Looking to buy one of these for use around the house, but I’m not overly knowledgeable about them.
The Bose Soundlink Flex seems to have good reviews from the bit of research that I’ve done, but any recommendations from you guys on good ones to buy?
Looking to buy one of these for use around the house, but I’m not overly knowledgeable about them.
The Bose Soundlink Flex seems to have good reviews from the bit of research that I’ve done, but any recommendations from you guys on good ones to buy?
Yeah, flashlights is an example of a niche hobby. Vaping is another hobby. Apart from that you won’t find bare cells anywhere else.
On-cell protection circuits are quite bad, protection should be inside the device. I personally never use protected cells, they’re useless. But that leads to people catching fire in their pants. Which happens quite often, sadly.
New EU rules mandate that it should be possible to replace batteries and ban things like glueing and soldering. But it doesn’t mean the batteries should be swappable. It will only make service workers’ life easier, not yours.
Flashlights are certainly a hobby for some of us, but they’re also a common tool most people have an occasional use for. Standardized, field-replaceable Li-ion batteries are common in flashlights targeted at a non-enthusiast market.
I agree that devices should not over-discharge or over-charge cells, but the example you gave was people putting batteries in their pockets, presumably with metallic items like coins and keys that can cause short circuits. On-cell protection circuits handle that situation well enough; I recommend carrying batteries in plastic cases, but I’ve never heard of a manufacturer getting sued over a protected cell.
I often use unprotected cells myself, but I’m a hobbyist.
The new rules say that batteries should be removable and replaceable by the end-user. They don’t seem to encourage standardization of battery types though, so they could still be proprietary and ridiculously priced.