GRAPHENE BATTERIES ?

[v101]

Interesting article on this battery tech.
Wonder when we will see these batteries used in DPV's vs the current ones we are seeing used today?

 

[Simon767]

Used to seeing about 5 to 10 years from research to market. A new small company might speed up the process as they wouldn’t be retooling their equipment. The research has been out for over a year (I’m excited about it).

 

[Simon767]

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[stuartv]

Based on what the article says, it seems like 18650 cells that use graphene could hit the market relatively soon, and offer higher capacity and much faster recharge.

Which would be perfect for DPVs that use user-replaceable 18650 cells...

Man! A Genesis 3.1-sized scooter, with 15 - 20 mile range and that would charge in an hour would be pretty darn amazing!

 

[rjack321]

Man! A Genesis 3.1-sized scooter, with 15 - 20 mile range and that would charge in an hour would be pretty darn amazing!

Not going to happen. Pumping that kind of energy that fast though the existing cables and EO ports would melt everything.

 

[v101]

some companies are starting to use them to power tools:

 

[berndo]

Based on what the article says, it seems like 18650 cells that use graphene could hit the market relatively soon, and offer higher capacity and much faster recharge.

some companies are starting to use them to power tools:

I think this is a marketing play. If there was new battery tech that had more capacity and faster charging, it would be groundbreaking news and major companies would be all over this.
The article is from half a year a ago in a magazin that likely does paid-for reviews by and for lay people. There is a lot of fake news in the 'new' battery field of technology.
If this was real, the whole renewable engery sector as well as the EV instrustry would have gone completely nuts over the news.
A lot of these type of online (science news) magazines are full of bs.

 

[Whitrzac]

There have been graphene based prismatic cells around for years in the RC/hobby industry.
Not nearly as groundbreaking as some would have you believe.

More of a evolution of capacity/current capabilities.

 

[berndo]

There have been graphene based prismatic cells around for years in the RC/hobby industry.
Not nearly as groundbreaking as some would have you believe.

What they claim in the article would be groundbreaking. 45% increase in capacity and double or even 5x faster charging. Actual new tech trickles down into the hobby industry and some point but anything that actually has better efficiency, capacity or whatever is picked up by big money industries first.
It doesn't even make much sense for power tools. Every dude that uses cordless tools all day has at least 1 or 2 batteries charging while working. If you had better capacity and faster charging you still would have at least 1 or 2 batteries charging while you work. For scooters it's even less usefull. Something like a suex xk1 has a range of 4 or 5 (?) miles... who does more than one of those dives in a day. Having same day charging vs over night charging for DPVs doesn't even give you any real life benefit, IMHO. At least I don't see it.

 

[stuartv]

For scooters it's even less usefull. Something like a suex xk1 has a range of 4 or 5 (?) miles... who does more than one of those dives in a day. Having same day charging vs over night charging for DPVs doesn't even give you any real life benefit, IMHO. At least I don't see it.

Funny you should use that example. I was talking to a cave diver just in the last couple of days who has been using a Suex and wants more capacity because he was able to do one dive and came out with 39% battery. He wanted to do a second similar dive in the same day, but could not without charging his scooter up in between dives.

Charging a scooter in between cave dives can be problematic - unless you have a generator and bring it with you...

I am not trained in Cave DPV use (yet). But, I suspect that a scooter with a range of 5 miles means you can really only penetrate 1.7 miles or so. 1/3 in, 1/3 out, 1/3 in reserve. I suspect there are plenty of cave DPVers who either want to penetrate further than that on one dive, or want to do more than one dive per day to more than, say, 1 mile. 5000 feet (i.e. 1 mile) in a cave is not THAT far. I am only a baby cave diver and I have swam (no DPV) 8000 feet (total) in one dive. Swimming that took 4 hours. But, with a scooter, a 1 mile penetration and back out is (I'm guessing) a dive that is well less than 2 hours. So, definitely something a person might want to do more than once per day.

Also, several experienced scooterers have remarked to me how nice (convenient) it is to have a scooter with enough capacity that they can use it for a whole weekend (or more) without having to charge it.

Some people like to dive and also camp at or near their dive site. They probably wouldn't have the ability to charge a scooter at all.

Ultiimately, yes, we do have scooters now that (arguably) don't really need more range. The Genesis 3.2 (17 mile range) and Seacraft Ghost (20 miles) are examples. But, those scooters are heavy. The G3.2 is 50#. My personal experience is that a 50# scooter can be a real pain in the butt in a lot of situations.

A scooter with the same range as a G3.2 that was 15 - 20 # lighter (by virtue of having half the batteries with double the capacity) as well as 10+ inches (25+ cm) shorter would be a huge benefit. Being able to charge 5X faster would also be a big benefit - to SOME few folks.