They can get hot when charging too. i.e. Periods of inactivity. There's no real difference here except that current batteries have a theoretical advantage that's never seen in practice.
No, it doesn't. It used to, which is what the article I linked to said. That doesn't mean that Los Alamos doesn't want their Pu-238 back.
WTF? How is Pu-238 going to explode? Hint: They want their Plutonium back. Doesn't matter if they're buried or cremated. They want their Plutonium back.
There's no profit in something that doesn't break and doesn't need to be renewed.
I've suggested a solution before. The answer lies in the very problem of making nuclear batteries affordable: lease them. i.e. I purchase a battery on a three year lease, paying something like $200 a year (~$16.50 mo) to use it. At the end of the lease, I must return the battery to the manufacturer or pay a fine (say, another $200). I can then, optionally, lease a new battery.
The brilliance in this plan is the many ways in which it solves the problems:
1. The manufacturer makes a constant income from the battery.
2. Nearly all the radioactive materials are kept out of landfills.
3. Manufacturers can refurbish the radioactive materials (which may last as long as 100 years!) thus slowly building up a stockpile of material.
4. There's less waste than with current batteries.
Someone is trolling with a bot. The bot picks up highly rated posts from previous articles and then reposts them to places where they seem really odd.
I have something of a theory on why they are doing this. I think the purpose of the bot is to cause the moderators to use up all their points, thus ensuring that trolls get time in the limelight. The previous version of this scheme were all the "Please help me mod down this trash" posts.
That means something has to be done with the energy when it's not being consumed, and that means it gets emitted as heat.
As opposed to the 10+ watts of heat currently disappated by batteries today? Those suckers get hot! Nuclear batteries would be nothing new in this area.:-)
I have a feeling they won't give you a consumer product with radioisotopes to play with at home...
Did you know that gun scopes, watches, and fun little keychains? Oh, and doctors inject you with radioactive materials for diagnostic purposes. And false teeth used to be lined with Uranium. (Gives it that shine.)
More radioactive products here. If you use Google, you should find a plethora of wonderful products!
And the (tiny) problem of smashing the battery open by mistake and releasing enough radio-elements in the environment to poison your entire neighborhood for decades doesn't bother you?
Depends on the design. A thero-electric battery (e.g. Pielter or micro-Sterling) could easily be encased in a steel cladding that would prevent the materials from ever being released short of being heated to a molten state. This probably wouldn't work for beta-voltaics, but a strongly sealed battery would achieve the same effect.
Did you know people with pacemakers who die are cut open to recover the darn thing before they're buried, to avoid exactly what I just described, on a much smaller scale?
Did you know you have this wrong? The pacemakers are recovered to be refurbished and reused. Plutonium is very expensive, so Pace Maker receipients were required to sign a contract that allowed the device to be retrieved after death. AFAIK, there are no concerns about contamination due to the fact that the pacemaker casing would easily outlast the life of the plutonium power source. Linky
What I think has the most promise is a conventional Li-Polymer cell augmented by solar cells or betavoltaics to increase the standby time
This is more or less what I said. Nuclear technology can be used *now* to extend the life of cell phones, PDAs, and potentially even devices like Laptops. What would then happen, is that this would create a market for nuclear materials. Once this market existed, it would continue to drive down prices until nuclear-only batteries become affordable.
The only nuclear battery that is capable of supplying enough power is a Polonium-based battery, which is extremely expensive, highly toxic, and only has a half-life of a month.
Strictly speaking, that depends on the application. My cell phone needs a bit more than 1 watt of power to charge. On standby it needs far less than that for regular operation. Nuclear technology could make charging unnecessary today.
As for the toxicity, it's a problem I'm afraid we have today. Most batteries are HORRIBLE for the environment. Alpha/Beta nuclear batteries with short half-lives are hardly worse.
The market is practically screaming for a battery that doesn't run down in a short period of time. At the very least, nuclear radioisotope technology could be used to create batteries that have longer lives and recharge themselves. If the full potential of this technology were used, then our devices could be powered for YEARS without replacing the battery. Potentially, the battery could even outlast the device!
I realize a lot of people have concerns over the safety of nuclear batteries. But before you run off half-cocked, consider a few points:
1. They use the radiation for power. As a result, the batteries would be designed to capture as much of it as possible. In the case of Alpha and Beta radiation, that can easily reach 100% even if power isn't realized for all of the radiation.
