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Linux Duracell CPU Load Monitor

Posted by timothy on from the void-your-warranty dept.

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."

4 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Useless on a quickly varying load. by stephenisu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
  2. Neat. But WHY? by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

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  3. Re:A pity... by KUHurdler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    Fix Your Own TV - RiddledTV.com Avoid the Landfill
  4. Probably because the public isn't entirely stupid by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A pity that Duracell seems to not be interested in putting these testers on their batteries or in their packaging anymore

    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.

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    Please help metamoderate.