Weird Technology
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I wonder if this is a radiation safe technology. They had it at ces and basically you just stick your device on top of it without a plug and it charges it. http://www.powermatusa.com/[^] :confused:
KISS "Keep It Simple, Stupid"
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It's not that power adapters are so cheap, but the after-market value is so huge to the companies that make them. The mark-up on the peripherals (phone charger/work charger/synch cable, etc) is where many of these companies make the most profit.
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I wonder if this is a radiation safe technology. They had it at ces and basically you just stick your device on top of it without a plug and it charges it. http://www.powermatusa.com/[^] :confused:
KISS "Keep It Simple, Stupid"
They laughed at Tesla when he suggested it. Can't wait until they build the wireless electricity broadcast towers :)
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I wonder if this is a radiation safe technology. They had it at ces and basically you just stick your device on top of it without a plug and it charges it. http://www.powermatusa.com/[^] :confused:
KISS "Keep It Simple, Stupid"
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Is it just me or is that no less work than using wall sockets? I mean, you need a dock or a "disk" for most devices so far, and the mat only gives you so much room... Also if you're limited on desk space, you might only want to be charging your iPhone in front of you while you want everything else on the floor/by your bed/whatever. With this you can't do that, unless you have more than one mat, which defeats the purpose. I'm more interested in the induction technology that powers devices anywhere within a certain range, not just on a mat. This technology seems too transitional to be practical.
Well, if you have any magnetic storage media in range of the charger, it would tend to be "written" by the charging field in the scenario you suggest, causing errors to accumulate that might eventually (perhaps sooner than later) make that media useless until its erased and reformatted.
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It's not that power adapters are so cheap, but the after-market value is so huge to the companies that make them. The mark-up on the peripherals (phone charger/work charger/synch cable, etc) is where many of these companies make the most profit.
LOL like the original Gillete safety razor...they gave away the razors, and got rich selling razor blades.
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When I was at school (a number of years decades ago) we were shown how it was possible to light a stip light just by being near overhead power lines!
Remember, nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humour!
I used to have transmission lines crackling behind my house in '83. I could carry a 4 foot fluorescent bulb out there and it would light up. Not fully bright, mind you. My old computer monitors would gently throb all over the house as well. Good thing it was a rental, huh? It is amazing how many people don't believe it when you tell them these stories. Chris
Do we weigh less at high tide?
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When I was at school (a number of years decades ago) we were shown how it was possible to light a stip light just by being near overhead power lines!
Remember, nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humour!
Interestingly enough, USB is becoming something of a standard among devices. I see it on most phones these days, as well as MP3 players. It would be interesting to see it branch out to things not involved in computing. Seems like it would be a lot cheaper to develop around than building a proprietary charging interface.
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When I was at school (a number of years decades ago) we were shown how it was possible to light a stip light just by being near overhead power lines!
Remember, nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humour!
I've got friends who use the hi tension o'head power lines that cross their rural property to provide free lighting between the house and a couple of out buildings.
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It's not that power adapters are so cheap, but the after-market value is so huge to the companies that make them. The mark-up on the peripherals (phone charger/work charger/synch cable, etc) is where many of these companies make the most profit.
you're right, but you're assuming you can actually get the replacement power adapters. I had two Aironet BR500 wireless access point/bridges given to me, but their power supplies were kaput. Cisco had bought Aironet and discontinued the BR500 so I couldn't get replacement adapters from that source. I tried in vain to get replacement adapters elsewhere, including manufacturers in the US, France, Shenzen PRC, Tapei, Seoul and Hong Kong. The output voltages were unusual as was the connector on the bridges. So I bread boarded a couple of power supplies, and hand crafted some connectors, but after a couple of months one of them failed resulting in damage to the bridge it was powering. So they went to the dump. The BR500 covered 1.5 Km with dipole antennae and went 5Km with directional antennae, replacement value at least $2,000, so it was cheaper into use two satellite links and configure a VPN, much slower of course. All that for the lack of two $10 power adapters, no wonder the economy is stuffed!
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I feel a Douglas Adams quote coming on - "Oh no, not again". I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this technology demonstrated or discussed, usually by a startup you never here from again. I think I first read about it in New Scientist about 5 years ago but I'm sure it's been around a while. It's one of those brilliant ideas that won't get off the ground until one of the major industry players does it and the others want to get in on the act. Until then we have to keep suffering from cable hell.
Broadcast power has the problem that the available energy drops off in a distance-cubed-ratio ratio (I seem to recall). So sitting on a mat/antenna is ok, moving it a metre away means the losses in the charging process are probably more than the power available at that distance. ouch!