To put it another way: if you were to be handed some random piece of hardware from a Best Buy store, you still don't have the utmost confidence that it'll work "out of the box" because there's lots of hardware in retail stores that either doesn't have a Linux driver or at best requires a long, convoluted install process in order to get reduced functionality (i.e., your multi-function printer can now print, albeit at a lower resolution and the scanner functionality doesn't work).
Umm.. Maybe. Read the box carefully. My wife's all in one Dell all in one printer/scanner came with drivers for Windows XP and Windows 2K only. On my network is a mix of an older laptop (Win95) Newer laptop (Win ME) Game machine (Dual boot Linux and Win 98 SE) and several net attached items such as printers. It's too bad that none of the other computers can use the new printer. There are no drivers for any machine except the new XP machine.
We replaced that new printer when it ran out of ink. It simply lacked Windows drivers. The HP Laserjet on a Hawking printserver can be used by all the machines including the dual boot box in Linux. The printer and printserver both have Linux support and drivers for all my Windows versions (except the Win CE handheld) More often than not, new random pieces of hardware are unlikely to come with all the drivers for all the versions of Windows or other OS'es. I check the compatibility list carefully because I run a mixed environment.
Tv show Piracy is killing the industry! do you all want to have to pay monthly for your TV content???
Has anybody figured out how much the broadcast flag is going to kill local TV stations?
When analog goes away, they expect me to replace my 20 inch living room TV with a Digital TV. Umm.. There aren't any. Big sets are out there as are Digital TV ready monitors. I'm not replacing my TV with a $600 monitor + a $400 set top DTV tuner. Now add in the cost for the 13 inch set on my night stand, the 9 inch set I take camping, and the little under the cabinet flip down set in the kitchen.
When it comes to entertainment dollars, I'll buy a boat instead. It's about the same price. We have Internet. Internet will finish replacing TV.
We will keep the existing sets. They work fine for the PS, DVD and VHS playback.
Now the dammage.. The loss of functionality and the increase in the cost of the equipment has kept me out of the market entirely. My local FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, & PBS studios have no over the air viewers. Guess what happens to there revenue from the local instant credit, local car dealership, funiture store, etc advertisers.
The dammage is local broadcasters go bust. The FCC can't be Alan Greenspan on this one and save the local advertising dollars. They can't mandate retail prices on Digital Televisions so I would be interested in replacing my analog TV's.
Internet has become my new TV and the local car dealership will simply put their advertising dollars into radio (for the commuters stuck in traffic) and a bigger roadside video billboard. The local studios are not going to get the advertising dollars. There will be no eyeballs.
Piracy is killing the industry less than the fight over the broadcast flag which has delayed the introduction of digital television sets and made them horribly rare. Nobody is going to make a 9 or 13 inch digital television anytime soon because nobody will pay the price.
Everyone in dorm rooms, basement dwellers, effeciency apartments and other space limited people will simply go dark or go pay TV. I hope the cable company gets enough veiwers of the local channels to keep the advertisers happy enough to keep the studios open. I'm not holding my breath. Local TV advertising is all but dead along with the local studios budgets.
It would be hard to hide from any Linux Live CD's. You boot a read only file system (not modifiable by a bug), load a trusted application (FDISK or Disk Druid) and check the partition table. Not much can hide from a scan from a non-compromised OS.
I am in decent shape, and only rarely am I able to obtain a speed of 60MPH on my human-powered bicycle, and even then only for moments at a time.
It's simply not a question of effeciency. It's capacity. Your SUV doesn't go 60MPH very far on a few ounces of oil either. Now if you could burn 8 Lbs of fat an hour, you could make good time if the effeciency remained the same. Now the problem would be with storage of enough fat for the trip.;-)
at least we know there will be a cap of $80 usd for the barrel of oil.
WRONG!
