I don't know how you do it, but I found myself excited when you powered up the laptop. "Imagine, running a computer off a battery pack. Cool!" Then I remembered what I was watching this on. Great content as always!
Ni-Cad cells are VERY robust. From my days of RC car racing, one of the very few things that would kill a cell was if it ever got hot enough to vent. Even then, it would work for awhile at a reduced capacity. I had a 6-cell racing pack that was accidentally overcharged (peak charger missed the voltage peak) and got so hot that the shrink wrap REALLY shrunk and came off. I put new wrap on the cells and it was ready for more racing. I still have a reflex charger that can greatly reduce (if not totally eliminate) the dreaded "memory" effect. During the charging cycle the reflex charger will introduce BRIEF discharge pulses at a fairly high current. After a few reflex charging cycles, the cell/battery will regain most of its charge capacity.
That is super rad. If I found one of those I would use it with a USB adapter whenever I needed a USB power bank, just because it looks so cool. I can imagine someone back in the day using one to power their transportable cell phone by tucking it in the transceiver compartment.
It would be cool just for the retro factor, but not super practical. For $20 or sometimes less a modern lithium USB power bank has about 3 times the capacity (10,000MaH) around 1/3 the size.
@@michaelathens953 as they said, it looks cool. I'm actually looking to build a USB floppy. And no, I don't mean a floppy drive with USB, but an actually floppy with USB that has either a thumbdrive or a microsd in it. It has no practical purpose, but it would be neat to bring your floppy around.
A while ago I managed to buy a NEC ProSpeed SX/20 laptop from 1989 in still brand new condition, the box never had been opened. The laptop was dead due to an insane amount of dead capacitors, but after enormous amount of googling around to learn the basics of how caps and electronics work, I managed to source new caps and replace all of them in the laptop and in the psu. And the machine works just fine now, it's one of my most valued possession (the whole project took me months doing it in my spare time). It came with a 12V 2.8Ah Ni-Cd battery, and I fully expected it to be dead. But it works, as soon as I plugged it in the first time, it started charging. And not only works, after about 5 cycles of charge-discharge it has recovered virtually all of its original capacity (started from around 1600 mAh, and steadily has been gaining more capacity after each charge, and now it's at around 2700 mAh). I am absolutely amazed that a battery that was made in 1989 would not only work, but after some use it would gain back all of its original capacity. Basically it's in 100% health after 34 years of storage. To verify the condition of the battery, and the capacity I use a SkyRC B6 charger. I understand why we use Li-ion batteries nowadays (much higher energy density amongst other advantages), but I hate the fact that they degrade no matter what, even if just sitting unused. As others have said it, after about a decade they will have significantly less capacity, no matter how careful you are using them or storing them.
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, we lost power, so I grabbed my RCA Pocket Power Pack and plugged it into my DC powered 9 inch B&W TV. The only station on the air was channel 7, KGO, an ABC affiliate in San Francisco. We live in San Jose. The first image was that of the Bay Bridge with the upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and a couple of cars had driven over the edge. Thanks to that set up, I was able to see that the earthquake was a serious one. I still have that power pack somewhere in my garage.
Cool to see that it still works so well! It might not have the same capacity as newer batteries, but considering it lasted that long is quite the achievement, for an old Ni-Cad!
Nice! These huge batteries were mostly for use in the old days of VHS camcorders. I had a bigger one. It also used the cigarette lighter plugs. I used it as a spare battery to power my camcorder and also power a camcorder halogen light, it was a way bigger than the one you demonstrated at around 5 pounds. Man, back in 89' when I was 15, I wanted a camcorder and bought one. It was expensive as all heck at a bit over $1,000
Absolutely crazy. Nowadays you could get the same capacity from a pair of 18650s in a fraction of the size, but modern lithium chemistry is very fragile. I have a similar experience with NiMH cells; I have some 2006 Eneloops that still work pretty much the same as when they were new. Thank you for sharing :)
@@boardernut Look at watt hours not voltage - I was talking about capacity/energy density. 3.7 volts * 3.6 amp hours = 13.32 watt hours. 2 of them would be 26.64 watt hours. Roughly the same capacity as the power bank here (12 * 2.2 = 26.4 watt hours). For voltage you'd need to use a circuit to step up, OR you could use more cells and have a greater capacity in watt hours. I'd probably go for more cells (maybe 3 18650s) if I were building a 12V pack.
@@chucku00 You would be surprised, there are modern high capacity cells from samsung that hold 13-18 watt hours of capacity. Draining 18 watts continuously from them would put them on edge however and you wouldn't get many cycles from them!
I've built a power pack(12.6v 3.2amp) out of 20+ year old 18650 from old laptop. It is working completely fine, so i cannot say that liion is that fragile. I even got batteries that has 0 volts when i first got them and after deep charge with small current they are working fine in flashlights.
If you were looking for something more rugged, you'd probably be going for LiFePO4 instead of regular LiIon these days. Energy density is somewhat lower in comparison, but still far beyond NiCd.
I'd never seen a stand alone NiCd pack designed as a power bank before. Thanks for showing this. From your laptop test, it looks like that power bank has about half its capacity left, which isn't bad after all those years. I believe NiCd cells are still used in some emergency ceiling lights, (I believe they are excluded from the cadmium regulations) because they can be left continuously charging at very low level with no ill effects, and the charging circuit can be extremely simple and therefore will still be working in 10 years' time. (try that with a Li ion charger :-o ) (ps looks like the power bank doesn't have any kind of replaceable fuse or current trip, unless it's automatic)
I salvaged two 1990's era emergency lights, one had working NiCd battery because the transformer PCB connection failed and other had the battery completely dead even after 48h charge test (dead batteries in these lights are quite common). Emergency lights do use NiCd batteries still, although it is slowly started to switched to LiFePO4._
The real benefit of NiCd chemistry is the fact that they dont degrade when being empty, unlike NiMh cells which die or at least take damage when too deep discharged. I have still some NiCd packs around, also 10y+ old and they are literally at 0V and still accept a charge (even if its just for 1-2 weeks before they have drained themself...) Also there are some techniques to "refresh"/remove the memory process to increase the effective capacity and decrease the internal resistance a bit. NiCd and NiFe/Fe batteries are the best in my opinion (in terms of longevity). Especially the Iron batteries are a beast (Tiger Tanks from WWII in the mud have 100%, in fact even more than 100% capacity left after being for over 50 years in the mud.
