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Comment by justsomehnguy | Hacker News Reader

> Powered by 8, AA batteries

Guess some things never change.(18650 is not the best thing in the world but it is miles ahead of 8 (eight) AA batteries)

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That's a good thing. I have plenty of electronics that I'd still like to use but can't because it's hard to find a battery.

18650s are very widely available, although sadly there are a lot of fakes so choose a reputable supplier.

Some things never change, like 18650 batteries having an awful safety profile.

[Citation needed]

Can you provide one for a low pow3 profile, like for the device in the srticle?

The problem with Lithium is also safety regulations that could prevent for example bundling them in devices boxes like they do sometimes with alkalines.

Thing is you can buy AA batteries anywhere

But you only need to buy 18650s once.

AA and 18650 are just form factors. You can get rechargeable AA.

If I'm not mistaken, rechargeable AA batteries are 1.2 volts not 1.5. That might not be enough for this device. And in any case rechargable AA batteries do not last as long as the same volume of an 18650.

There is zero chance this won’t work with rechargeable AA batteries.

(More of a chance that a vintage one would have trouble with NiMH batteries, though)

Thank you. I've seen a simple domino-setting toy that just would not work on two rechargable AAs. Replacing one with an alkaline was enough to get it moving. I'm not sure what technology the batteries are, both them and the toy were new last year.

Edit: And yes, the batteries were properly charged ))

Interesting!

I certainly haven’t seen a single new electronic music device that won’t work with rechargeable AAs in a good long time. I am not sure the market would tolerate it.

(I do remember being told that rechargeable AA batteries in certain guitar effects pedals subtly affected tone, but I am not sure how much I would believe it.)

OmniChord Heaven on FB has confirmed it works with NiMH batteries (and in a way that confirms my hazy recollection that the older models did not like NiMH C cells)

https://www.facebook.com/Omnichord.Heaven/posts/pfbid02GPS3J...

Oh I am so tempted.

There are also USB-rechargeable Li-Ion batteries which are 1.5 volts and last longer than the NiMH ones.

Newer devices take this into account; they may produce vintage sound, but they contain modern circuitry that runs at 1.8 to 3.3 volts and employ more efficient switching regulators. In some devices a fully recharged NiMH battery might be reported as not 100%, but aside that, the device will work, probably even longer than with alkalines due to the cells higher current and the different discharge curves.

Yes, those are the voltages that I use on newer Arduino clones, provided the sensors I need support 3.3v.

I had no idea that the NiMH batteries can provide higher current. That might be useful for e.g. servos. I'll pick up some, thank you.

The appeal of this instrument is that you can take it somewhere that doesn't have outlets to recharge it. Same reason there's a speaker, even though you wouldn't use that for recording. The Omnichord is a nostalgia buy, not the cutting edge (to the point that it doesn't even have corners).

If you can afford an $800 toy, you can afford 8x Eneloops

The Atari Lynx required 6 AA Batteries, back in 1989.

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