Back to economics class. Free market society. Supply and demand.. Your SUV eats 30 gallons of fuel a week for your commute. How many acres of wheat are needed to feed how many turkeys and how fast do they reproduce?
As demand grows, the supply will also need to grow or become scarce. There is a limited amount of farmable land in the US. I doubt it can meet our oil demand without causing an influence on the price of a loaf of bread. Fuel and food will be competing for the same crop off the same field. Don't think for a moment the price is fixed. It isn't. Do think the supply is fixed. It is.
It's in their best interests to present a facade of barely treading water all the time. That means that even if they get their way with the broadcast flag, some new evil will appear that they have to be seen to chase down.
It's not in their best interest to bite the hand that feeds them. When analog goes dark, so will most local studios. Nobody watching over the air broadcasts means no advertising dollars. Adding a broadcast flag simply provides less value to the consumer, more cost to the set, and less reason to get a set to watch over the air broadcasting. Local TV commercials are going to become history. There won't be any more local broadcasts to advertise on. Even PBS won't be able to reach enough people with their pledge drive. They will just reach the few on local cable. Otherwise they will fold.
The FCC may mandate the broadcast flag, but they are not Alan Greenspan. They can't fix the over the air TV's money problems.
Now at least we've got the History Channel, Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc...
None of which are on over the air broadcasting. Name one incentive to buy a Digital TV that can pick up my local over the air broadcast.
My point exactly.. Over the air TV dies when the transition to Digital happens. Nobody is spending big bucks to catch the 6:00 news or Days of our lives.
I'd argue that the tv choices now are far better than they were 20 years ago.
Unless you are talking about what you get on over the air TV.
The side of the road is littered with better shows than most of the crap that's on your TV in primetime. You want to do something about it? SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENTS.
Sounds good, but having a limited amount of time (dont' we all), wasting a bunch of time on unknown shows in hopes of finding a gem is a waste of time. I'd rather miss the original season and then pick up a good series on DVD. I've heard enough about The Saprano's to check it out. I haven't bought it yet, but I'm considering it.
For many people, including myself, there isn't time to waste on real time TV and it's overload of commercials and poor programming. Searching out the good stuff on the internet has replaced TV. Unless an Indy film gets good grass roots support and chatter, it simply doesn't get noticed in the background noise.
The truth of the matter is I spend less than an hour a week on live TV. Spending over $400 on a set to replace my $150 set just isn't in the budget.
CRT based wide-screen HDTV receivers with tuners are at $900 and below. There isn't much lacking technically in these sets, and most include every I/O option you could ask for. If you are accustomed to paying for HD resolution in a PC monitor and graphics card, HDTV isn't that big a leap.
Replacing the TV in the kitchen (9"), the bedroom & motorhome (13"), the living room (20") with one TV so we fight over what channel to watch isn't an option. Between Barney for the kids, the news for me and the soap for the wife, buying TV's with a combined cost of more than my car is not in my immediate or extended finiancal plan. No complete Digital TV sold today (that I could find) still won't fit on the nightstand. To qualify as a digital TV, it must include the ditital TV tuner built into the set. Digital ready does not qualify as a complete television. Neither does Digital ready that includes just an NTSC tuner. I work nights. Unless it can be time shifted, I'm not interested.
Not everyone is interested on home theatre. Basement dwelling geeks, Dorm dwelling students, RV'ers, effeciency apartment dwelling newlyweds and retirees simply don't have the space.
A 13 inch set in an RV can run half the night off a deep cycle RV battery. A digital TV isn't that power friendly. Not everyone in the campground wants to hear the generator running late into the night.
In the meantime, I'll keep NTSC for DVD rentals. It's much cheaper to buy or rent a DVD instead of taking the family to a movie.
The local broadcasters are the ones that are going to fold due to lack of advertising dollars. Almost nobody will be watching over the air TV anymore. The ROI for over the air crap programming just isn't worth the entertainment cost. I'd rather buy a couple quads or a boat instead.
