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Pedal Powered Wireless Networked Computer?
Friends of Jhai asks: "An NGO called Jhai Foundation, which is building Internet learning Centers in Laos has enlisted Computer Hall-of-Famer Lee Felsenstein to build a cheap, locally assembled, wirlelessly networked PC and communications system. The current details of the machine are here and the application is here. They are looking for similar systems under way that they might work with or which might be ready for deployment. Anyone have any URL's we can check out?" Great! Now you can get your computing and exercising done at the same time! What other types of technology have people managed to adapt to man-power as opposed to boring ol' AC outlets?
.. just to pedal fast enough to get up to 55 FPS in quake3
Live web cams
http://www.pedalpower.org [pedalpower.org], see Projects->Maya pedal
http://www.pedalpower.org, see Projects->Maya Pedal
The link provided shows these energy drains:
Computer: 5.5 Watts
Display 13 Watts
Printer (idle) 12 Watts (with inverter)
Printer (printing) 48Watts (with inverter)
Now, is this just a typo, or does a printer standing idly by truly drain twice the power consumed by the operating computer.
I'm guessing the former. I looked quickly for a link webmaster of the site but in my minute of searching found nothing.
You just know the Professor would invent one of these... and possibly some sort of internet connection for it. Maybe then they could download information on fixing their boat, and email people to tell them they were alive.
If people are gonna be doing manual labor at their computers, they'll need more energy.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That's a dot-matrix printer, probably driven by stepping motors. Stepping motors consume power even when stationary.
try to find relevance to topic is enough jerk off to power honda insight
"Indeed, the ideal for a well-functioning democratic state is like the ideal for a gentleman's well-cut suit- it is not
Le Tour de France
n/t
The real masters of man-powered accessories were definitely the red flag guys. I've seen and touched at least gems like
-hand-powered flashlight: you squeeze the handle to generate light. Works, but takes a superhuman to keep the light bright enough to be useful. Good if you only need a flashlight 2 seconds at a time once a day.
-wind-up shaver: turn a handle for a good five minutes to get 30 seconds of buzzing. Wouldn't try if it really works.
Both very recommended items for generating lively discussions at parties. Available in second hand stores throughout the baltic countries.
"Let's see...Start...Shut Down...OK...there we go. Hmmm, seems to be taking a while to shut down. Better keep pedalling in case we accidentally shut it off early."
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Imagine that all those over weight geeks (*cough* cowboy neal) who would be slim if they had to pedal to play on the computer. All those stats that america is getting fatter, etc. Make those gaming kids have to pedal to play PS/2, or Gamecube, or PC games...... It could be a great thing.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
check it out here (.mpg file)
I believe that the existence of women is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy
That's crazy stuff... I guess they're using dot matrix because there are a ton of those lying around in wait....
However, given that you can by a useable ink jet at target for around 30 bucks, maybe the project will given up the noble intentions of employing dot matrix printers and go with (what I assume would be) more efficient ink jets.
Does anyone have #'s for the ink jets?
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.... to keep slim. Do you think that a diet consisting of 99% coke and 1% beef is easy!?
Actually, with the smooth refreshing taste of coke, the real stuff not vanilla or that diet shit, it's a piece of cake. A couple dozen cokes for breakfast, followed by a plain wendy's triple with cheese for lunch. Then a couple dozen cokes until steak for dinner and a couple dozen cokes to keep me awake long enough to get some work done.
This is not sarcasm. This diet REALLY works. Visit http://flame.dnsart.com/ for absolutely no mention of this diet. GARUNTEED.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
A man in Laos suffered a sudden heart attack when the computer he was powering by pedal received a massive DOS attack and quadrupled its power needs.
Local authorities beleive the DOS attack was caused after a neighbour, whom he has had many problems with, posted the address of the pedal powered computer to a popular web site.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
A lot of big cities have bike cops (and bike medics, now)--why not rig their bikes with a tiny wireless node, powered by their pedaling?
Anyone have any URL's we can check out?
Yeah, anyone got any web servers we can crash and networks we can flood?
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
int CowboyNeal=350;
int FatboySlim=135;
do
CowboyNeal--;
while (CowboyNeal >FatboySlim)
rejoice();
return(0);
}
Actually, there's some good wind-up stuff available now. A couple years back, I bought a wind-up AM/FM radio, which also has DC and solar capability. The solar doesn't work too well... if you're even the slightest bit in the shade, it kicks out, and even in the sun, it has problems. However, I wind it for about 45 seconds, and at a decent level of volume, it stays on for 15 minutes... If I turn the volume down so just I listen to it, it's more like 35 minutes.
Same company advertises a wind-up flashlight... haven't got around to buying it yet, I might someday, but how do I find it in the dark?
now people will have leg/foot problems in addition to hand RSI.
I have some alternative suggestions for low-power, easily self-manufactured products that will be appropriate for this project. For the most common needs, users will be satisfied by the Portable Engineering, Numeric Computation, & Illustration Recorder, and the storage medium referred to as the Portable Accumulative Permanent Encoding Recorder. The P.E.N.C.I.L and P.A.P.E.R. system requires no power to operate and can be manufactured in any low-tech country with local materials.
This story reminds me of what happened when someone first tried to bring the internet to Nepal. They tried to find a local English-speaker for a contact person, they could only find one or two, and they were not interested in the project. They said they were far too busy working with foreign countries that were helping install sewers and electricity.
