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Linux Duracell CPU Load Monitor
Nixon8Pie writes "Know those little self-testing batteries? How would you like to monitor your computers load with them? Well, now ya can. 'These throwaway testers are quite clever: they use a layer of conductive ink that heats up when an electrical current runs through it, in combination with a layer of thermally-activated dye that turns transparent when heated up, revealing a third layer of colored ink underneath. Because the layers are printed with varying thickness from "0%" to "100%", parts of them become yellow before others, creating a bargraph effect that varies with the current applied, the battery's body itself sinking the heat produced by the conductive ink.' Pretty cool stuff."
It's neat, but rather than skin a battery, I wonder if those same things which were, and maybe still are, in the plastic packaging would be easier to work with
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I find this to be amusing and all, however pretty pointless. These strips take almost a full two seconds to register a full change. Spikes in usage (good to know sometimes) will be completely missed. Plus I am willing to bet you need to recalibrate it often if your room temp changes by more than a few degrees.
I would have RTFA, however it seemed to be down at the moment.
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
OK, this is neat, but WHY?
This same circuit could be adapted to:
Vary the brightness of a small light bulb.
Vary the speed of a small motor.
Drive an old-style swing needle meter.
(Variant of above) Drive a tachometer.
Heck, why not interface to a slot-car and have it go faster the higher your load average is?
www.eFax.com are spammers
My cousin once put two 9-volts together pos->neg. Blew up in his face. He didn't do that again. Duracell or Enegizer (don't remember which) did a presentation in his school about battery safety shortly afterwards.
For cpu load average, I run System Monitor. It displays a pretty bar graph in the panel at the stop of my screen.
Cost for running system monitor: $0.0
Time for setting it up: 00:00:30
Cost for Duracell load monitor: $9.95
Time for setting up: 04:21:23
Where law ends, tyranny begins -- William Pitt
When you are cussing and swearing at your kids new christmas toy that doesn't want to work, and you need to know if its the batteries or the toy, but you are at the grandparents and have no voltmeter, they come in handy for knowing if you need to go and buy new ones.
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
I think its a pity for them too. Theres no quicker way to drain a battery than to use one of those little testers. Those little things would have you buying more new batteries in no time. Duracell should know that too.
Fix Your Own TV - RiddledTV.com Avoid the Landfill
Then you can get a story posted to slashdot about your cool hack, too. I would love to see that CPU slot-car thingie. The tachometer is a good one, too. Can you make it make the sound of a Ferrari reving?
OK, this is neat, but WHY?
This same circuit could be adapted to:
Vary the brightness of a small light bulb.
Vary the speed of a small motor.
Drive an old-style swing needle meter.
(Variant of above) Drive a tachometer.
Heck, why not interface to a slot-car and have it go faster the higher your load average is?
I am sure you can take his code and modify it to do just that if you like. (and that answers part of your WHY question). The other part is just "because". This is true hacking.
I do like the idea of an analog gauge to show the CPU load.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
"they use a layer of conductive ink that heats up when an electrical current runs through it, in combination with a layer of thermally-activated dye that turns transparent when heated up, revealing a third layer of colored ink underneath"
The definition of ink from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
"1 : a colored usually liquid material for writing and printing
2 : the black protective secretion of a cephalopod"
Why is the first layer called "conductive ink"? Why not "coating" or "resin" or whatever it is? How does this stuff qualify as ink?
I'd guess it's because people weren't as stupid as the battery companies thought they were. Most people know full well the strip works by heating up, and that wastes the power of the battery.
On top of that, it's redundant; most consumer devices have battery gauges, the gauge can't be used when it's in the device, and when it runs out- you usually either have spares, or a quick trip to the quik-mart fixes the problem. That means that something that cost money to put on the battery was now raising the cost on the shelf versus the competition, or eating into the profit margin.
Not to mention, non-rechargeable batteries are useless to most product designers, because the devices are way too a)small and b)power hungry.
Please help metamoderate.