Inside a Znter lithium 9V battery. 

It looks easily hackable too to make a small power bank for 5V. That would be a single resistor change for the easiest method. Change a few components and you could make it far more efficient. EG a better shottky diode and inductor with lower ESR.

@@gordonlawrence1448 Indeed, replace the resistors with a very small pot, drill another tiny hole, and now it's a variable voltage battery pack! You'd just need to carry a flat screwdriver, a meter, and a set of custom snap-on connectors for all your needs and... Yeah, nevermind. ;-]

Is there room enough to add what's necessary to allow the end-user to choose the boost to be to, say, 7.2V, 8.4, then 9.6 -- depending on intended use? Would make for a versatile "9V" battery.

@@michaelthibault7930 The ratio between R2 and R3 determines the output voltage. It looks like there's a nice empty bit of floorspace right there on the PCB where you could fit a small SMD trimpot there (2mm Cermet), especially after they're removed or rotated, and the PCB goes with the component side towards enclosure; so next step you drill a tiny hole in the enclosure and you're basically done. Or alternatively placing a trimpot right atop the chip and making a somewhat bigger hole that the whole top of trimpot peeks through. I wouldn't call it endconsumer friendly, ideally you'd want to sacrifice some battery size to fit an adjustment board or something, but if you need an adjustable battery for yourself to fit into a 9V space and are willing to be very careful with it, it can be done. I can't say i entirely trust little trimpots though.

@@SianaGearz Trimpots usually have a short mechanical life compared to, say, a front panel volume control. They may get adjusted at most a dozen times in the life of a product. However, if the trimpot is in parallel with one of the voltage divider resistors, it's failure wouldn't cause the battery pack to exceed the voltage set by the fixed resistors alone.

The monkey in a thunderstorm line made me laugh. Cheers.

It's pretty sad how much electronic trash gets made and basically goes straight from factory to landfill.

You are ray-ciss against monkeys that have trouble soldering! Watch it!

You can try that at home !

I have done this with a 9V Lithium ion battery before. It is safe with alkaline 9V batteries, but not with Lithium Ion batteries. Lithium Ion batteries have very high short circuit current. It was enough to boil the saliva on my tongue instantly. Not recommended.

Also if you short it out it can possibly explode while your sticking it to your tongue. Wouldn't be a pretty sight.

I don recommend thith.

@@cassandra2860 What?

Hmm. Could you fix (in theory) the wrong cutoff voltage by using different resistors like on the boost circuit, or is it a built-in part of the chip?

@@chichung888 Li-ion would give them a bit more leeway on the cutoff voltage, but not down to 2.2V...more like 2.8V with modern cell design, but I'd still rather not go below 3.0V myself. Too expensive to stress it like that every time you use it, and with that design that's what one is doing if one waits until the battery just shuts down by itself.

The most practical ones are those with a charge level indicator and a button. With this Znter you never know how full is your battery unless it cuts off due to low voltage on the lithium cells.

Guys, is it suitable for the use in a guitar?

@@MaximC The switching frequency is much higher than any audible frequency so I would think it's probably ok to use to power a guitar pre-amp or an effects pedal. FWIW I use an EBL branded equivalent lithium 9 volt battery to power the active electronics in a bass guitar and it works just fine but, as always, your milage may vary. They do interfere with some radio frequency equipment though. I have an MSF clock that takes two AAA cells and after cleaning away the remains of a pair of alkaline cells that leaked while still able to power the device I fitted a pair of EBL lithium AAA cells. They each contain a 3.7 volt lithium cell and a buck converter to reduce the voltage to 1.5 volts. They were great for powering the clock but they interfered with the radio signal it relies on for its accuracy. So I ended up replacing them with a pair of NiMH cells, which work fine and, I hope, will be less inclined to leak than the original alkalines.

It's just a marketing ploy...

I'd argue it *doesn't* show quality. This wasn't too bad on the inside.

@@licensetodrive9930 for preverts

Likely not that much polymer in it anyway, just a li-ion pouch.

Lithium Ploymer batteries are so new, they don't exist yet. Consequently you always have to have the other side up which states "lithium polymer" or the battery will not work.

Or in the effect pedal... It is bad solution for audio equipment.

