The future is near... self-recharging laptops !!

[Guyver]

Why not use a piezo element with a capacitor rig to store the power and drain them into a voltage converter to charge the battery. Each strike of the piezo element discharges a certain amount of electrical energy and the weight would probably be a lot less than a magnet/coil element.

As long as I'm discussing piezo, has anyone heard anything recently on piezo-element fans. These puppies, when they were being tested several years back, could spot-cool a processor to within 15-20K of absolute-zero (granted it was a slow, cool processor to begin with) but that's one hell of a cooling factor. Couple that with a sealed peltier rig - and bingo - watch out, your processor may actually hit 5-10C or lower....

[Jorden]

Guyver, why not patent that piezo rig after all??

Isn't piezo the same stone you find in some lighters? And doesn't it produce a spark, when pressed? Wouldn't a spark inside your keyboard/laptop be hazardous? I wonder.

And about that cooler, how big is it?

Jorden.

[Guyver]

I should shouldn't I. I had the idea for a portable music player that used compressed forms of music, where you could buy the music online or at a kiosk in a store about 6 years ago...

Hmmm - Seems like they are doing it now only it's called MP3...

That one really bites...

[Michael7770]

Or, here's a groovy thought... why not hook a layer of thermo-voltaic cells to the processor and convert the waste heat from the processor back into electricty, so we can cool the chip and increase battery life and efficiency in one go. It's got to provide around the same amount of juice as key-tapping.


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-Michael

[Guyver]

Better yet, attach the thermo-voltaic cells into gloves and socks, wire them into an input pack, and then re-write the OS to erroneously throw up errors on the screen!
Or modify the web browser to take you to well known porn sites occasionally, and let your body temp do the rest!

[This message has been edited by Guyver (edited 07-22-99).]

[Jorden]

The future is near... self-recharging laptops !!


Go check this out, a self-recharging laptop by typing the keys on your laptop... where will this end?

<A HREF="http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990724/newsstory3.html" TARGET="_blank">Self-recharging laptops</A>

Jorden.

[agallag]

Guyver, that OS rewrite has been done to death... 'nuff said.

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Andrew Gallagher - andrew@agallagher.com
Asus P2B-S, PII-350, 64MB PC100, 12.7GB Quantum Fireball EX ATA-33, 3.2GB IBM Deskstar3 EIDE, 2 Quantum Atlas I 2.1GB UWSCSI, Toshiba 6201 SCSI CD, WangDAT SCSI, MillG200 8MB (Anxiously awaiting my G400MAX), SBLive! Retail, Win98SE

[merchant2]

heres an even easyer solution.

why not build a broadcast power station and equip all laptop computers with a reciver. then you would not need a battery at all as long as you stayed within the broadcast area.

[JonVS31]

Piezo-electric material under every key! That would be ridiculously expensive.

[Guyver]

agallag - Sorry

jonVS31 - OK - then how about under the spacebar and the enter key. They seem to get the most hits - possibly add the vowels. Oh - and let's not forget the infamous "Any" key....

LB

[chuck]

Use the key strokes to pump a high heat capacity fluid from a manifold on the processor to a thermo-voltaic cell that recharges the battery.
The tiny pumps would be cheap and the harder you were working on your computer the more cooling it would get and the greater the self charging effect would be.
chuck

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(erstwhile cjolley) celery 333@500mz 2.2V, 128meg@cas2 gh, 10gig IBM 7200rpm UltraStar, Princton EO75, $15 sound card(!),V3 2000 PCI (still waiting on my MAX!)



[This message has been edited by chuck (edited 07-29-99).]

[motub]

Two words, you guys:

venture capital

Get some!!!

If you don't, somebody else will...

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Holly

[Buuri]

I wonder why no-one is using motion in recharging them?
The most important thing on portable machines is that they can be moved from a place to another. Why not use that movement as a source of energy?


B

[chuck]

Good idea!
Like an old timex watch where a swinging pendulum winds the spring.
chuck


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(erstwhile cjolley) celery 333@500mz 2.2V, 128meg@cas2 gh, 10gig IBM 7200rpm UltraStar, Princton EO75, $15 sound card(soon to be replaced by an SB Live Value Steve!),V3 2000 PCI (still waiting on my MAX!)

[Gurm]

Err... these are all great ideas in principle, but lousy in practice. Oh well, I suppose SOMEONE had to spoil the fun. The original post, BTW, about Compaq putting little magnetic thingies under every key... it's a hoax.

- Gurm