Properly done Ni-cad's can last a long time. I came across a power pack for a potable VCR (porta-pak) that was likewise 'ancient' it used SLA cells and still worked - I was amazed, although with repeated use is soon died, but the fact it had any life after all that time, stored in a cupboard with no charging, was amazing. Yikes, where on earth did you get that laptop & TV, they need to go in for the largest bezel award.
NiCd batteries LOVE to stay at 0V/discharged (and they have high self discharge rate), thats why they last as long. Using NiCd reduce their lifespan noticable, especially when often being charged.
Back in the 90s into the 2000s, I had a self-made "power bank" in the form of a 12v SLA battery with a cigar lighter socket wired to it (no fuses for extra spice!) placed into a seemingly perfectly sized binoculars-carrying shoulder pouch, went through a few batteries before it became obsolete by just not needing it, these days I have a once again self-made battery bank made up with 3x "dead" (according to the computer-sez-no software!) laptop battery packs in a 3x6 arrangement, putting out at full charge 12.6v, all inside a project box, with safety built in this time... :P
I really like that, chunky build, chunky positive fitting plugs, its chunky! The fact those batteries survived is a bit crazy. I wonder what usage it had? I'd guess very little and then kept in ideal conditions...
there are not many ideal conditions for NiCd to care about, NiCd is very robust and even LIKE (!!!) to stay discharged, on top they have a high self discharge rate which make them last so long. NiCd are more or less impossible to destroy/degrade.
Awesome video. it's amazing how far we've come, the same capacity can be had from a single 18650 these days. I have a hefty power bank I take camping (27Ah) and it was about £30 about 18 months ago so the cost per mAh far outweighs the Pocket Power Pack. If it's still working in 35 years i'll be very surprised but it's not like there's vast quantities of 35 year old Ni-Cd batteries kicking around either. Edit: I've just realised this is 2.2mAh @ 12v not 3.7V like a Li-Ion, so the same capacity as 3-4 18650s connected in series. It's still pretty impressive though considering their cheap price and low weight.
i would really like to have something similar to this for the aesthetics, like a modern power bank but in the shell of the older power bank (could also have way more power because more size) it could even have a USB outlet that looks like a CLighter plug aside from the tip where you plug it into your device
@@9852323 I meant more like just have powerful ass portable chargers that function using modern technology that visually look like this era because it looks neat
Watching this video, it wasn't until about 3/4 the way through when you mention the center negative adapter that I realized it's the new video. Your style never changes, not necessarily a bad thing.
Recently I got a really old portable 5'' italian TV, the Innohit TV5. Weighed a ton, because, as it turned out, someone left the old D-cells inside. Whole 8 of them. Three were corroded to hell and back. But, to my surprise, one of the corroded ones and three of the non-corroded ones still held a charge. Batteries were dated 1992.
I have a very simple Texas Instrument calculator bought in 1984. Still runs on the same mercury cell. Although I almost don't use it nowadays, just switch on from time to time to check whether it still works.
Not quite as old, but the radio in my kitchen has 4 Varta Longlife C/baby cells that expired in 2004 (meaning they're probably several years older than that). The outer decorative metal cover (remember those? all just plastic sleeves these days) has some surface rust where some of them have been dinged or scraped, but no leaks and they're still sitting at 1.48V. I put the radio there with the batteries installed but plugged into AC power for some music while cooking etc, with the idea that if the power went out i can just unplug it and use it on batteries to get infos from local stations about what's going on. Turns out this hasn't happened in 20 years but the damn batteries are somehow still OK, while any modern ones will leak like there's no tomorrow after a year. They no doubt had some chemical in them that has long since been banned to "save the environment"... by producing cells that leak and die more quickly than before. Totally makes sense 👌smh
@@Knaeckebrotsaege I remember times when cells did not have a metal sleeve and were wrapped in a cardboard with protruding carbon plus electrode in a small metal cap. They really could create a corrosive mess when leaking. That metal or plastic cover prevents it.
Nicad batteries don't normally begin aging until they are charged for the first time. I have personally purchased NOS nicad batteries 10-15 years old that worked like new.
I have quite a few old lithium-ion batteries that are still alive and well, some of which have reached their 20th birthday or more. Sony's InfoLithium packs seem quite long lived and as another example, there was the Dell Inspiron 7500 I found. Its battery is also still good.
I remember those pre-camcorder days... when you had to take the VCR with you to film a video. Had one of those huge battery backups; bigger than the one in this video.
I'm impressed it still works all these years later, and that it lasted as long as it did powering that laptop. Imagine the looks you'd get using that thing at Starbucks to charge your phone or laptop!
Very fun video and a neat device! Nicads don't age the way lithium batteries do and they support a lot of charge cycles if treated kindly. My guess is someone bought this for a video camera or something like that, used it once or twice, and then it went on the shelf for 40 years. Assuming the cells didn't leak, I'm not actually that surprised.
Products like these were from a time when companies actually took pride in delivering excellence to customers. Yes, there was crap back then too, but it was less common compared to the ruggedness of overengineered electronics, especially from Japan and its legendary quality from its economic boom era
And they also cost much more compared to current devices. Not many people want to pay that much, adjusted for inflation. Todays stuff is junk because people wanted CHEAP
Not just Japan, but also Made in Germany mostly died after the 80's, because of companies moving their entire production to China. But this is about to change now, due to political pressure. Every large county needs domestic electronics production capabilities and not give everything away to the hands of some shady communist countries, no matter how cheap they produce.