@@aristoshd every sound equipments is preferable to use linear power suplies

​@@aristoshd probably still sounds better than this shitty noisy adapter i use on an ungrounded mains for this little portable guitar amp, add to that i mainly play on single coils... i can do morse code with just touching and releasing the grounding to my fingers lol i lost the original adapter, that one sounded pretty clean (obviously still had a tad of noise whenever you go between earthing and not earthing yourself to the strings with no mains grounding), but the replacement i found, makes it sound like shit all the time,i actually went back to batteries until i find a proper one (yeah not 9v though, they're 6xAA) and this is a mostly digital amp modeling little vox, i can only imagine the noise being worse on analog hardware, especially ones using mosfet overdrives rather than opamps, those are hella sensitive to interference lol i had no idea the power supply was THAT important until i learned about how extremely good inexpensive modern class D amplifiers can sound with clean power and proper 4 ohm speakers lol

They are crap in a very cheap meter so I would assume audio where you want an SNR of 80dB or more even if your kit has a good PSRR (rarely the case with battery equipment). it's going to be a git.

For a low-drain use like a wireless mic or effects pedal you could make a version that did a boost up to about 11V and then a linear LDO to drop it back down to 9V cleanly. Wouldn't even lose a huge amount of battery life under those conditions.

Thats nice to know. Some powerbank circuitry type stuff turns off the output when charging, if this doesnt thats really useful for a lot of applications. Think i might actually order a few.

​@@_--_--_ my wireless keyboard seems to have such a circuit. About once a month, I have to apologize to whomever I happen to be chatting with and go touch grass or something.

Effectively like a UPS, nothing worse than running a test and then power trips out or accidently unplugged

@@xXponyinthestarsXx lol

@Amethyst Take a look at keychron keyboards (I'm in love with my K4 & k3)

That sounds rather interesting does he use them as is or take them apart and use em?

ucity metalhead - just had a word, he tells me he got his Apple Newton Message Pad going simply by using 4 of the AA type and a battery holder, it worked great, so he’s trying it with various similar old devices from his collection, but it’s proving to be a pain to refit some of them due to the slightly different shape of the free moving batteries (apparently some of the original packs had flat ended cells soldered together yada yada). The batteries come with a multi-ended charger cable that means he can charge 4 of them at once, so he just takes them out and charges them together, then pops them all back in, the big advantage is how long they last.

@@Lumibear. brilliant thanks for all of the info.

@@Lumibear. I thought the Newton used AAAs or AAs anyhow? Ask your mate to clarify for the whole internet...Or we will come over and shout mean stuff up to his window.😾😸

These are very customizable... Can make a 6v to run lanterns and whatnots that you've swapped to LEDs ;)

I mean, it isn’t a battery. It’s a battery powered power supply in te form factor of a battery. Back in the 80s we had a lot of TV remotes with 9V batteries in them, but those have become more efficient and now just run on 2x AAA.

@@JasperJanssen it is a PP3 power bank

What if it had 3x 3.7V cells in series and stepped the voltage down to 9V to power things. It could potentially use 12V from a USB PD capable power supply to charge from... 🤔 Could that avoid the noise on the output?

@@iamdave84 Not really -- the noise is being generated by the switching action of the DC-DC converter, and it doesn't matter if it's a step-up or a step-down. If it has a switching transistor, there's going to be ripple on the output -- that's just how things are. I mean, it can be tiny, but - compared to a *real* battery - it'll be there. Still, this is basically a 2P LiPo pack - you could switch over to a 3S and step it down to 9V (which would probably be more stable, since it'd be "empty" well above the necessary 1.5V difference). Also, depending on how you design your charging circuit, you don't need to use 12V - I mean, each cell is 3.7~4.2V, so charge them with 5V (under the assumption that it won't be used when it's being charged, so you're welcome to switch the connectors around however you wish while you're charging it). ;)

Does it have a filter on the output?

Wait what? Doesn't everyone have a multi-bit screwdriver kit similar to his?

@@BertGrink I prefer the drink....

