@ticky there was a company a few years ago that made a thing like that, except they marketed it as a way to extend the life of a battery (which is complete nonsense, once an alkaline cell hits 1.1 or 1.0 volts it's completely dead, not much energy left in it, and most devices work down to that voltage) instead of to make nimhs work in things that don't like 1.2 V cells
it was called "batterizer" if you want to look it up.
@Felthry oh yeah I remember hearing about this, definitely quackery as it was originally framed, though it seems they’ve now pivoted to claiming it’s designed for rechargeables, which makes a lot more sense than their original claims. They still haven’t delivered them though lmao
@Felthry @ticky yeah it's just a miniaturized boost circuit https://www.eevblog.com/2015/06/07/the-batteriser-explained/
@Felthry like, I ran into this with my modded game boy - the backlight is now the most voltage tolerant part of the whole device, happily running at less than a volt, meanwhile the computer itself and screen die much sooner in a NiMH’s life, and it consequently can’t really properly drain them
@ticky also, it's worth noting that ⅘AA is a somewhat common size for NiMHs! they're the same diameter as AA batteries, but ⅘ the length--probably enough room to cram a tiny boost converter in there along with them
@Felthry I have been wondering for a while if you’d be better off with AA-sized batteries which are a AAA/that AA diameter but shorter NiMH with a boost converter in them for older devices which require more voltage but less current lmao