015-12-13 12:48 -0700
        Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-14 09:07 +0000
          Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-14 11:47 -0500
          Re: 1957 LED rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) - 2015-12-16 14:55 +0000
            Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-16 16:32 +0000
              Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-16 14:17 -0500
              Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-16 18:15 -0600
                Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-17 07:58 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-17 13:21 +0000
        Re: 1957 LED Ingo Paschke <ipaschke@lpclabs.de> - 2015-12-14 11:11 +0100
    Re: 1957 LED Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2015-12-11 10:58 +0000
      Re: 1957 LED Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> - 2015-12-13 12:50 -0700
        Re: 1957 LED Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2015-12-14 12:57 +0000
          Re: 1957 LED "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2015-12-14 14:07 +0000
            Re: 1957 LED Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2015-12-14 14:33 +0000
    Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-11 07:31 -0800
      Re: 1957 LED Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-13 07:42 -0800
        Re: 1957 LED Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-14 09:39 +0000
        Re: 1957 LED Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> - 2015-12-14 17:07 -0600
          Re: 1957 LED Alfred Falk <falk@arc.ab.ca> - 2015-12-15 18:53 +0000
            Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-15 15:05 -0500
              Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-16 07:32 -0800
                Re: 1957 LED Alfred Falk <falk@arc.ab.ca> - 2015-12-16 17:23 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-16 14:23 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-16 20:13 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-16 13:15 -0800
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-17 14:53 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-17 14:17 -0600
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-18 19:43 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-20 20:02 -0600
                Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-21 10:31 -0800
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-21 14:53 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-21 20:27 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-17 18:48 -0500
          Re: 1957 LED davidmylastname@acm.org (David Griffith) - 2015-12-16 02:43 +0000
          Re: 1957 LED Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-12-16 17:44 -0400
  Re: 1957 LED scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2015-12-10 19:13 +0000
    Re: 1957 LED "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2015-12-10 20:17 +0000
      Re: 1957 LED Lawrence Statton <lawrence@sengiuo.mx> - 2015-12-10 17:10 -0600
      Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-10 23:00 -0500
        Re: 1957 LED isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2015-12-10 21:21 -0800
          Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-11 08:01 +0000
            Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-11 14:30 -0500
            Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-11 15:36 -0600
              Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-12 07:55 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-12 11:20 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-12 15:39 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-12 10:50 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2015-12-13 08:00 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2015-12-13 11:10 +0000
              Re: 1957 LED Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> - 2015-12-13 12:51 -0700
        Re: 1957 LED "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2015-12-11 10:59 +0000
          Re: 1957 LED Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-11 15:46 +0000
            Re: 1957 LED "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2015-12-11 17:37 +0000
              Re: 1957 LED Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-11 18:34 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-11 14:49 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-11 15:39 -0600
                Re: 1957 LED Bob Eager <news0005@eager.cx> - 2015-12-11 22:46 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-12-11 19:07 -0500
                Re: 1957 LED Bob Eager <news0005@eager.cx> - 2015-12-12 01:04 +0000
                Re: 1957 LED Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-12 08:54 +0000
        Re: 1957 LED hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-11 11:52 -0800
          Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-11 15:46 -0600
            Re: 1957 LED Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-11 22:56 +0000
        Re: 1957 LED "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-12-11 15:35 -0600
        Re: 1957 LED Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-13 07:51 -0800
  Re: 1957 LED Lawrence Statton <lawrence@senguio.mx> - 2015-12-10 17:09 -0600

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