@@BertGrink Yes but Clive appears to have Multiple multi bit screwdrivers

@@andyhill242 I have two different kits myself; one contains philips bits and torx bits, the other, also philips bits as well as some 3-point bits for certain phones. ;)

not only many but all the screwdrivers

Yes, there could be a set of little gadgets to connect to it. A torch, a heater, a soldering iron, a mixer/drill spinning thingy etc

@@l3p3 That's marketing genius.

Already on it

Except I would use the biggest damn LED's you can find and really get some light out of it, reading the link in the description, these aren't good for low power applications, because of the drain from the boost circuit. Apparently it makes up for the low power draw by using more power for the boosting. So the battery will drain about as fast in a low power situation as when it is giving close to its max output (probably something like 200ma if these boosters are anything to go by) Still, roughly 2 hours of high power LED light and then a USB recharge isn't bad.

I went on a Snowmobiling holiday about 20 years ago, staying in Rentoule, and the highlight was driving at speed across a frozen Lake Nipissing, ending up in North Bay. Totally apropos of nothing but thanks for the memory!

I purchased 9 of those from a Chinese website 2 years ago.

Found 'em on eBay over 2 years ago. They also have them in AA format.

Yeah, I heard that on the playback. I'm not sure how I managed to say that.

Maybe you know more than us.

I mean.... it does sound like it could be really interesting!

No, that's about right. Metal halide lights are worth about a nickel today now that LEDs have replaced them.

​@@ryanroberts1104 even against HPS people barely bothered with them, well people that weren't actual agriculture businesses, let alone double-ended HPS i mean HPS had WAY better light production per watt, and no home grower in their right mind would put so much money in non-flowering plants? simpler plants like that could already be grown under blue/white/red panels in 2010 lol :') they'd rather just pull through vegative phase with the warmer HPS light all the way through. i woul totally see how MH would have been replaced by led even sooner than HPS because the efficiency was way shittier it always is the more blue/violet you go, simple old frequency physics, but led does pretty damn well on 6500k 3000k compared to halide sodium but the disrepancy on led between warm and cold color temperatures is way less in terms of output/watt, if for no other reason than the fact that higher frequencies decay faster over distance and 360 degrees radial light output is a LOT of loss and leds are directional and for the old cannabis, turns out HPS light wasn't even all that bad knowing now that green is NOT completely useless, and you really don't need all that much blue, 20% is moer than enough and yeah, can't belive people actually still spread shit about how led is still when cobs made even double-ended hps obsolete 4 years ago, and there are low-power led strips that humiliate everything (220 lumen per watt @ 3500k on the samsungs and stuff), the only thing leds are shit at , is the UV spectrum , those modules are still practically useless, but have always been mad inefficient in artificial lighting.

It's funny how those radios got called "transistors," and that meme was so all-pervasive that when I showed an actual transistor (the three-legged device which is the primary component of a transistor radio) to someone and told them what it was, they actually asked what station it was set to. LOL. Edit to add a funny story. A friend of mine who was an electronics hobbyist who did minor repairs for occasional customers told me how someone came to him asking if he could fix their transistor radio. Upon opening it up, the hobbyist friend found exploded components and burned out and broken PCB tracks. The following conversation ensued between he and the customer: F: "What'd you do to it?" C: "I connected it to 240 volts." F: "What'd you do that for?" C: "I got tired of buying batteries for it." F: "Well, you're never going to buy another battery for that radio again."

@@melkiorwiseman5234 But, don't you get better reception with 240V? :-) I actually have a couple of early pocket size transistor radios that run on 4.5V (3 AA batteries) and a couple of "portable" table radios that run on 3 D batteries. One of those radios (a Sony "Handy Personal 7 transistor) shows up in a lot of old family photos from the early 60s.

How did your date go? Did you whip out your radio to impress yourself? :)

Good point

Won't matter in a mains smoke alarm with battery backup, also that's why you should test the alarm every month (not that we do, do we?)

They banned the replaceable 9 V alarms in CA in 2015 and only 10 year non replaceable batteries are sold. How old are your alarms? PS the long life batteries are also LI type so testing is mandatory !

@@danc2014 mine were 2011, don't think they're banned here (UK) but not checked for a few years as these still work a bit too well (i.e. every time I use the oven)

As the AA battery has 1.5V output, there is definitely step-down converter inside, they give much less troubles than a step-up converters, most likely thats why you never had any sound quality issues.

