Slashdot Mirror
Hitachi Shows Off A Fuel-Cell PDA
prostoalex writes "Hitachi made a PDA, powered by a fuel cell. The device runs for 5 hours, and they plan to expand the battery power to 40 hours. It weighs 700 grams, which makes it heavier than most of the models out there. The commercial production will start next year, a picture is available from MobileMag." (This earlier mention of Hitachi's work talks about how such fuel cells could be used to charge or power other things, from cellphones to laptops.)
I'm not sure I'd like to walk with methanol in my pocket. Hell, one whiff and you're blind... not sure even if it's allowed in a plane.
-- No sig today
Wouldn't it be a better idea if they concentrated on fuel-cell powered laptops instead of PDAs? I would kill to have a laptop whose battery lasted 40hours, and was topped-up using cigarette lighter gas (butane)!
I don't see the battery manufactures jumping for about this one, if fuel cells do get sufficiently small and cheap then there'll be a few very worried companies out there.
Parent's right, it's too heavy for a PDA.
Let's call this a CDA (Carriable Digital Assistant).
I personally use a Samsung Digimax Battery to achieve around 11 hours uptime with my Zaurus which is definitely more portable than this.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
- A fuel cell is a pollution-free and highly efficient power source and it is expected to be used for automobiles and in households, although its greater cost than that of traditional power sources limits its applications at present.
This refers to using the cell, not getting the power in it I'm sure. I think making alcohol takes more power than you get burning it, does the same apply to burning in a fuel cell? Or did I accidentally smoke the wrong stuff again?Another thing I didn't get is the expected lifetime of the cell. IOW how many times can you expect to charge the sucker before the same happens to it as did to all of my cellphone batteries. If you are expected to get as much as 40 hours from a cell (which, stripping the marketing hype and suchlike, translates to roughly 20 hours, maybe) does it mean you get 95% of that after the second charge? Or after the 100th charge? Or what? Sorry for being ignorant. If you know, please enlighten me.
I sure hope they get PDAs to the point, where your battery lasts a week again (as it did in my original Palm Pilot) and hopefully it can be done in a somewhat environmentally friendly way, too. Is this the way? You tell me, please (pretty please)
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
I think wind up technology is more impressive and practical. I own two baygen windup radios that store the energy in a coiled spring, then drive a mini generator to power the radios. They work, the concept works. I also have a small tri-power radio that is very interesting. Shirt pocket size, multiband. It has a built in solar cell which will charge internal fixed batteries (ni cads I guess, never looked at them). There's also a battery bay that holds conventional AA batteries. That's a redundant power supply. In addition, there's a small fold out crank on the side that runs a mini generator to add-to any of the solar input, a couple minutes of very easy cranking gives a long radio play time. That particular thing doesn't involve a spring like the baygens, but it could. either way it works as advertised, it's spiffy.
I think a PDA could be constructed along those lines somehow. The chemistry involved with using normal human muscles is very efficient, much more than other other fuel/power source. A similar PDA could also have an external jack for charging from a normal AC to DC wall wart or another DC source such as from your car while driving or an even larger solar panel/whatever, making it quad power.
zogger
I built most of it because of the huge hole there is in portable power generation. The most expensive item was the military surplus Solar panel kit, an aluminum book that when unfolded exposes 2 high efficency "purple" solar cells that generate 12 volts at 200ma in bright sun.. I can get almost 250ma out of them if I point it directly at the sun instead of laying flat. closed it's the size of a textbook and 1/2 inch thick. The motorola hand generator was bought at gander mountian on clearance. it's for motorola cellphones and was limited to 3 volts until you remove the NICAD batteries inside and re-solder the winding points. I now get 12V @100ma out of that also. finally I modified 2 of the cheapie bicycle light kits that have the generator for creating the electricity. they each generate ~7VAC 250ma(ok so they are altenators) so I simply recitify the voltage and use one backwards to generate about 13 volts DC. total money spent WITHOUT the Military solar panels is less than $50.00US the solar panels cost me $150.00US but were worth it due to the high output and efficency. I charge NiMh AAA and AA cells during the day off the whole thing as well as the cellphone and laptop. One of the key's though is that my battery packs are all fresh and I leave fully charged. you dont usually drain everything dry and try to recharge but I generate enough electricity during the day to replace what I use.
I could generate more if I modified a kiddie trailer to hold bigger solar panels and gear driven generator off the wheels.... but you don't want to get too ambitious to generate power... or you will end up reducing your ability to bike very far and reduce the gear load you can carry. (generating 1.2 amps at 110V will get you about 30 minutes before being wiped out.. you also want to disengage all your power generators when you are looking at a hill.. it is suprising how that extra resistance can make a difference when you are going uphill!
finally, I use a libretto because of the low power consumption with a self modified battery. the older 50C had nicad batteries which are complete crap. you must hand rebuild with li-ion or Nimh and learn to love a P-I 45Mhz processor... (Yes, Linux + blackbox + abiword + other apps are very useable on this slow of a laptop.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.