I don't know what to do either. I really didn't like the ozone that I smelled around laser printers in the past, I don't know if they changed it. Inkjets seem to be maintainance nightmares, if you print too much
I did both. To keep the inkjet from failing due to non-use, I put it on my LAN. Why have 3 inkjets only to have one or two of them dry out? I made sure it was refillable. Next I put a Laser on the LAN. It doesn't have to be where I have to smell it.
Then I informed the family the average cost per page for printing. When they can make informed decisions, it goes a long way to cutting supply costs.
'Hoax' and 'fraud' are pretty strong words for what is, obviously a spoof.
True, but I used those words because Slashodt put the article under hardware, not it's to laugh. I also included the;-) to indicate I wasn't serious about this being a real fraud or hoax.;-) I took it for what it was and had some fun with it. I also wanted people to think if what was presented was even possible as it was presented. I put in my reasons why I realised it wasn't real so some could learn real world engineering. Some things look good in concept and on paper until you do the math and find the concept has a serious flaw. In this one, the thermal capacity and power output of the linear regulator is a design flaw that would keep this idea from working. With a beefy regulator that could supply several hundred watts at 5 volts could change the project into something that might have a chance. Then other considerations will need to be addressed such as wire size. 200 watts at 5 volts is 40 amps. I would consider a larger wire size for example to keep the heat out of the wire and in the CPU's.
We are technical people here. It's a good pratice to do the math.
You point out that the regulator should dump more heat? If it got a nice low resistance, I think it should not.
Go back to school. A simi-conductor behaves like a variable resistor. A switching regulator is effecient because it switches on and off while not running in the resistance mode. When it's on it does run very low resistance as you mentioned. It uses an inductor and a steering diode so in a switching regulator (assuming 100% effeciency) it would draw 5 watts from the 12 volt supply not 12 watts to provide 1 amp at 5 volt output. So how do you put in roughly 0.41 amps at 12 volts (5 Watts) and get out 1 amp at 5 volts (5 Watts)? With an inductor or transformer, the current still flows to the output through a diode from ground. The 12 volt pulses are just to create the current in the inductor. A linear regulator does not work that way.
A Linear regular on the other hand operates in the resistance range. Now ohm's law applies. A 1 amp draw from the 12 volt supply (12 Watts) with a 7 volt drop from 12 volts to 5 volts through the series pass transistor in the regulator is released as 7 watts of heat. The other 5 watts is delivered to the regulator output and is used to cook the bacon on the grill.
So at the risk of being redundant, if there is a 1 amp draw by the chips at 5 volts (not likely) and the regulator is running in a linear mode (does by design) and assuming the regulator does not draw it's own operating power (it does, but it's small) then my statement is true that the regulator releases more heat than the CPU's. The regulator would release 7 watts while 5 watts is delivered to the bacon and eggs. The 12 volt supply would supply 1 amp or 12 watts of power to the regulator and load combined.
Thanks for the mirror with good photos that shows off the hoax very nicely.
Hoax??
Yes.. Here are the facts some of which are taken from the photos.
In a DC series circuit the current is equal in all parts.
In a DC circuit Volts * Amps = Watts.
The 7805 regulator is a linear regulator, not a switching regulator.
The current for the chips goes from a 12 volt supply through the 5 volt regulator to the chips.
The regulator drops 7 volts (from 12 to 5) while the chips get 5 volts.
The current the chips draw goes through the regulator and at about the same current. (the regulator uses some current ot operate)
From that the regulator has to dump more heat than the chips! To cook the eggs and bacon on the chips, the regulator (without a large heatsink in the photo) would have fried it's own crater in the table top as it would have put out more heat than the chips.
Since a 7805 is current regulated and thermaly protected, I doubt the chips got more than 7 watts. Every try cooking bacon on a 7 watt night light? It's about the same heat as his hotplate but better concentrated to a small area. A night light would have cooked the bacon better. Even then, it would not be done enough to eat safely.
