A battery cell stores energy chemically, and can supply this energy as electrical current. That’s the common denominator of all battery cells. From here, it can get more complex:
- Depending on the chemistry used by the battery cell, it can be rechargeable, or it is designed for one-time use only (discardable).
- The chemistry inside a battery cell determines its voltage and many of its characteristics, i.e. its shelf life and energy density.
- When battery cells are combined and connected in series and/or in parallel, the result is a battery (aka battery pack) with varying voltage and capacity.
- Some battery chemistries like lithium are so powerful that they need a BMS to protect them from damage and protect you from fire hazards. Typically, the BMS is built into the battery, and you should always make sure your battery has a BMS, but you can also explicitly get batteries with no BMS (unprotected). Such batteries have a balancer cable instead so you can shift the tasks of a BMS to external components and save weight and cost.
In this section, you find basic information helping you to better understand various battery types, and picking the correct battery type for your next project:
- What are the different chemistries used in batteries in general, and how do they differ in terms of energy density, shelf life, and cost?
- Why can discardable batteries not be recharged like rechargeable batteries?
- What are the chemistries used in rechargeable batteries, and how do they compare?
- What is the difference between a battery cell and a battery pack?
- How can I test the quality and state of charge of a battery?
- What is a BMS, and how can I find out if my battery has one?
- Why do some rechargeable batteries have no BMS and a balancer cable instead?
- What are fake batteries, and how can I identify them?
Slow Website?
This website is very fast, and pages should appear instantly. If this site is slow for you, then your routing may be messed up, and this issue does not only affect done.land, but potentially a few other websites and downloads as well. Here are simple steps to speed up your Internet experience and fix issues with slow websites and downloads..
Comments
Please do leave comments below. I am using utteran.ce, an open-source and ad-free light-weight commenting system.
Here is how your comments are stored
Whenever you leave a comment, a new github issue is created on your behalf.
-
All comments become trackable issues in the Github Issues section, and I (and you) can follow up on them.
-
There is no third-party provider, no disrupting ads, and everything remains transparent inside github.
Github Users Yes, Spammers No
To keep spammers out and comments attributable, all you do is log in using your (free) github account and grant utteranc.es the permission to submit issues on your behalf.
If you don’t have a github account yet, go get yourself one - it’s free and simple.
If for any reason you do not feel comfortable with letting the commenting system submit issues for you, then visit Github Issues directly, i.e. by clicking the red button Submit Issue at the bottom of each page, and submit your issue manually. You control everything.
Discussions
For chit-chat and quick questions, feel free to visit and participate in Discussions. They work much like classic forums or bulletin boards. Just keep in mind: your valued input isn’t equally well trackable there.
(content created Dec 08, 2024 - last updated Jan 15, 2025)