Pocket Pussy's dildos...The list continues on.

Most of those were rated 7.2 V DC ... some did include an additional cell and would show 8.4 V, still not 9 V though ...

I've had the AA version for about 2 years too. Been using them in a Shure SM58 wireless for a few months now and I was going to buy 4 more just before the corona. I probably won't now due to banning myself from funding China's military expansion.

@@tin2001 Anything you buy funds China.

Wait you get stuff that isn't from China? I find there's a lot of inferior products that aren't from China, thar is also a lot of really inferior products from China to so it's a Gamble. So your using them in Wireless Mics are you using the 9v or AA? Or more to the point why would you need to buy batteries for wireless microphones when there is no live events going on? I know I have certainly lost all of my life sound work, thankfully technical support, computer support and live streaming has picked up a little.

It would be better off with a USB charging station with the exact number of cables to mic ratio and maybe a few more and make sure everything gets charged every night.

I don't think all of the ones on Amazon use a boost converter. For example, the "Enegon" brand rechargeable 9V that they sell specifically states that the output voltage starts at 8.4V and goes down to 6V. This strongly suggests that it simply contains 2 Lithium cells wired in series. This could be a problem for devices that cut out just under 8V, leaving most of the capacity of the battery unused, but at least there would for sure be no switching noise. I would hope that such 2 cell batteries use smart enough charge circuitry to balance their 2 cells.

VOLTAGE sags under load ...

What a good idea -- putting the battery IN the instrument so the output can have a nice low impedance would mute much of the usual hum pickup.

I have both and the Okcells only have about half of the capacity of the Znters. That's no big deal usually though as they have such a high self-discharge that I charge before use anyway and the Okcells are usually high enough capacity.

Hell I'm debating buying two for my work, we go through so many 9v batteries for our door dinger. We go through around two boxes of 12 a year

Hmm, smoke alarms? From what Clive was saying, the remaining charge would not be useful after 6 months, where standard PP3 bats I know last for at least 12 months. Was thinking of buying 2, and jst 'remember' to charge them twice a year, but would I remember? Doubt I would :)

Might be great for paintball, between my markers and hoppers I'm always stocking up on them!

My DMM takes 4 C cells. It uses one about every 50 years. So C cell shelf life is important for that utilisation.

@@comicmania2008 the other issue is that a PP3 will go 9v, 8.5v, 8v, 7.5v, smoke alarm beeps to tell you to change yer battery. These would go 9v, 9v, 9v, 9v, dead because they boost the voltage. No warning. No alarm. I'd not be using them in smoke alarms. :/

That's the issue... Many battery powered audio circuits don't have the extra circuitry to mitigate the noise from a cell like this, as they never planned on seeing anything except pure d.c. from a battery.

It's an interesting question. The only filtering is the RC filter created by the output capacitors and the voltage divider. If the chip is decent and switches in the 100+khz range you won't hear it in normal audio. However, it's the harmonics that get you.

I was thinking precisely the same thing. BigClive should have 'scoped this battery both open-circuit and under load to see just how noisy the output is -- and maybe even installed it into a wireless mic or other line-level audio device that requires a +9 volt supply to see if anything untoward happened. *PUT YOUR EARPLUGS IN EVERYBODY!!!* ;-)

@@telephony maybe it's time for a follow-up video

@@arthurmoore9488 I have designed similar kit. At 9V you get about 200mV of noise unless you go a bit mental damping it down. That's on 80% load. As a rougg rule of thumb I always recon 20mV plus 20mV per volt of output. You can quieten that down but it costs and in commercial applications another 10p of components is a no-no. For switchers in audio the only solution I have found is boosting to well over what is needed then a 2 pole eliptic filter into a linear reg with the switcher boost about 500mV over what the linear needs to operate. Then of course a shed load more decoupling. You can get it down to less than 20mV at 10V for that but it's an absolute git.

But surely an easy fix with a decent cap across the snap connectors ?

Another concern is if the buck regulator fails shorted to output. Then you'd get full LiPo battery voltage instead of 1.5v and toast your radio. At least with the 9v version, if that happened, you'd effectively just have a flat battery and no harm done.