Don't be fooled. The eggs and bacon was cooked on a regular stove, not the chips.
The logo for the article should have been the foot. Then I would have laughed instead of picking the fraud apart.;-)
I'm just wondering why he decided to cook on the chips. He should just cook on the linear voltage regulator. The voltage drop on the regulator going from 12 volts to 5 is 7 volts. It's a 1 amp regulator feeding the chips. It puts out 5 watts of power to the chips (if they don't overload the regulator and trip the current regulation) while the regulator is putting out 7 watts. Things will be warmer near the 7805. This is especialy true if the chip goes into current limiting (very likely) so it outputs less than 5 volts and drops more than 7 volts at the current limit.
My guess is that he didn't REALLY get 120 watts through, but enough current to warm up the chips nicely.
From a quick Google search on one of these...
USM 7805 is a 3-terminal positive voltage regulator designed with built in internal current limiting, thermal shutdown and safe-area compensation for maximum flexibility and safety . With adequate heat sinking provided, USM 7805 can deliver up to 1.5A output current.
I'm with you on your conclusion. The chip at current limiting gives you about 7.5 Watts, not 120 Watts or anything close. I have a night light for the kids that put out the same heat he could have gotten.
Do the math people. In a DC circuit Volts times Amps = watts. A 7805 is a 1 Amp 5 Volt regulator. They are trying to run several 20 Watt IC's? I hate to be a antagonist, but it is not going to work.
depending on design of the robot, it may have more than one running CPU
Agreed. I've seen some process equipment that has a built in network. The material feed systoem has it's processer, the process modules have their own processors (several), the chemical supply system has it's own processors, and the main control module is it's own processor. If any processor signals it's not ready, the process halts to prevent messing up a batch. The more modules you have running an unstable OS, the more likely you will have downtime in addition to the software cost per processor. A module messing up during processing = expensive scrapped material. Your OS choice goes way beyond the purchase price per processor. Uptime reliability is very important.
One prior art that I know about is the Japanese artist Tomita well known for the Cosmos album, released the Bermuda Triangle Album. It has a segment of data in it. It sounds like you could recover it with a Bell 103 compatible modem. I never tried to recover the data. Some day I may give it a try. The Album is 12 inch and pressed in coral pink vinyl. It's a collectors item if you can get one.
The trick is to use a dial on demand linux box. You can have a script that will automatically dial into your provider.
Instead of dedicating a Linux box to be a gateway, Spend about $70 and get an ActionTec Dual PC modem. It has dial on demand built in. It also fits next to the network switch just fine.
To prevent being accused of spamming slashdot, I didn't say. But since most people don't go back and read new entries on an old artice, I got it from http://www.atlascopy.com/
I decided to try them after visiting their knoledge base and read the forum. Instead of being just a sales site with no info, they were heavy on the how to and happened to have good supplies and tools.
Disclaimer, other than as a consumer, I have no relationship with atlascopy.
Some advice.. Don't bother with any SPAM offer. They are out to rook you.. Instead Google search. Then do your homework.
It took me 2 weeks to decide on an ink supplier. They provided all the nessary inofrmation about my printer and cartridges. The Forum was great. I learned the common pitfalls. I bought a small trial amount at first. I'm now on my 3rd order of several pints of ink. (the cost of a pint of ink is less than the price as a cartridge!) A legit supplier does not need an e-mail campaign. Don't supprt SPAMMERS! Google is your friend.
It pays to do your homework. Impulse buys from an e-mail are a rip-off.
Slashdot Mirror
To put it another way: if you were to be handed some random piece of hardware from a Best Buy store, you still don't have the utmost confidence that it'll work "out of the box" because there's lots of hardware in retail stores that either doesn't have a Linux driver or at best requires a long, convoluted install process in order to get reduced functionality (i.e., your multi-function printer can now print, albeit at a lower resolution and the scanner functionality doesn't work).