The power pack looks like it was a well made but probably cheap solution, just a battery bank with a socket and indicators. was probably intended for guys with expensive and heavy camera equipment who might run out in the field but to whom a car battery would be overkill. You didn't have internet shopping so there was only Retail, Phone or Mail order and you had to know where to look to find a supplier. That meant a much higher barrier to entry so if you wanted something niche this RCA would not be competing with as many hobbled together counterfeit batteries just on the basis that available was statistically negligible except in a few cities where there was a big enough grey market. These days you can type in a model number for the thing you want components for and select prices low to high. Thus one warehouse can have customers in multiple countries with zero advertising budget
Yeaahh... that's a bit of rose-tinted glasses. It's a battery, in a plastic box, with a socket, and a very simple indicator circuit. There's more going on under the hood of a cheap 2022-era battery bank from a no-name knock-off source. And like was said above ^^ if people were willing to pay for quality, there would be quality products on the market. But, we haggle over the last 1% cost differences until the only thing left came from the bottom of the barrel. You get what you pay for.
@@nickwallette6201 people love their favourite brands. Most people would choose *Heinz ketchup* over store brand tomato sauce. Same with colas, teas, coffees, chrisps etc When it comes to electronics there are plenty of brands that can get away with prices that would be unthinkable from their competitors. Like apple and their 999.99 pro stand (they were trolling with that absurd price) Same digits were used for several currencies which proves it's an arbitrary troll figure
Greetings from northern New Jersey! With any of the Ni-Cad batteries I used back in the day (and even friends who had them), they always suffered from the memory effect and got less and less useful the more you used them. As for compared to today's batteries, I don't think we abused the Ni-Cads as much as we do the Li-Ion batteries. Every day... Charge, use, charge, use. And they're so much smaller compared to those bricks of batteries from the 80s and 90s. Not to mention, cheaply built. Great to see yours still going strong!
Low cost nicads changed everything in the 80's. So many gadgets became possible just because the battery didn't have to be thrown away after each use. We'll always remember nicads for causing the greatest change of all the batteries since.
Great video. I have a Sony TC-770 portable open reel tape recorder, it uses a Ni-Cd battery pack. I rebuilt the pack, as the original pack from 1968 was flat dead. So they don't last forever, but the pack, rebuilt by me in 2010 is still going strong. NiCads are great power sources as long as they are not abused. Thanks for the interesting video.
From all the rca and zenith stuff my grandparents had when I was a kid in the 90s, I'm pretty sure that pack is from 78-84, can't be sure of course. But I saw so much with that font style and everything they had was before I was born.
I wouldn't worry too much about exceeding the rated current output. Nickel-cadmium cells are quite robust. If you connect a load that wants to draw more current than the battery can deliver, the load will effectively be current limited by the cells themselves. At least as far as I know and if I remember correctly, so the proverbial pinch of salt is probably recommended. Caveat: This does NOT apply to lithium cells.
In 1980's Photography circles (of confusion), Lead Acid Gel battery packs were the big thing to keep your Vivitar 283/285 electronic flash going through a wedding, formal pictures, and The First Dance. Back then, Quantum Instruments was the dealer for the Qunatum Battery that could power your electronic flash until it melted or the power cells were exhausted. I had used Nickel Cadmium battery-powered electronic flash units and came away wanting nothing to do with "NiCd battery memory." These beltclip battery packs were hefty, but, as long as you "colored within the lines," NiCd memory" was a thing of the past.
There is a reason they are still used in Telecom and Trains. They just don't quit if taken care of properly. The flooded kind is almost a 20 year battery life.
They were aimed mostly at the 'outdoorsy' folk and those living in remote regions. There were larger, fancier versions that had a flashlight, small air compressor, and often a radio in them.
The memory effect degraded the capacity if you didn't discharge it fully. But if you would just do a discharge charge sequence after a few uses, it didn't matter that much. The problem was made bigger than it actually was. It didn't actually completely fail if you didn't discharge it. You couls easily only discharge it partially several times, just give it a cycle or 2 with full discharge after that.
Love it! Bought a Gameboy Solar Charger a few years ago, new old stock, from the US and had it shipped over. From what I read online, everyone said that you'd better open it up and replace the old battery pack inside, as there was no way they would still work. But I just charged it in the summer sun and got around an hour and a half of playtime with my old Gameboy from it, and not just once since. So I guess they just don't make them like they used to. Lithium-Ions my *** 🙂
I remember carrying a huge, very heavy, about 40 pounds, camera 12 volt battery for the 1981 VHS camera. I had a 12 volt cord that ran to the camera and another cable that ran to the VCR. The cable between the camera and the VCR was not RCA. I think it was a specific S-video style with extra pins for the left and right audio signals. I had the two bags that weighed about 55 pounds and then I had to hold the camera. It was a big deal and any time I was out in public doing filming people would come from all around and watch and ask me questions. It was the first commercial non industry portable video camera and recorder. I got 2 hours of record time from fully charged battery. I also ran a 650 amp hour car battery to power it on site when I could set up the tripod
In my hobbies, I design portable radios among other things and I use NiMh batteries (NiCad are hardly available nowadays). Charging them at C/10, there is no need for complex charging circuitry, a single resistor is enough. And no worry about overheating or explosion. Leaking is rare, and even if they leak, it's only a very small quantity and the leak is non corrosive.
I bought several cheap HAMA AA NiCd batteries in 1997 and 1998, they all still work. My dad has some Yuasa and Panasonic that are around 30 years old, also working. I didn't have much luck with newer NiCds (Panasonic, SAFT and unbranded, all leaked and/or corroded) and, especially, NiMhs (they only last me a couple of years before their capacity reduces too much).
Eneloop NiMHs are decent. I have a bunch that are now 10 years old and still work fine (in a DECT cordless phone, amongst other things). Old NiCds are relatively hard to kill as well, but modern(-ish) ones seem to lose capacity surprisingly easy and will leak like crazy at some point for no particular reason. I assume something that went into those was banned thanks to environazis causing modern ones to be junk, similar to how alkalines from 2015 or so onward are garbage and will leak if you just look at them wrong
@@Knaeckebrotsaege Maybe less cadmium since it's the most toxic stuff in nicad batteries ? In fact they're now banned for private consumers for that reason.
