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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?

8 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. I remember... by SisyphusShrugged · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember reading about a device developed specifically to assist third-world countries with their crop planting and communications via a radio that is hand-cranked and provides a large amount of listening time per crank.

    Apparently these countries suffer from a lack of information about weather patterns, which would greatly assist with the crop planting, and which is provided by the hand-cranked radio

    An example of geeky inventing that actually has practial application, rare on slashdot :).

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    1. Re:I remember... by jejones · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've bought a couple of theose radios; one AM/FM, the other AM/FM/shortwave.

      The generator starts to sound like it's grinding itself to metallic powder in fairly short order. I gave away one of them, so I don't know its fate now, but the AM/FM/shortwave one sits unused. It didn't take very long for whatever governs it so that the spring doesn't immediately unwind to break, so that if you wind it up, the knob turns at amazing speed, the mechanism sounds like you should do a bad imitation of Scotty and yell "She's gonna blow for sure, Captain!", and it unwinds itself in about one white-knuckled minute.

      The radio circuitry is constrained by the power source and the need to not consume it quickly. No doubt ingle-conversion, poor image rejection. Analog dial that you can't tune with certainty, just like in the old days! The sound quality, though is very nice (which for SW means wide selectivity--ouch...).

      I hasten to add that Freeplay has some far more sophisticated radio products these days, vide the Summit receiver.

  2. How many hands? by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even if we have some cool hand-powered hardware, how are we going to use it properly?

    Maybe a power-generating keyboard and mouse, so the faster you type and move your mouse, the longer your hand-powered PC will stay on.

  3. Hmm... by AstrumPreliator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is nice and all but I would much rather see a device (like your cellphone, pda, or gameboy) take advantage of the piezoelectric effect so the batteries charge when you use the device.

  4. Hand-Cranked Generator by Doctor+Sbaitso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For a physics assignment last year a friend and I created a hand-cranked generator using an old windshield wiper motor. It worked pretty well: we were able to power a boom box, a Game Boy Advance, a small water pump, a large light, and a few other items.

    We were thinking of selling it on the street during the blackout last summer, but decided that its nostalgic value would end up outweighing any monetary compensation we would gain.

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  5. Re:limitation by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A well-trained human body can produce around 100 W of motion effect for a couple of hours. (bicycle style)

    Wrong: the average Jow Blow who doesn't smoke and exercise somewhat regularly puts out between 75W and 120W for 2 hours. Well trained folks can put out 200/300W, and extremely well trained people (thing Lance Armstrong rushing to the finish line) up to 1kW peak for a short time.

    The Gossamer Albatros for example, was powered by a 40Kg athlete woman who put out an average of 300/350W for more than 3 hours continuously, which explains why she was pretty knackered when she arrived.

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  6. Considering how people flail and pound on buttons by squarooticus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    when playing Gameboys and other such devices, isn't it possible just to harness all the extra energy expended beyond that which is required to tell the device, "Yes, move up, and then left, and then..."? Don't mod this up to funny: I'm serious. Think of all the energy that is wasted by just heating the plastic, when it could go into powering the device in the first place.

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  7. Re:Universal Battery Replacement? by AdamTheBastard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd add a capacitor (bank) to that list, its to hard to produce a constant cycle on a bike. When you go too fast you would generate to much power though, when you go to slow you wouldn't generate enough which gives you a very wavy ouput, not real good for DC appliences. With a capacitor you can store the power you generate when you are going fast to use up when you are going slow.

    I would also think about using voltage regulators with decent heatsinks rather than resistors, regulators tend to be more forgiving than resistors.