Umm.. Maybe. Read the box carefully. My wife's all in one Dell all in one printer/scanner came with drivers for Windows XP and Windows 2K only. On my network is a mix of an older laptop (Win95) Newer laptop (Win ME) Game machine (Dual boot Linux and Win 98 SE) and several net attached items such as printers. It's too bad that none of the other computers can use the new printer. There are no drivers for any machine except the new XP machine.
We replaced that new printer when it ran out of ink. It simply lacked Windows drivers. The HP Laserjet on a Hawking printserver can be used by all the machines including the dual boot box in Linux. The printer and printserver both have Linux support and drivers for all my Windows versions (except the Win CE handheld) More often than not, new random pieces of hardware are unlikely to come with all the drivers for all the versions of Windows or other OS'es. I check the compatibility list carefully because I run a mixed environment.
depends. what's the key, b-flat?
I play piano. I got a copy of the sheet music. It's in the key of C.
The key signature matches the notes. There aren't any which puts it in the key of C.
I guess we should all observe about a minute of silence then..
I can't. I don't have the album.
Tv show Piracy is killing the industry! do you all want to have to pay monthly for your TV content???
Has anybody figured out how much the broadcast flag is going to kill local TV stations?
When analog goes away, they expect me to replace my 20 inch living room TV with a Digital TV. Umm.. There aren't any. Big sets are out there as are Digital TV ready monitors. I'm not replacing my TV with a $600 monitor + a $400 set top DTV tuner. Now add in the cost for the 13 inch set on my night stand, the 9 inch set I take camping, and the little under the cabinet flip down set in the kitchen.
When it comes to entertainment dollars, I'll buy a boat instead. It's about the same price. We have Internet. Internet will finish replacing TV.
We will keep the existing sets. They work fine for the PS, DVD and VHS playback.
Now the dammage.. The loss of functionality and the increase in the cost of the equipment has kept me out of the market entirely. My local FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, & PBS studios have no over the air viewers. Guess what happens to there revenue from the local instant credit, local car dealership, funiture store, etc advertisers.
The dammage is local broadcasters go bust. The FCC can't be Alan Greenspan on this one and save the local advertising dollars. They can't mandate retail prices on Digital Televisions so I would be interested in replacing my analog TV's.
Internet has become my new TV and the local car dealership will simply put their advertising dollars into radio (for the commuters stuck in traffic) and a bigger roadside video billboard. The local studios are not going to get the advertising dollars. There will be no eyeballs.
Piracy is killing the industry less than the fight over the broadcast flag which has delayed the introduction of digital television sets and made them horribly rare. Nobody is going to make a 9 or 13 inch digital television anytime soon because nobody will pay the price.
Everyone in dorm rooms, basement dwellers, effeciency apartments and other space limited people will simply go dark or go pay TV. I hope the cable company gets enough veiwers of the local channels to keep the advertisers happy enough to keep the studios open. I'm not holding my breath. Local TV advertising is all but dead along with the local studios budgets.
Would standard MBR scans catch that?
It would be hard to hide from any Linux Live CD's. You boot a read only file system (not modifiable by a bug), load a trusted application (FDISK or Disk Druid) and check the partition table. Not much can hide from a scan from a non-compromised OS.
I am in decent shape, and only rarely am I able to obtain a speed of 60MPH on my human-powered bicycle, and even then only for moments at a time.
;-)
It's simply not a question of effeciency. It's capacity. Your SUV doesn't go 60MPH very far on a few ounces of oil either. Now if you could burn 8 Lbs of fat an hour, you could make good time if the effeciency remained the same. Now the problem would be with storage of enough fat for the trip.
at least we know there will be a cap of $80 usd for the barrel of oil.
WRONG!
Back to economics class. Free market society. Supply and demand.. Your SUV eats 30 gallons of fuel a week for your commute. How many acres of wheat are needed to feed how many turkeys and how fast do they reproduce?