I wish I had one of those power packs back then. They seemed very durable and long lasting. By the way, WINS on 92.3 sounds so good on that Crosley. Have a Happy New Year.
Very interesting, I never saw any product similar here in the UK, we had the portable battery packs for the video cameras of course but the form factor was a lot more bulky.
Nicad battery's were very good but the drawback was that you couldn't charge them like a LI. They needed to be drained out otherwise they developed a charge state memory.
I found out this year that solar garden lights still use NiCad cells AAA & AA, I guess they are not outlawed in Canada, and this was from a major grocery chain :o
NiCd Batteries are often in emergency systems, but also electric tools from the past, not in use for years. Their lifetime is great especially if they were made in japan by Sanyo. They can take very low temperature as well, like no othe battery. They are now forbidden in the EU except for emergency system/lighting ect.
Wow, what an incredible piece of hardware! They don't build things like they used to, and it's such a shame... Nowadays, it's all about going cheap so things can be mass-produced.
There's a reason we still use NiCd in some devices, they have been modernised but they still offer the same benefits, just with less of the disadvantages. Most electronic toothbrushes and some high discharge devices have them. It would be nice to see a modern version of that created with new NiCd's, put it through it's paces and compare it to an equivalent ah LiPo and Li-ion pack.
Note that you can build relatively easily your own power bank, we can find DIY power bank projects on internet, simple power bank version by assembling several 1.2 volts ni-mh batteries, or more advanced version with 3.7 Volts Li-ion cells. Advantage of a DIY version : easy maintenance/repair (no planned obsolescence), can be scalable if you need more power.
This video reminded me that I actually have one of these, in the box in what seems like unused condition. I had to dig it out to see if it worked. The news is not good. I had it in a pole barn in a plastic tote with a lid but it seems the batteries have leaked or something. The box was partially ate up and there was "crystals" on the top. It has the cig plug on the top and that door was jammed shut. I managed to pry it open but the cig socket was all crystalized. Damnit! It is my own fault obviously for storing it improperly but I really wanted to try it out!
You showed that video camera, made me think of my ex roommates family just telling the landlord to sell or toss his belongings.. some of my items stored inside vs outdoor mini storage, like my Apple //c computer, and previous computers whose technology has been deprecated.
It stores the same power as 3 decent quality 18650 cells in series. It's still a very usable power bank. One can't help but be impressed at the fact that the cells in this thing are going on 40 years old, and still hold their charge. NiCd batteries have always surprised me. Too bad they are regulated out of everything today, and it's incredibly problematic for a regular person to get a hold of such a battery, especially a new one. The discharge curve on NiCd and NiMh is very flat, unlike the one with LiIon and LiPo cells. They maintain almost the same voltage throughout their discharge cycle, and then suddenly drop their voltage when close to fully drained. I can't help but wonder if there's a thermal switch inside that pack for protection? These were very typical for such battery packs. Some of them also had thermistors, but this probably isn't as sophisticated considering the seeming lack of a built in charging and cutoff circuit. It's going the route of trickle charging. Put the cells on low current for a long time, and turn off the charge when the pack gets warm.
"Yo let me charge my beeper and Walkman"
Proceeds to pull out litteral miles of cables and adapters
I don't know how you do it, but I found myself excited when you powered up the laptop. "Imagine, running a computer off a battery pack. Cool!" Then I remembered what I was watching this on. Great content as always!
Big Clive would love one of these !
Ni-Cad cells are VERY robust. From my days of RC car racing, one of the very few things that would kill a cell was if it ever got hot enough to vent. Even then, it would work for awhile at a reduced capacity. I had a 6-cell racing pack that was accidentally overcharged (peak charger missed the voltage peak) and got so hot that the shrink wrap REALLY shrunk and came off. I put new wrap on the cells and it was ready for more racing.
I still have a reflex charger that can greatly reduce (if not totally eliminate) the dreaded "memory" effect. During the charging cycle the reflex charger will introduce BRIEF discharge pulses at a fairly high current. After a few reflex charging cycles, the cell/battery will regain most of its charge capacity.
I still have my Tekin reflex charger and a couple of battery bugs from the early 90s. Sanyo cells were some of the best back then.
It can get hot enough to VENT? very sus
Eh, I still like my sealed lead acid batteries.
"Peak charger missed the peak", peak irony, you had one job
That is super rad. If I found one of those I would use it with a USB adapter whenever I needed a USB power bank, just because it looks so cool.
I can imagine someone back in the day using one to power their transportable cell phone by tucking it in the transceiver compartment.
It would be cool just for the retro factor, but not super practical. For $20 or sometimes less a modern lithium USB power bank has about 3 times the capacity (10,000MaH) around 1/3 the size.
@@michaelathens953 as they said, it looks cool.
I'm actually looking to build a USB floppy.
And no, I don't mean a floppy drive with USB, but an actually floppy with USB that has either a thumbdrive or a microsd in it. It has no practical purpose, but it would be neat to bring your floppy around.
A while ago I managed to buy a NEC ProSpeed SX/20 laptop from 1989 in still brand new condition, the box never had been opened. The laptop was dead due to an insane amount of dead capacitors, but after enormous amount of googling around to learn the basics of how caps and electronics work, I managed to source new caps and replace all of them in the laptop and in the psu. And the machine works just fine now, it's one of my most valued possession (the whole project took me months doing it in my spare time).
It came with a 12V 2.8Ah Ni-Cd battery, and I fully expected it to be dead. But it works, as soon as I plugged it in the first time, it started charging. And not only works, after about 5 cycles of charge-discharge it has recovered virtually all of its original capacity (started from around 1600 mAh, and steadily has been gaining more capacity after each charge, and now it's at around 2700 mAh). I am absolutely amazed that a battery that was made in 1989 would not only work, but after some use it would gain back all of its original capacity. Basically it's in 100% health after 34 years of storage. To verify the condition of the battery, and the capacity I use a SkyRC B6 charger.
