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Hand-Powered Hardware?

Posted by timothy on from the for-the-coming-apocalypse dept.

quiddity writes "Following the Goofy USB Devices post, one has to know what can be self-powered when the batteries all die. You can handcrank your Gameboy, recharge your cellphone or pda (even grandpa), wind up a webserver (with minions, a beowulf..), see in the dark, and project a movie. What else can we propel through the next blackout/apocalypse?" Some of these devices have have been on Slashdot before; what cool hand-powered tech hasn't been and should be?

13 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Universal Battery Replacement? by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 4, Insightful
    How about a universal battery replacement hand-crank generator? Then I'd just need to buy the one.

    Not an academic question -- we lost power for 5 days last December and again for 4 days last January.

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    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
    1. Re:Universal Battery Replacement? by FattMattP · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Repeated outages that last for days? If I was in your situation I'd just invest in a good gas-powered generator.

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    2. Re:Universal Battery Replacement? by armb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > unless you wanna ride that bike the entire time the radio is on.

      One of the many things you could run is a battery charger.

      > a hand crank battery replacement... oops. I would think that a battery would be a better choice

      So your plan is to replace a battery with - a battery. Not exactly a "hand crank battery replacement" is it?

      > A typical cap isn't going to do much to keep something running if you step off the bike, right?

      No, it will help smooth the rectifier output while you are on the bike. Like the parent said.

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      rant
    3. Re:Universal Battery Replacement? by SubtleNuance · · Score: 2, Insightful

      a good gas-powered generator
      Gas powered generators should be illegal. Do you know how much 2cycle (which most generators are these days) engines pollute?

  2. Hand Power PC? by Graemee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Say a Mini-ITX low power, embedded OS on flash with a broswer & email. Modem and Ether net. TV output for my battery powered TV.

    1. Re:Hand Power PC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Could energy be harvested from the keyboard?
      Every key press producing a tiny amount of power??

    2. Re:Hand Power PC? by cos(0) · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For keys that you can actually press (since you could increase torque to get more power), a keypress most likely wouldn't produce enough power to travel an inch down the wire before being destroyed by attenuation.

    3. Re:Hand Power PC? by Doubting+Thomas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You could use some sort of piezoelectric mechanism in a 'clicky' keyboard, and trade pulse duration for higher voltage. Still, I'd be surprised if you could do much more than create a self-powered keyboard from such an arrangement.

      Personally, I still want to get back to my childhood, and have an electronic device that was powered by a pull-string, like those little "The cow goes 'moo'" toys. Of course, I used to break the string in a month or so. Maybe if they used Spectra instead of nylon...

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      Just because it works, doesn't mean it isn't broken.
  3. blackout/apocalypse situation by way2trivial · · Score: 2, Insightful
    1- if it's a blackout, the cell phone won't do much good- unlike baby bells- cell towers don't have batteries (around here at least- ymmv)

    2-and how many of these gizmos would be killed by a nuclear EMP anyway?

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  4. Re:Masturbation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think you're on to something tho...

    How about a hand-powered vibrator?

  5. Re:Battery-less, shakable flashlight by Cecil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wow, it uses Faraday's Principle of Induction to generate electricity? What a novel way of doing it!

    Sorry, I couldn't help but make fun of you for stating it like it's something interesting or uncommon. Virtually ALL of the world's energy comes from changing kinetic energy into electricity using a dynamo or generator -- which use, you guessed it, Faraday's principle of induction. There are a few exceptions, such as photovoltaic cells and thermocouples, but those are absolutely marginal at best. Grid-scale solar power doesn't use photovoltaic cells, but typically heats water into steam to turn turbines. Thermocouples have never been widely deployed.

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    Random and weird software I've written.
  6. AA and AAA NiMH charger by pwarf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Someone else might have mentioned this, but I would like a AA or AAA NiMH charger.

    Many MP3 players use just one AA or AAA.

    You'd probably want to just charge one or two at a time so the charging would go faster.

  7. Books by mwood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Traditional paper publications have never needed batteries, work well in low light and extreme glare, and can even function underwater if you're careful when you turn the pages.