As demand grows, the supply will also need to grow or become scarce. There is a limited amount of farmable land in the US. I doubt it can meet our oil demand without causing an influence on the price of a loaf of bread. Fuel and food will be competing for the same crop off the same field. Don't think for a moment the price is fixed. It isn't. Do think the supply is fixed. It is.
It's in their best interests to present a facade of barely treading water all the time. That means that even if they get their way with the broadcast flag, some new evil will appear that they have to be seen to chase down.
It's not in their best interest to bite the hand that feeds them. When analog goes dark, so will most local studios. Nobody watching over the air broadcasts means no advertising dollars. Adding a broadcast flag simply provides less value to the consumer, more cost to the set, and less reason to get a set to watch over the air broadcasting. Local TV commercials are going to become history. There won't be any more local broadcasts to advertise on. Even PBS won't be able to reach enough people with their pledge drive. They will just reach the few on local cable. Otherwise they will fold.
The FCC may mandate the broadcast flag, but they are not Alan Greenspan. They can't fix the over the air TV's money problems.
Now at least we've got the History Channel, Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc...
None of which are on over the air broadcasting. Name one incentive to buy a Digital TV that can pick up my local over the air broadcast.
My point exactly.. Over the air TV dies when the transition to Digital happens. Nobody is spending big bucks to catch the 6:00 news or Days of our lives.
I'd argue that the tv choices now are far better than they were 20 years ago.
Unless you are talking about what you get on over the air TV.
The side of the road is littered with better shows than most of the crap that's on your TV in primetime. You want to do something about it? SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENTS.
Sounds good, but having a limited amount of time (dont' we all), wasting a bunch of time on unknown shows in hopes of finding a gem is a waste of time. I'd rather miss the original season and then pick up a good series on DVD. I've heard enough about The Saprano's to check it out. I haven't bought it yet, but I'm considering it.
For many people, including myself, there isn't time to waste on real time TV and it's overload of commercials and poor programming. Searching out the good stuff on the internet has replaced TV. Unless an Indy film gets good grass roots support and chatter, it simply doesn't get noticed in the background noise.
The truth of the matter is I spend less than an hour a week on live TV. Spending over $400 on a set to replace my $150 set just isn't in the budget.
CRT based wide-screen HDTV receivers with tuners are at $900 and below. There isn't much lacking technically in these sets, and most include every I/O option you could ask for. If you are accustomed to paying for HD resolution in a PC monitor and graphics card, HDTV isn't that big a leap.
Replacing the TV in the kitchen (9"), the bedroom & motorhome (13"), the living room (20") with one TV so we fight over what channel to watch isn't an option. Between Barney for the kids, the news for me and the soap for the wife, buying TV's with a combined cost of more than my car is not in my immediate or extended finiancal plan. No complete Digital TV sold today (that I could find) still won't fit on the nightstand. To qualify as a digital TV, it must include the ditital TV tuner built into the set. Digital ready does not qualify as a complete television. Neither does Digital ready that includes just an NTSC tuner. I work nights. Unless it can be time shifted, I'm not interested.
Not everyone is interested on home theatre. Basement dwelling geeks, Dorm dwelling students, RV'ers, effeciency apartment dwelling newlyweds and retirees simply don't have the space.
A 13 inch set in an RV can run half the night off a deep cycle RV battery. A digital TV isn't that power friendly. Not everyone in the campground wants to hear the generator running late into the night.
In the meantime, I'll keep NTSC for DVD rentals. It's much cheaper to buy or rent a DVD instead of taking the family to a movie.
The local broadcasters are the ones that are going to fold due to lack of advertising dollars. Almost nobody will be watching over the air TV anymore. The ROI for over the air crap programming just isn't worth the entertainment cost. I'd rather buy a couple quads or a boat instead.
ceasing to use our printers for anything but contracts and other legal docs.