I understand why we use Li-ion batteries nowadays (much higher energy density amongst other advantages), but I hate the fact that they degrade no matter what, even if just sitting unused. As others have said it, after about a decade they will have significantly less capacity, no matter how careful you are using them or storing them.
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, we lost power, so I grabbed my RCA Pocket Power Pack and plugged it into my DC powered 9 inch B&W TV. The only station on the air was channel 7, KGO, an ABC affiliate in San Francisco. We live in San Jose. The first image was that of the Bay Bridge with the upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and a couple of cars had driven over the edge. Thanks to that set up, I was able to see that the earthquake was a serious one. I still have that power pack somewhere in my garage.
Cool to see that it still works so well! It might not have the same capacity as newer batteries, but considering it lasted that long is quite the achievement, for an old Ni-Cad!
Nice! I've got some PowerBook G4 batteries that still hold a good charge.
Nice! These huge batteries were mostly for use in the old days of VHS camcorders. I had a bigger one. It also used the cigarette lighter plugs. I used it as a spare battery to power my camcorder and also power a camcorder halogen light, it was a way bigger than the one you demonstrated at around 5 pounds. Man, back in 89' when I was 15, I wanted a camcorder and bought one. It was expensive as all heck at a bit over $1,000
Very cool to see it still working, and working pretty darn well! Looks a solid thing.
Absolutely crazy. Nowadays you could get the same capacity from a pair of 18650s in a fraction of the size, but modern lithium chemistry is very fragile. I have a similar experience with NiMH cells; I have some 2006 Eneloops that still work pretty much the same as when they were new. Thank you for sharing :)
a pair of 18650 is only 7.4 volts, so nope.
@@boardernut Look at watt hours not voltage - I was talking about capacity/energy density. 3.7 volts * 3.6 amp hours = 13.32 watt hours. 2 of them would be 26.64 watt hours. Roughly the same capacity as the power bank here (12 * 2.2 = 26.4 watt hours). For voltage you'd need to use a circuit to step up, OR you could use more cells and have a greater capacity in watt hours. I'd probably go for more cells (maybe 3 18650s) if I were building a 12V pack.
@@chucku00 You would be surprised, there are modern high capacity cells from samsung that hold 13-18 watt hours of capacity. Draining 18 watts continuously from them would put them on edge however and you wouldn't get many cycles from them!
I've built a power pack(12.6v 3.2amp) out of 20+ year old 18650 from old laptop. It is working completely fine, so i cannot say that liion is that fragile. I even got batteries that has 0 volts when i first got them and after deep charge with small current they are working fine in flashlights.
If you were looking for something more rugged, you'd probably be going for LiFePO4 instead of regular LiIon these days. Energy density is somewhat lower in comparison, but still far beyond NiCd.
I'd never seen a stand alone NiCd pack designed as a power bank before. Thanks for showing this.
From your laptop test, it looks like that power bank has about half its capacity left, which isn't bad after all those years.
I believe NiCd cells are still used in some emergency ceiling lights, (I believe they are excluded from the cadmium regulations) because they can be left continuously charging at very low level with no ill effects, and the charging circuit can be extremely simple and therefore will still be working in 10 years' time. (try that with a Li ion charger :-o )
(ps looks like the power bank doesn't have any kind of replaceable fuse or current trip, unless it's automatic)
I salvaged two 1990's era emergency lights, one had working NiCd battery because the transformer PCB connection failed and other had the battery completely dead even after 48h charge test (dead batteries in these lights are quite common). Emergency lights do use NiCd batteries still, although it is slowly started to switched to LiFePO4._
nimh is similar
@@Blox117 Not at all
The real benefit of NiCd chemistry is the fact that they dont degrade when being empty, unlike NiMh cells which die or at least take damage when too deep discharged.
I have still some NiCd packs around, also 10y+ old and they are literally at 0V and still accept a charge (even if its just for 1-2 weeks before they have drained themself...)
Also there are some techniques to "refresh"/remove the memory process to increase the effective capacity and decrease the internal resistance a bit.
NiCd and NiFe/Fe batteries are the best in my opinion (in terms of longevity). Especially the Iron batteries are a beast (Tiger Tanks from WWII in the mud have 100%, in fact even more than 100% capacity left after being for over 50 years in the mud.
That's really cool! I would have loved to come across this as a kid in a flea market or something... I loved rechargeable batteries.
Properly done Ni-cad's can last a long time. I came across a power pack for a potable VCR (porta-pak) that was likewise 'ancient' it used SLA cells and still worked - I was amazed, although with repeated use is soon died, but the fact it had any life after all that time, stored in a cupboard with no charging, was amazing.
Yikes, where on earth did you get that laptop & TV, they need to go in for the largest bezel award.
NiCd batteries LOVE to stay at 0V/discharged (and they have high self discharge rate), thats why they last as long. Using NiCd reduce their lifespan noticable, especially when often being charged.
Back in the 90s into the 2000s, I had a self-made "power bank" in the form of a 12v SLA battery with a cigar lighter socket wired to it (no fuses for extra spice!) placed into a seemingly perfectly sized binoculars-carrying shoulder pouch, went through a few batteries before it became obsolete by just not needing it, these days I have a once again self-made battery bank made up with 3x "dead" (according to the computer-sez-no software!) laptop battery packs in a 3x6 arrangement, putting out at full charge 12.6v, all inside a project box, with safety built in this time... :P
I did the same thing in an old camera case, except more like 2015 and then the load needed to be attached using alligator clips.
I really like that, chunky build, chunky positive fitting plugs, its chunky! The fact those batteries survived is a bit crazy. I wonder what usage it had? I'd guess very little and then kept in ideal conditions...
there are not many ideal conditions for NiCd to care about, NiCd is very robust and even LIKE (!!!) to stay discharged, on top they have a high self discharge rate which make them last so long. NiCd are more or less impossible to destroy/degrade.
we have nicads in the emergency exit lights at work. And they still work when they tested them last year. Installed 1979...