I'm using the D, C and A versions of this battery for Nerf blasters that I did not modify, and they're working extremely well for this purpose, as they keep the voltage the blasters need

what about using those D-size 3xAA holders? So use 4 of those holders and say 12 eneloop AA's. (Assuming nimh voltage curve useable.)

yeah thats the 'indicator' clive asked for. inbuilt already!

I wonder would it feel differently due to the switching?

@@CollectiveSoftware Two big caps on the output so probably not. Also, since the boost circuit is regulated the output voltage won't drop noticeably until the cells are flat, rendering the tongue test useless except for amusement.

@@Miata822 amusement is what we are here for:-)

@@fredflintstone1 ...with snacks thrown in now and then !!! Lol !

No they are bad

They do have their disadvantages....

@@davelowets Can't the noise be filtered easily?

Any idea of it's real capacity?

​@@gordonlawrence1448 I ordered 1500mAh but real capacity was 850mAh

I've been using four of these in a head torch for a very long time, and they have been completely reliable. I've also got their "18650" size rechargeable for a UV torch, and that's pretty good too. I would most certainly buy them again.

seems legit as its in contact with the usb port ed. didnt see the case is maybe plastic on these, the other cell types have metal cases aswell though

@@andrew_koala2974 IC = Integrated Circuit 1c = one cent .1c = one tenth of a cent

@@andrew_koala2974 Seems like you dont quite know how to use a decimal point to put it in your own words. You know that something can be cheaper than 1cent/pc in high quantities right? 0.1c/pc is pretty much on point for this chip in high enough quantities.

I’m fascinated. Two lithium cells in series (I’m guessing is what is inside yours) are 8.4v fully charged and 7.4v nominal. So never hit 9v. Only other option is 3 in series which is 12.6v but that’s far behind 9v. Its possible a buck converter could be used which always produces much cleaner signal than a boost. And I’d be curious to see 3 lipo cells in such a small casement. Which is possible but the cell capacity would be tiny. Have you taken these apart? I’d be curious to see if any of the above circuitry exists. Especially considering they are more than likely polymers, which is more volatile and almost always requires a bms.

@@mrb3888 I'm pretty sure they're labeled as 8.4v. a pp3 is just 6 tiny little 1.5v cells, it drops from 9v really fast. I've gotten a NiMH "9v" that was a bit over 7v rated, and it worked fine. I think devices that use 9V batteries are prepared for pretty wide voltage swings and low current. And yes I'd hope there's a protection chip in it, but that only needs one or two tiny ICs, no big deal. People already make AA-compatible lithium ion batteries which need a buck converter, and with built in USB charging. Well within the realm of possible. (And like I said, pretty cheap, only slightly more than alkaline!). Amazon has them, the brand is EBL, and the kit comes with a separate charger for them which now runs off USB, which is even better than the previous gen I had.

Si haces vídeo estaría muy bien si puedes probar que tan estable es su salida de voltaje y el ruido que tiene bajo carga, Saludos

@@fdavpach I don't think it would have much more performance than standard USB powerbanks. I guess it would be able to deliver quite a good amount of current and given it's circuitry, it may not produce much noise. My question: Do we really need this? Maybe not... xD

Good for you

@@rhodexa I just want one for my thermometer.

@@jansenart0 What king of thermometer? Those with a thermocouple and a simple LCD Display? I'm pretty sure it would run just fine with any rechargeable cell that can deliver about 3V...just replace the 9V battery for any lithium cell and you're done! It would need a little bit of art to put it together haha I modified my multimeter connecting a LiPo and a charger inside (that was about a two years ago and i only charged it a single time! i guess 2500mAh it's a little bit overkill for a LCD meter. 😂). (Of course i don't mean this is optimal, but for this devices with built-in low voltage regulators works fine)

I still have and use some of those

You were a kid when wiimotes were the new hotness. Aww. Bless.

These are still widely available, although inconvenient to recharge if you need 6 of them. Suddenly you need 6 usb ports

yodaco ocadoy i was 7 when the wii came out

@@jjcoolaus Znter's micro USB design works somewhat better.... They sell a 4 way charging cable so you can do 4 off one USB port... And the AA ones only charge at about 100mA so even a standard old phone charger can do 4 at once.