If you do that, ditch the inkjet. Get a laser printer. It's ink doesn't streak when wet.
I don't know what to do either. I really didn't like the ozone that I smelled around laser printers in the past, I don't know if they changed it. Inkjets seem to be maintainance nightmares, if you print too much
I did both. To keep the inkjet from failing due to non-use, I put it on my LAN. Why have 3 inkjets only to have one or two of them dry out? I made sure it was refillable. Next I put a Laser on the LAN. It doesn't have to be where I have to smell it.
Then I informed the family the average cost per page for printing. When they can make informed decisions, it goes a long way to cutting supply costs.
'Hoax' and 'fraud' are pretty strong words for what is, obviously a spoof.
;-) to indicate I wasn't serious about this being a real fraud or hoax. ;-) I took it for what it was and had some fun with it. I also wanted people to think if what was presented was even possible as it was presented. I put in my reasons why I realised it wasn't real so some could learn real world engineering. Some things look good in concept and on paper until you do the math and find the concept has a serious flaw. In this one, the thermal capacity and power output of the linear regulator is a design flaw that would keep this idea from working. With a beefy regulator that could supply several hundred watts at 5 volts could change the project into something that might have a chance. Then other considerations will need to be addressed such as wire size. 200 watts at 5 volts is 40 amps. I would consider a larger wire size for example to keep the heat out of the wire and in the CPU's.
True, but I used those words because Slashodt put the article under hardware, not it's to laugh. I also included the
We are technical people here. It's a good pratice to do the math.
You point out that the regulator should dump more heat?
If it got a nice low resistance, I think it should not.
Go back to school. A simi-conductor behaves like a variable resistor. A switching regulator is effecient because it switches on and off while not running in the resistance mode. When it's on it does run very low resistance as you mentioned. It uses an inductor and a steering diode so in a switching regulator (assuming 100% effeciency) it would draw 5 watts from the 12 volt supply not 12 watts to provide 1 amp at 5 volt output. So how do you put in roughly 0.41 amps at 12 volts (5 Watts) and get out 1 amp at 5 volts (5 Watts)? With an inductor or transformer, the current still flows to the output through a diode from ground. The 12 volt pulses are just to create the current in the inductor. A linear regulator does not work that way.
A Linear regular on the other hand operates in the resistance range. Now ohm's law applies. A 1 amp draw from the 12 volt supply (12 Watts) with a 7 volt drop from 12 volts to 5 volts through the series pass transistor in the regulator is released as 7 watts of heat. The other 5 watts is delivered to the regulator output and is used to cook the bacon on the grill.
So at the risk of being redundant, if there is a 1 amp draw by the chips at 5 volts (not likely) and the regulator is running in a linear mode (does by design) and assuming the regulator does not draw it's own operating power (it does, but it's small) then my statement is true that the regulator releases more heat than the CPU's. The regulator would release 7 watts while 5 watts is delivered to the bacon and eggs. The 12 volt supply would supply 1 amp or 12 watts of power to the regulator and load combined.
Thanks for the mirror with good photos that shows off the hoax very nicely.
;-)
Hoax??
Yes.. Here are the facts some of which are taken from the photos.
In a DC series circuit the current is equal in all parts.
In a DC circuit Volts * Amps = Watts.
The 7805 regulator is a linear regulator, not a switching regulator.
The current for the chips goes from a 12 volt supply through the 5 volt regulator to the chips.
The regulator drops 7 volts (from 12 to 5) while the chips get 5 volts.
The current the chips draw goes through the regulator and at about the same current. (the regulator uses some current ot operate)
From that the regulator has to dump more heat than the chips! To cook the eggs and bacon on the chips, the regulator (without a large heatsink in the photo) would have fried it's own crater in the table top as it would have put out more heat than the chips.