Cliff Richards at the end! What a blast from the past! Greetings from Chile, my friend, for bringing such a wonderful content
Awesome video. it's amazing how far we've come, the same capacity can be had from a single 18650 these days. I have a hefty power bank I take camping (27Ah) and it was about £30 about 18 months ago so the cost per mAh far outweighs the Pocket Power Pack. If it's still working in 35 years i'll be very surprised but it's not like there's vast quantities of 35 year old Ni-Cd batteries kicking around either.
Edit: I've just realised this is 2.2mAh @ 12v not 3.7V like a Li-Ion, so the same capacity as 3-4 18650s connected in series. It's still pretty impressive though considering their cheap price and low weight.
NiCd batteries aren't really damaged by deep discharge like Li-ion. It's not surprising to see the original cells in great shape.
It’s so funny, we don’t talk anymore! Love a bit of Cliff!
i would really like to have something similar to this for the aesthetics, like a modern power bank but in the shell of the older power bank (could also have way more power because more size) it could even have a USB outlet that looks like a CLighter plug aside from the tip where you plug it into your device
You could just plug in a car cigarette lighter phone charger to this
One.
@@9852323 I meant more like just have powerful ass portable chargers that function using modern technology that visually look like this era
because it looks neat
@@9852323 It's really quite inefficient though, both in terms of losses and in terms of capacity for it's size and weight
Watching this video, it wasn't until about 3/4 the way through when you mention the center negative adapter that I realized it's the new video. Your style never changes, not necessarily a bad thing.
TOP choice of demo record! One of Cliff's very best songs, in my opinion ^^
Recently I got a really old portable 5'' italian TV, the Innohit TV5.
Weighed a ton, because, as it turned out, someone left the old D-cells inside. Whole 8 of them.
Three were corroded to hell and back. But, to my surprise, one of the corroded ones and three of the non-corroded ones still held a charge.
Batteries were dated 1992.
I have a very simple Texas Instrument calculator bought in 1984. Still runs on the same mercury cell. Although I almost don't use it nowadays, just switch on from time to time to check whether it still works.
Not quite as old, but the radio in my kitchen has 4 Varta Longlife C/baby cells that expired in 2004 (meaning they're probably several years older than that). The outer decorative metal cover (remember those? all just plastic sleeves these days) has some surface rust where some of them have been dinged or scraped, but no leaks and they're still sitting at 1.48V. I put the radio there with the batteries installed but plugged into AC power for some music while cooking etc, with the idea that if the power went out i can just unplug it and use it on batteries to get infos from local stations about what's going on. Turns out this hasn't happened in 20 years but the damn batteries are somehow still OK, while any modern ones will leak like there's no tomorrow after a year. They no doubt had some chemical in them that has long since been banned to "save the environment"... by producing cells that leak and die more quickly than before. Totally makes sense 👌smh
@@Knaeckebrotsaege I remember times when cells did not have a metal sleeve and were wrapped in a cardboard with protruding carbon plus electrode in a small metal cap. They really could create a corrosive mess when leaking. That metal or plastic cover prevents it.
This is amazing to see. Such an interesting find!
That's a very satisfying "chachunk" as the plug is inserted.
9:40 running the old Dazzle screensaver. Now that’s a blast from the past.
the cliff richard intro at the end was the 'cherry on top' that won me over ;-)
Nicad batteries don't normally begin aging until they are charged for the first time. I have personally purchased NOS nicad batteries 10-15 years old that worked like new.
I enjoyed hearing you say "pocket power pack" so many times. It was awesome.
I have quite a few old lithium-ion batteries that are still alive and well, some of which have reached their 20th birthday or more. Sony's InfoLithium packs seem quite long lived and as another example, there was the Dell Inspiron 7500 I found. Its battery is also still good.
Man, I'm so old
I remember using a VHS camera for work and shouldering a heavy battery pack to peer it for barely 40 minutes
I remember those pre-camcorder days... when you had to take the VCR with you to film a video. Had one of those huge battery backups; bigger than the one in this video.
my personal experience is with these packs developing issues - your explanations are SO GOOD
I'm impressed it still works all these years later, and that it lasted as long as it did powering that laptop. Imagine the looks you'd get using that thing at Starbucks to charge your phone or laptop!
Oh god I love the cadmium in my ground water from this generation of batteries
Tangey!
I believe cadmium also naturally exists in certain areas.
Kevin and viewers wish everyone the best for 2023 from the Netherlands
Love your videos! You have so much interesting stuff around! Keep them coming!
Very fun video and a neat device! Nicads don't age the way lithium batteries do and they support a lot of charge cycles if treated kindly. My guess is someone bought this for a video camera or something like that, used it once or twice, and then it went on the shelf for 40 years. Assuming the cells didn't leak, I'm not actually that surprised.
Products like these were from a time when companies actually took pride in delivering excellence to customers. Yes, there was crap back then too, but it was less common compared to the ruggedness of overengineered electronics, especially from Japan and its legendary quality from its economic boom era
And they also cost much more compared to current devices. Not many people want to pay that much, adjusted for inflation. Todays stuff is junk because people wanted CHEAP
Not just Japan, but also Made in Germany mostly died after the 80's, because of companies moving their entire production to China. But this is about to change now, due to political pressure. Every large county needs domestic electronics production capabilities and not give everything away to the hands of some shady communist countries, no matter how cheap they produce.
The power pack looks like it was a well made but probably cheap solution, just a battery bank with a socket and indicators.
was probably intended for guys with expensive and heavy camera equipment who might run out in the field but to whom a car battery would be overkill.
You didn't have internet shopping so there was only Retail, Phone or Mail order and you had to know where to look to find a supplier.
That meant a much higher barrier to entry so if you wanted something niche this RCA would not be competing with as many hobbled together counterfeit batteries just on the basis that available was statistically negligible except in a few cities where there was a big enough grey market.
These days you can type in a model number for the thing you want components for and select prices low to high.
Thus one warehouse can have customers in multiple countries with zero advertising budget
Yeaahh... that's a bit of rose-tinted glasses. It's a battery, in a plastic box, with a socket, and a very simple indicator circuit. There's more going on under the hood of a cheap 2022-era battery bank from a no-name knock-off source.
