And can we all agree that the IC and the inductor on the underside of the PCB really is the money shot? I don't think we've ever seen either. And I'm sure we haven't seen either because 14 minutes after we do, Jay Diddy B's going to have it modeled in Spice and a PCB spat out of his mill...
I don't even have to start from scratch, I can edit this one:
So we can shave a couple of minutes off the time...
I think we are going to find that the bottom side, the inside, is potted. The reason is that these pictures look like an attempt to get the potting process right.
I also believe the story that they have a custom integrated circuit:
I started a thread discussing the ic, August 2015.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/guess-the-batteriser-ic/msg741281/#msg741281I suggested that they would need a custom ic and it would be difficult. The reason it is difficult, is the voltage is so low. You have to be able start the circuit from about 0.8V and run with a 1.5 rail. You can power the circuit from the output, after starting. In addition you need be able to run in an energy saving mode to get low quiescent current. For this application the quiescent current should be around 10uA.
There are no commercial ics for this, because most applications would be for more than one cell. There are lots of options for Li-ion or multiple alkaline cells.
I have pretty good idea how the Batteriser will behave from the characteristics of the one that I built and forum member 5ky tested in this video.
The screen is black for the first few minutes, but then there is some video.
Regards,
Jay_Diddy_B