Since a 7805 is current regulated and thermaly protected, I doubt the chips got more than 7 watts. Every try cooking bacon on a 7 watt night light? It's about the same heat as his hotplate but better concentrated to a small area. A night light would have cooked the bacon better. Even then, it would not be done enough to eat safely.
Don't be fooled. The eggs and bacon was cooked on a regular stove, not the chips.
The logo for the article should have been the foot. Then I would have laughed instead of picking the fraud apart.
Thanks for the mirror.
I'm just wondering why he decided to cook on the chips. He should just cook on the linear voltage regulator. The voltage drop on the regulator going from 12 volts to 5 is 7 volts. It's a 1 amp regulator feeding the chips. It puts out 5 watts of power to the chips (if they don't overload the regulator and trip the current regulation) while the regulator is putting out 7 watts. Things will be warmer near the 7805. This is especialy true if the chip goes into current limiting (very likely) so it outputs less than 5 volts and drops more than 7 volts at the current limit.
My guess is that he didn't REALLY get 120 watts through, but enough current to warm up the chips nicely.
From a quick Google search on one of these...
USM 7805 is a 3-terminal positive voltage regulator designed with built in internal current limiting, thermal shutdown and safe-area compensation for maximum flexibility and safety . With adequate heat sinking provided, USM 7805 can deliver up to 1.5A output current.
I'm with you on your conclusion. The chip at current limiting gives you about 7.5 Watts, not 120 Watts or anything close. I have a night light for the kids that put out the same heat he could have gotten.
Do the math people. In a DC circuit Volts times Amps = watts. A 7805 is a 1 Amp 5 Volt regulator. They are trying to run several 20 Watt IC's? I hate to be a antagonist, but it is not going to work.
depending on design of the robot, it may have more than one running CPU
Agreed. I've seen some process equipment that has a built in network. The material feed systoem has it's processer, the process modules have their own processors (several), the chemical supply system has it's own processors, and the main control module is it's own processor. If any processor signals it's not ready, the process halts to prevent messing up a batch. The more modules you have running an unstable OS, the more likely you will have downtime in addition to the software cost per processor. A module messing up during processing = expensive scrapped material. Your OS choice goes way beyond the purchase price per processor. Uptime reliability is very important.
One prior art that I know about is the Japanese artist Tomita well known for the Cosmos album, released the Bermuda Triangle Album. It has a segment of data in it. It sounds like you could recover it with a Bell 103 compatible modem. I never tried to recover the data. Some day I may give it a try. The Album is 12 inch and pressed in coral pink vinyl. It's a collectors item if you can get one.
The trick is to use a dial on demand linux box. You can have a script that will automatically dial into your provider.
Instead of dedicating a Linux box to be a gateway, Spend about $70 and get an ActionTec Dual PC modem. It has dial on demand built in. It also fits next to the network switch just fine.
To prevent being accused of spamming slashdot, I didn't say. But since most people don't go back and read new entries on an old artice, I got it from http://www.atlascopy.com/
I decided to try them after visiting their knoledge base and read the forum. Instead of being just a sales site with no info, they were heavy on the how to and happened to have good supplies and tools.
Disclaimer, other than as a consumer, I have no relationship with atlascopy.
So, would you like to buy some ink cartidges?
Some advice.. Don't bother with any SPAM offer. They are out to rook you.. Instead Google search. Then do your homework.
It took me 2 weeks to decide on an ink supplier. They provided all the nessary inofrmation about my printer and cartridges. The Forum was great. I learned the common pitfalls. I bought a small trial amount at first. I'm now on my 3rd order of several pints of ink. (the cost of a pint of ink is less than the price as a cartridge!) A legit supplier does not need an e-mail campaign. Don't supprt SPAMMERS! Google is your friend.
It pays to do your homework. Impulse buys from an e-mail are a rip-off.
Software patents are a nuclear arms race. Nuf said. MS not having them would be a fools game just as would the US without a national defense.