It's the quiescent current that gives it the shelf life. I'm going to get one and hack it for efficiency and lower quiescent if I can. I have one I use for a custom light but that is staying as is.

Pit they didn't fit an on/off switch down the side - so it could be switched off hen not in use ?

@@millomweb Could but a really tiny slide switch on one, I got a "card phone" the slide switch for the battery on/off would easily fit in the battery case.

@@deaultusername Yeah. I suspect there's room up the side in the groove formed between the 2 cells. Or possibly on the top between the 2 connectors.

How!? Why?...your comment was apparently posted one week ago - yet this vid only came out yesterday! Timelord!!

They almost would have to show some kind of noise on a scope. They are d.c. to d.c. converters. I've never found a completely clean one yet..

It's a great format. Could easily be redefined as a 2S protected lithium pack with a charge balancing contact indented on the top. Output range would be 6.4 to 9.4V stable DC depending only on charge level. Protection circuit needs to deal with accidental output shorting in addition to the usual dangers.

9 volts are amazing for easily and cheaply creating high voltage. I got 100 at a dollar store for 50 bucks ones and got some really nice arcs.

Why do you want to get rid of it?? All the active bass guitars I ever had in the shop were using one or two 9V batteries to provide a decent voltage for the active pick-ups and/or preamp. The mind boggles at musicians loading 6 AA's before the gig, and the rattling that this would invite :) I am quite fond of the the little blocks, anyway!

mumblbee bee they also make good throwing weapons or filling a sock with them to swing around but AAs not so much imo

@@Alexander_l322 The 9v is every bit as obsolete as the "A" and "B" battery. There is no reason for it to be in wide production and distribution. Outside of the dollar store (where they have really shitty batteries) they are the most expensive battery you can buy per watt, and they never last very long. This rechargeable battery is useful but it's only an effort to modernize outdated electronics. There is no reason in 2020 any device that needs a battery can't just take a 3.7v or 3v lithium cell directly and set the voltage itself. 9 volts come from time when you couldn't just get that kind of voltage very easily. As a landlord, I am required by law to change every smoke detector battery every time I get a new tenant, even if they aren't dead or old yet. And you do not use dollar store batteries for this. It's an annoying pain in the ass. So instead I replace the entire units with modern smoke detectors that are either 10 year sealed units or take AAs. Obviously I'm not the only one that thinks they are obsolete. But of course, Energizer and Duracell would not want to see this battery go extinct! To the average consumer, these are the most expensive battery that last the shortest and they are least likely to have a spare for. There is no actual need for the voltage level when DC-DC converters are so cheap, easy, and efficient. There is nothing they can't be built into.

I have the Okcell T18287-2000 800 mAh battery. Great little bit of kit and VERY useful at that capacity. Has a charge meter on the side too. Alas, not as easy to take apart as this one.

If it's 400mAh at 9V, you shouldn't compare it to the capacity at LiPo voltages. If you compare the Wh you'll provable get a more decent figure.

i found actual oldschool 9v batteries to be quite pedestrian to begin with in terms of continuous load, so the power:form form factor ratio was never anything to write home about, i would probably never design a device around 9v myself (but that's because modern ICs all run perfectly well on 5v already) but i guess it's nice you don't have to mess with multiple batteries in series which comes with way more demands on having all your batteries balanced

But that 400mAh is at 9 volts, not 3.7 volts. So energy-wise, it's equivalent to a single 973mAh Li-ion cell, which isn't too bad. It's a pity battery manufacturers don't scrap mAh ratings and switch to Watt-hours instead - much more meaningful.

Why?

Yes, why?

He nearly stabbed his hand :(

Ublock Origin plugin on firefox... never seen an add yet!

Desktop or mobile app? Desktop (or mobile with non-Chrome browser): Adblock Plus or Ublock Origin can easily fix that. Otherwise, let the ad play for a few seconds then stop playback and restart. After a few tries it should start playing the video. Works for me at least.

Use Firefox and get the You Tube Ad Block add-on, I've never seen an Ad on any video since I got it...

Never seen an ad - Use vanced for android to skips ads, supertube for fireTV or ublock for PC browser. Also install a pi-hole for your network

Utube Red takes care of adds.