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Splashpower Boasts Wireless Power
Sullivan writes "Maccentral is running a story on a startup called Splashpower that hopes to be able to wirelessly recharge all of our handheld devices. They have a working prototype that already recharges an iPod Mini and a cell phone. Now we can look forward to yet another way to get brain cancer."
I think this is a very cool device and have often wondered why more devices haven't come with wireless re-chargability (think electric toothbrushes). But I wonder about the efficiency of this method. Is it? And if it's not, how less efficient is it than direct contact recharging? As more and more gadgets and devices become rechargable technology this would seem to be more important. I don't know much about electronics at the engineering level, so any erudite replies would be appreciated.
The "I'm getting cancer and my kids have ADD because of the powerlines in my house" crowd and their lawyers are going to have a field day with this!
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
the way I understand it, it works in exactly the same way as the transformer in every power supply... these things are short range (typically a few centemeters max) so the risk of em celular damage should be insigificant. I wonder though, how this will play with the actual electronics in the device itself. Electronics tend to get fried by high power e.m. fields, and if the device has any kind of coil that isn't intended for power coupling you may end up cooking the device?
I actually tried building one of these for my MX700. Winding a flat spiral inductor is WAY harder than you would think. I never got one good enough to induce anything in my secondary coil.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Excellent link from the parent -- I have an electric toothbrush that charges the same way and I've always wondered how efficient it is. Apparently it isn't much worse than traditional adapters used for phones and such: about 70%.
.7 for the "remote" charging.) Right?
However, if you look at the photo of the splashpower base, it looks as though the base itself uses an AC adapter (the cord appears to have a male DC-power connector). If that's the case then you really have to hits in the chain, and the system is ultimately 50% efficient (.7 for the adapter that powers the base, times
The efficiency is probably not at all bad; the magnetic field is short range and, in the absence of a receiver, the only thing in the magnetic circuit to absorb energy is the hysteresis of the inductor in the transmitter. Which, with modern ferrites, can be pretty small, unless of course they are using a purely air-cored system at the transmitter end, in which case it's tiny.
The huge potential benefit of this system is that it eliminates the second most unreliable part of electronic systems: connectors. Anyone who has worked at the sharp end of electronics knows that connectors suck, big time. Designs proliferate. There are far too many of them and they are far too unstandardised. And connectors designed to be repeatedly made and broken are the worst of the lot. Although the designs have come a long way (the fact that gigabit copper Ethernet connectors work is a small electronic miracle in itself) they are still the worst part of any system, after the batteries.
So here we have a system which if widely adopted allows most of the tiny connectors used in portable devices to disappear, and possibly reduces the demands on batteries because people will find recharging easier. Those are big pluses.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I've always thought it would be cool if Apple made a completely sealed, solid-state iPod. It would need inductive charging built in, as well as wireless bluetooth headphones. I'm not sure if a standard exists for it, but there also needs to be a very short-range (i.e., through the inductive charger) high-bandwidth wireless data transfer protocol. How cool would it be to have a waterproof iPod nano? Maybe someday they'll evolve into equally slim, sealed and lightweight tablets.
I guess the prof's theoretical calculations don't explain why HVAC lines will make a fluorescent tube light up at a distance, yet Earth's magnetic field does nothing...
One good thing about wired chargers is for example when you're on your cell phone and the battery starts beeping, you just attach the wire and it charges WHILE you use the phone (i.e. have it pressed to your ear). Same thing goes with electric shavers...
None of this would work with this wireless charger. Not that I wouldn't like one laying around...
Waiting for you by the bridge
No, but I am the guy who carries his cell phone in a pocket of jeans or coveralls, where the charging socket gets filled pu with lint and dust. Then again, I did buy a Eurosealer at Walgreens (mostly for humor value), and my tabletop could definitely use a sweeping-off-with-both-hands... :)
My Braun electric toothbrush does too and you can recharge it just by setting it next to a CRT-based monitor.