And like was said above ^^ if people were willing to pay for quality, there would be quality products on the market. But, we haggle over the last 1% cost differences until the only thing left came from the bottom of the barrel. You get what you pay for.
@@nickwallette6201 people love their favourite brands.
Most people would choose *Heinz ketchup* over store brand tomato sauce.
Same with colas, teas, coffees, chrisps etc
When it comes to electronics there are plenty of brands that can get away with prices that would be unthinkable from their competitors.
Like apple and their 999.99 pro stand (they were trolling with that absurd price)
Same digits were used for several currencies which proves it's an arbitrary troll figure
Nice retro review. and Happy New Year from North Germany 🙂
Came across your channel. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for marvellously informing videos.
Greetings from northern New Jersey! With any of the Ni-Cad batteries I used back in the day (and even friends who had them), they always suffered from the memory effect and got less and less useful the more you used them. As for compared to today's batteries, I don't think we abused the Ni-Cads as much as we do the Li-Ion batteries. Every day... Charge, use, charge, use. And they're so much smaller compared to those bricks of batteries from the 80s and 90s. Not to mention, cheaply built. Great to see yours still going strong!
You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world. Greetings from The Bronx
Happy new year! 🤗 How about that. Thanks for your entertaining vids and choice of music. Bonus credits for you!
Low cost nicads changed everything in the 80's. So many gadgets became possible just because the battery didn't have to be thrown away after each use. We'll always remember nicads for causing the greatest change of all the batteries since.
Great video. I have a Sony TC-770 portable open reel tape recorder, it uses a Ni-Cd battery pack. I rebuilt the pack, as the original pack from 1968 was flat dead. So they don't last forever, but the pack, rebuilt by me in 2010 is still going strong. NiCads are great power sources as long as they are not abused. Thanks for the interesting video.
Your scoff at 1:32 had me rolling 🤣
another super cool.....device from the 80s.....i like the cliff richard song at the end.....
I used to have a similar thing that ran off D-cell batteries lol. It was massive.
Always really enjoy your vids. Thank you!
That little Crossly radio sounds amazingly good.
From all the rca and zenith stuff my grandparents had when I was a kid in the 90s, I'm pretty sure that pack is from 78-84, can't be sure of course. But I saw so much with that font style and everything they had was before I was born.
I wouldn't worry too much about exceeding the rated current output. Nickel-cadmium cells are quite robust. If you connect a load that wants to draw more current than the battery can deliver, the load will effectively be current limited by the cells themselves.
At least as far as I know and if I remember correctly, so the proverbial pinch of salt is probably recommended.
Caveat: This does NOT apply to lithium cells.
In 1980's Photography circles (of confusion), Lead Acid Gel battery packs were the big thing to keep your Vivitar 283/285 electronic flash going through a wedding, formal pictures, and The First Dance. Back then, Quantum Instruments was the dealer for the Qunatum Battery that could power your electronic flash until it melted or the power cells were exhausted. I had used Nickel Cadmium battery-powered electronic flash units and came away wanting nothing to do with "NiCd battery memory." These beltclip battery packs were hefty, but, as long as you "colored within the lines," NiCd memory" was a thing of the past.
There is a reason they are still used in Telecom and Trains. They just don't quit if taken care of properly.
The flooded kind is almost a 20 year battery life.
New Year, New Video, Happy New Year VWestlife!
That is so mind blowing. I never knew these were a thing in the 80’s
They were aimed mostly at the 'outdoorsy' folk and those living in remote regions. There were larger, fancier versions that had a flashlight, small air compressor, and often a radio in them.
I'm not crying back for NiCd cells. They had tons of issues. Neat that this one still works, but it's in no way representative for this technology.
Yeah they have a terrible memory effect and after about 10 years they go bad.
NiCad had that nasty 'memory' problem where the battery degraded over time.
their power density and charging times are also bad compared to current batteries
To be fair that only happened if you charge it before it was dead but I don't know anyone who runs their devices anywhere near 0
The memory effect degraded the capacity if you didn't discharge it fully.
But if you would just do a discharge charge sequence after a few uses, it didn't matter that much.
The problem was made bigger than it actually was.
It didn't actually completely fail if you didn't discharge it.
You couls easily only discharge it partially several times, just give it a cycle or 2 with full discharge after that.
@@MrSpacelyy or just use a different battery type
@@nathandkreosote9917 at the time there weren't so many safe options for High density portable batteries...
I love seeing old vintage stuff
Love it! Bought a Gameboy Solar Charger a few years ago, new old stock, from the US and had it shipped over. From what I read online, everyone said that you'd better open it up and replace the old battery pack inside, as there was no way they would still work. But I just charged it in the summer sun and got around an hour and a half of playtime with my old Gameboy from it, and not just once since. So I guess they just don't make them like they used to. Lithium-Ions my *** 🙂
I remember carrying a huge, very heavy, about 40 pounds, camera 12 volt battery for the 1981 VHS camera.
I had a 12 volt cord that ran to the camera and another cable that ran to the VCR.
The cable between the camera and the VCR was not RCA. I think it was a specific S-video style with extra pins for the left and right audio signals.
I had the two bags that weighed about 55 pounds and then I had to hold the camera.
It was a big deal and any time I was out in public doing filming people would come from all around and watch and ask me questions.
It was the first commercial non industry portable video camera and recorder.
I got 2 hours of record time from fully charged battery.
I also ran a 650 amp hour car battery to power it on site when I could set up the tripod
I use my dad's old set of Ryobi One Plus tools, and the Ni-Cad battery he had like 13 years ago still works.
I still have several nickel cadmium AA from the mid 80s and they still charge and work. Though for how long Im not sure.
In my hobbies, I design portable radios among other things and I use NiMh batteries (NiCad are hardly available nowadays). Charging them at C/10, there is no need for complex charging circuitry, a single resistor is enough. And no worry about overheating or explosion. Leaking is rare, and even if they leak, it's only a very small quantity and the leak is non corrosive.
