The company said Thursday it has a patent for designing devices so that batteries can be inserted either way, regardless of polarity. Dubbed InstaLoad, Microsoft said, the technology is now available for license to other companies.
Further, the company said it will offer the license royalty-free to companies making products for people with hearing, vision, or learning disabilities.
Battery maker Duracell and flashlight manufacturer AE Light are among the first companies to license the technology, Microsoft said.
Apparently I was thinking they had come up with a clever circuit to do this. I was wrong. This could have been done 100 years ago.
The battery technology does not require any special circuitry. “At one end of the battery, the battery interfaces with either the positive contacts(light gray) or the negative contacts (black). The battery interfaces with the opposite contact at its other end. When coupled with PCB traces, proper power polarity is automatically delivered to the device,” Microsoft said.
I’ll bet Microsoft has secretly patented the diode. Wait, I shouldn’t say that. They’ll try it!
As noted, inline diodes cause a loss of voltage: about 0.6V for silicon diodes, less for germanium. There will be some loss of power, depending on the current draw of the device, which might be acceptable. But I suspect that there may be relays involved.
Maybe MS could teach mac how to design phone antennas.
Read the full article, it’s short:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20009418-56.html?tag=mncol
It’s a mechanical solution, no diodes, no FETs, no relays.
From the article:
“A center contact at the top supports a positive charge, while the wider bottom contact supports negative polarity.”
Apparently it relies on the “bump” on the positive end to keep the cell from touching both terminals.
This will add a little cost and complexity, but not much, maybe 35 cents per cell. Plus the license fee, of course.
I’m sure I speak for the majority of people here.
WHY?!?!??