If you find yourself working through a lot of AA or AAA cells each year, you may want to consider getting a rechargeable option for, you know, the environment’s sake and also for the good of your wallet. But you don’t want any old Ni-MH chargers, you want the Ostation X AA/AAA Ni-MH battery charger.
Never mind the brand of your existing Ni-MH batteries or what brand you will be getting because this beast of AA/AAA Ni-MH chargers will take it all. I know. It sounds absolutely magical and it may well be if not it is coming from an established name like Olight.
Still, the Ostation X AA/AAA Ni-MH Batteries Charger sounds like magic. I mean it does not discriminate what brands of Ni-MH batteries, and it automatically analyzes the battery sizes, types, polarity, and health, allowing only compatible, healthy batteries to be charged up regardless of the orientation. Now, if these features do not sound magical to you, I don’t know what is.
Mind you, this is not just any old charger that can charge rechargeable cell batteries; it can do so automatically en-mass. OK. Maybe not quite ‘en mass’ but it does charge a group of four batteries simultaneously. All you have to do is drop the AA/AAA batteries into the sleek station and it will do the rest.
The Ostation X AA/AAA Ni-MH Batteries Charger uses a unique automatic cascading process (analyzing – charging – sorting – storage), making recharging batteries as hassle-free as using a vending machine.
The top portion is the holding area for batteries waiting to be charged. The center section is the charging section which will automatically accept empty batteries and release them to the storage compartment below when it is done with them.
The final ‘station’ is not simply a drop-and-forget compartment. It is a sorter too. When the group of 4 batteries is complete, only the compatible, healthy, and fully charged batteries are dropped into the storage/pickup compartment.
The incompatible/bad cells are directed to the invalid battery bin. In this way you can say goodbye to guesswork, knowing that you’d be picking up fully charged, useable batteries. So, yes, the Ostation X is not just a charger; it is also a storage for your loose rechargeable cells which is freaking cool.
And oh, it also tests the batteries too so that makes it a 3-in-1 device. The device has a capacity for 32 AA batteries or 36 AAA cells for the AAA version.
Oh, it has an app too. You can use the app to turn on and off the charger, monitor the number of batteries charged over the last 24 hours, check out the storage/pickup compartment status, invalid battery bin full alert, and more.
As with many modern chargers, the Ostation X also touts a bunch of safety features covered under its 8-layer protection system.
Man, after writing about it, it still feels like a fantasy tech. But it is real. Olight has taken to Kickstarter to promote the device where you can secure a unit at a discounted price of US$99 and up. This being a crowdfunding campaign, it has its risks so be sure to do your due diligence. The campaign has 44 days to go on the calendar but already, it has drawn over 2,500 backers contributing over US$460,000.
Images: Olight.