I bought several cheap HAMA AA NiCd batteries in 1997 and 1998, they all still work. My dad has some Yuasa and Panasonic that are around 30 years old, also working. I didn't have much luck with newer NiCds (Panasonic, SAFT and unbranded, all leaked and/or corroded) and, especially, NiMhs (they only last me a couple of years before their capacity reduces too much).
Eneloop NiMHs are decent. I have a bunch that are now 10 years old and still work fine (in a DECT cordless phone, amongst other things). Old NiCds are relatively hard to kill as well, but modern(-ish) ones seem to lose capacity surprisingly easy and will leak like crazy at some point for no particular reason. I assume something that went into those was banned thanks to environazis causing modern ones to be junk, similar to how alkalines from 2015 or so onward are garbage and will leak if you just look at them wrong
@@Knaeckebrotsaege Maybe less cadmium since it's the most toxic stuff in nicad batteries ?
In fact they're now banned for private consumers for that reason.
I wish I had one of those power packs back then. They seemed very durable and long lasting. By the way, WINS on 92.3 sounds so good on that Crosley. Have a Happy New Year.
Ahh.... I thought WINS is 1010 AM in NYC, and I was very impressed by the audio quality of AM on the Crosley.
@@LakeNipissing WINS is on both frequencies. It added 92.3 in late October. Even then, I was able to tell the difference between the AM & FM.
I have 26 year old Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that will still power a laptop for over two hours. Those also last for decades.
What is the music at 9:38? It played in the background of When Radio Was as Greg Bell introduced the show and hawked Radio Spirits CD sets.
It is a track called "Hiroshima" from the BackTraxx Music Library.
AWESOME! Best powerbank ever!👍
I damn near fell out of my seat when you said the exact city I live in. Crazy how a random video was so close to home.
How cool is this!!! 👍
I just realized the theme of your channel 😂 I’m a little slow sometimes 😆🤣😂🤣😂😆
You have very cool old stuff man nice
Very interesting, I never saw any product similar here in the UK, we had the portable battery packs for the video cameras of course but the form factor was a lot more bulky.
Nicad battery's were very good but the drawback was that you couldn't charge them like a LI. They needed to be drained out otherwise they developed a charge state memory.
This reminds me of a battery pack i got from argos when i was a kid, for my gameboy colour, which still works to this day!
Wow, that thing is a beast! I had no idea this existed, and I'm guessing this cost a pretty penny in 1987. I was saving up for an NES then!
I have a bunch of 18 year old ni-mh batteries that also hold up pretty well.
Obviously not as impressive as this ancient block, but still something.
you have some good radio reception there 🙃
It's good to end on a Cliff hanger ;)
Oh dear
I found out this year that solar garden lights still use NiCad cells AAA & AA, I guess they are not outlawed in Canada, and this was from a major grocery chain :o
My 1989 gameboy power bank still works great.
NiCd Batteries are often in emergency systems, but also electric tools from the past, not in use for years. Their lifetime is great especially if they were made in japan by Sanyo. They can take very low temperature as well, like no othe battery. They are now forbidden in the EU except for emergency system/lighting ect.
My original gameboy powerpack still works and charges fine :)
What a neat little item!
I would definitely wear it on my belt, I'm sure it would be an attention grabber.
Another great video!👍🇺🇸
That time lapse music.... You can almost hear "I bid you farewell" as clear as a Bell....
Wow, what an incredible piece of hardware! They don't build things like they used to, and it's such a shame... Nowadays, it's all about going cheap so things can be mass-produced.
There's a reason we still use NiCd in some devices, they have been modernised but they still offer the same benefits, just with less of the disadvantages. Most electronic toothbrushes and some high discharge devices have them.
It would be nice to see a modern version of that created with new NiCd's, put it through it's paces and compare it to an equivalent ah LiPo and Li-ion pack.
Note that you can build relatively easily your own power bank, we can find DIY power bank projects on internet, simple power bank version by assembling several 1.2 volts ni-mh batteries, or more advanced version with 3.7 Volts Li-ion cells.
Advantage of a DIY version : easy maintenance/repair (no planned obsolescence), can be scalable if you need more power.
Humidifier/dehumidifier quote was beautiful. I like to put wax in my humidifier. Makes my room all shiny.
Fascinating video!
This video reminded me that I actually have one of these, in the box in what seems like unused condition. I had to dig it out to see if it worked. The news is not good. I had it in a pole barn in a plastic tote with a lid but it seems the batteries have leaked or something. The box was partially ate up and there was "crystals" on the top. It has the cig plug on the top and that door was jammed shut. I managed to pry it open but the cig socket was all crystalized. Damnit! It is my own fault obviously for storing it improperly but I really wanted to try it out!
You showed that video camera, made me think of my ex roommates family just telling the landlord to sell or toss his belongings.. some of my items stored inside vs outdoor mini storage, like my Apple //c computer, and previous computers whose technology has been deprecated.
It stores the same power as 3 decent quality 18650 cells in series. It's still a very usable power bank. One can't help but be impressed at the fact that the cells in this thing are going on 40 years old, and still hold their charge. NiCd batteries have always surprised me. Too bad they are regulated out of everything today, and it's incredibly problematic for a regular person to get a hold of such a battery, especially a new one.
The discharge curve on NiCd and NiMh is very flat, unlike the one with LiIon and LiPo cells. They maintain almost the same voltage throughout their discharge cycle, and then suddenly drop their voltage when close to fully drained. I can't help but wonder if there's a thermal switch inside that pack for protection? These were very typical for such battery packs. Some of them also had thermistors, but this probably isn't as sophisticated considering the seeming lack of a built in charging and cutoff circuit. It's going the route of trickle charging. Put the cells on low current for a long time, and turn off the charge when the pack gets warm.
Very cool power bank
Just in time for a new video happy new year Kevin just by seeing the notification I recognized that battery my dad had.
Cliff Richard was underrated, even for his time. Killer tune too ✌
You might have a few moths watching, they’d most certainly be entertained by a video of a lightbulb.