Robot Steve was right all along.....

Following a discussion on the RobotBrighton Forum, Robot Steve suggested that li-ions are better/safer than li-po batteries. Despite a recent post here extolling the virtues of li-pos, I think he might be onto something: but perhaps not for the reasons he outlined...

After much reading up on li-ion batteries and their variants, it seems that such batteries have a limited shelf-life. Not just a "hanging-around-waiting-to-be-sold" shelf-life (remember, if the battery discharges too much it can become damaged so they need to be used/charged every few months) but also a "use-by" date: typically 18 months - 5 years.
In fact, due to the heavy charge/discharge cycle that laptop batteries go through, many suppliers treat them as consumables now, and I'm thinking along similar lines for the ScoreSure range of devices. So the batteries need to be removeable at some point, not soldered to the PCB via short wires (as was the idea using li-pos).
Because mobile phones are so commonplace, it shouldn't be difficult to get hold of stocks of 3.7v batteries, quite cheaply, in future - and most of these are li-ion, hard-cased batteries, not the lightweight flexible li-pos discussed in recent posts.

When it comes to recharging li-on batteries, eBay is awash with USB phone chargers, for a couple of quid each (less if you buy in bulk) similar to this one.

So while it's going to be interesting to see what turns up in the post over the next few days, there is still plenty of research ongoing, into li-ions as an alternative.

Watch this space....