All this project is going to do is make poor countries even poorer. They can make all the pedal-power systems they want, but still have to buy computer hardware from abroad, using hard currency. I urge people to stop and think about whether this computer stuff is what third-world countries really NEED. Maybe someone should ASK them what they need, instead of suggesting projects based on what WE think they should need. I betcha they'd ask for things like Vitamin A tablets and refrigerators and AM radios.
- don't care about the pedal power, we run on solar here. I am more interested in this 5 watt computer. Anyone know this beast they are talking about? 5 watts is a piece of cake with one panel, heck, 50 watts is emininetly doable with a small panel. Pedaling is a big waste of time when you are a third world person and usually have to be outside working most of the time, whereas a solar panel is chugging along during the day charging your batteries.
An average man is capable of comfortably producing 65W of mechanical power continuously (full-time work).
Source: an old physics textbook.
If you really want, it can probably do twice this amount for a limited time ( hour).
Why don't you compare it with the smallest gas engine (used in toys) and close the topic?
I'm not even starting to discuss whether it's possible to press pedals and type at the same time.
The first reported death due to the slashdot effect.
Maybe someone could design an ink refill kit that allows them to use squids or some other native source.
If they are "tricked" into buying something they don't need, then that is their fault. On the other hand, if they accept this because they truly have a use for it, then what is the problem?
- Slashdot : Crank Up Your Webserver (18jun2001)
- Two days ago : Slashdot : First Wind-up Phone Charger Review (25jul2002)
- mini FAQ on bicycle lights (dynamo=3W)
- How to construct a permanent magnet alternator (this one is for windpower, ~180 watts)
- other homebuilt alternators (~100 watts) (again windpower. ?efficiency)
I did not find URLs for hand-powered military transmitters (but would be interested to get one). ? See also 'human powered flight' (Gossamer Condor), there are also submarines I thinkDon't exercice too much, keep some blood for the brains.
Having visited Thailand and Laos a couple a months ago, here are my thoughts:
Laos is primarily an agrian society. There is very little base infrastructure (roads, phones, electricity). So why would it be practical to build for the Loatian people a pedeled computer, when they are still having to harvest their rice crops using hand-carved wood tools?
Do us all a favor and provide some base technology to these people by giving them water purification systems, sewage treatment, modern road systems, or decent medical care --- not a computer so they can view CNNAsia.com or check their hotmail account.
What happens when the pedalling kid gets tired and takes a brief rest? Will you have to scandisk or fsck every time?
There is also the wind up radios these days...look up freeplay radio. This is in addition to the flash lights and a few other things people have already mentioned here.
:)
My dad had the same idea a few decades ago - can I get any money out of it?
... last (southern) summer when I spent a couple of weeks on vacation at an unpowered camp ground beyond reach of even cellular coverage.
It soon got to the point where it would have detracted from my holiday less if I had been able to write more freely that my iBook batteries allowed.
But even for the rest of the year, there is some appeal in the idea of being able to do something for cardiovascular fitness while we work.
So there really might be a market amongst relatively affluent nerds for early implementations of pedal powered computing, though maybe sans printer.
Then if the third world continues to see wisdom in leaping straight into the information age as a tactic for improving the rest of their lives the technology might be got to the point needed to make economic sense.
A lifetime ago, the lives of settlers in the Australian outback were improved by the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air, both of which were made effective by Alfred Traegar's development of the pedal wireless and a morse code keyboard.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
The former Soviets are very advanced in this kind of thing; check out the "universal translator" speech-to-speech translation handheld.
The first time I heard about it, Gilligan was pedaling a dynamo in an episode of Gilligan's Island. Then he stopped pedaling.
This sig no verb.
I read about this inventor who created a wind up radio that is apparently pretty effecient. Worldlink has this story about him. And I believe that I read in Wired that he was now trying to create a pair of shoes that would generate enough electricity to power a cell phone.
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http://www.aidindia.org/hq/projects/illus/pedal.ht me r.h tmlp ://www.los-gatos.ca.us/pedgen.html2 13.252:8383/2000/humanpower.htm
http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/energy/pedal-pow
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm
htt
http://67.82.
I haven't notices any mention of the SOLO, a project to develop a RISC workstation for use with renewable energy resources in third world countries.
Also, the idea of using pedal generators is not new, but not yet well developed. The Light Project uses pedal-generators and storage bateries to power white LED lamp to provide indoor lighting in third-world countries for living working and education.
Dull tools are useless. Sharp tools are dangerous. Never use the sharp end as the handle.
If anything I'm dangerously underweight, rather than overweight. And let them live the lives they want to live...
On a recent trip to the desert, a couple of people brought along radios that had both solar panels and hand cranks. With only about 30 seconds to a minute of cranking the radio would play for a good ten or fifteen minutes. The volume didn't get too high though (but you should have heard the things when we left 'em out in the sun!).
Using already working hardware you could hack together any palm with IR, an IR phone(for neting), and add on a palm keyboard. Now you atach that to your Car batery/ Bike generator and you have a working human powered computer. Mind you its not runing linux but who cares it works. You could eaven use one of thows large screened palms with the built in key board.
I always thought it would be a good idea to put a generator on all the workout machines in the cardio room at my local gym. You could probably recapture alot of the spent energy in a gym this way and put it back into the electrical grid.
-ted
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.04/approtec. html
Check out this, the MoneyMaker pump. Man-powered irrigation. This is the way to bring computers to impoverished nations... let them irrigate and farm, and then eventually they can buy their own computers.
As an A.C. posted, the Russians have the Universal Translator
Beware of car generators to produce electricity : they need high rpm's and are efficient (to be checked, I am not sure) when producing hundred's of watts (tens of amps at 12 volts).