2. You're probably sitting on a highly unstable, very dangerous bomb right now. See that Lithium-Ion battery in your phone? It just happens to be a powerful explosive.
Defitintely cool. The first ad-hoc P2P network ever to be developed. (That is, AFAIK.) The speed issues probably had more to do with the fact that everyone was on modems back then, and the Internet had very little bandwidth overall. I remember regularly seeing transfer rates of no more than 3K/s on "fast" sites. Amazing how things have changed.:-)
Ohhhh, I get it, built in P2P folders for "Pictures" , "Videos" and "Music". Now it all makes sense.
Hey, don't laugh! Back in the days of Windows 95, some enterprising individuals figured out how to share files over the Internet using SMB folder sharing. I forget how it worked (probably a publicly available workgroup controller), but you would be able to see other Internet users under "Network Neighborhood". It was tons of fun browsing people's computers to see what they had available. Some people even sent quick messages to each other using shared line printers.
The practice pretty much died after all the SMB security hazards started popping up, and paved the way for the script kiddies of today.
We have different opinions of "all in one", apparently. If you've got some sort of embedded PIC with OTP ROM, and it's embedded in epoxy, yah, you're probably done
I'm not even counting those. A PIC technically isn't even a microprocessor, just a microcontroller. Today's toys have gotten a smidge more sophisticated.:-)
this is more of a "all-in-three-or-four"
Really, it's more of a "microprocessor with a few I/O ports and a bit of memory." Such a degree of I/O is rare in toys, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's useful. This definitely ups its "neatness" factor, but I have yet to see any cool hacks done with this. The only one I know of was the picture frame one mentioned in the article.
The original poster's desire for an inexpensive portable media player is a good idea that would seem to fit the JuiceBox perfectly, but the low processing abilities of the hardware makes such a task impossible.
Regarding the video: oh, definitely. The video potential of the device sucks. But I wouldn't expect anything else for $12.
Yeah, but what are you going to DO with it? It's like picking up cool pieces of plastic and cardboard when you're a kid because you swear that you'll find a brilliant use for something so neat. Then it sits in the closet until you're an adult and throw it out.
The only redeeming factor that I see to this hardware is that it's an inexpensive LCD. Otherwise you can custom build a similar device for only slightly more, but better suited to your needs.:-)
The JuiceBox isn't one of the cheap, one-in-all chips:
Actually, it is. The chip you've just described is an "all-in-one" hardware design. The catch is that it seems like a flexible all-in-one design. And with an LCD screen, what could be better?
That is, until you dig a little deeper. Yes, this can be hacked a bit, but not much. The video seems to be decoded by the main chip, with a whopping rate of 6 frames per second. The only input method is via a ROM cartrige slot that can optionally take an SDCard connector. The SDCard connector, however, is an add-on that is not all that cheap in of itself.
Honestly, I think I'm having far more fun with my Spartan 3 board than most people would have with these toys.
And it wasn't supposed to be $12 - but clearance sales are wonderful things, especially when they involve devices with LCD screens.
This is true. I wonder how feasible it is to desolder the LCD and rejigger it for a custom board? Add a touchscreen overlay and you've got yourselve a very nice tablet.;-)
As much as I'd like to help, I really don't have time to get involved in another project. I know that there are plenty of others around who are happy to accept money for a hardware side project.
Do any other hardware engineers around here want to help this guy out?
Which means that ODE, the "Open Dymanics Engine", isn't really very good at solving ODEs, the ordinary differential equations.
Actually, that usually means that a library sacrifices precision for speed. i.e. The results will tend to have a much greater floating point drift than scientific libraries. Which means that you shouldn't use such a library for anything other than video games (a place where precision isn't that big of a deal) and other real-time simulations.
Re:Arm port of Debian
on
Juicebox Hacking
·
· Score: 3, Informative
MPlayer and Xine would probably be too slow. I'm digging through the specs now, but my guess is that this has a built-in MPEG decoder chip. Alternatively, it might just accept the hit in ROM costs and store the video in a poorly compressed format. It would certainly make sense if all you're storing are a few, low-res, low-quality music videos.
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as soon as only one company can make em and gets enough people to use em in common things.. i see the price skyrocketing.
Okaaaayyy... Economics tells us that the price should *drop*, not skyrocket. Why do you think the price would go up?
But the fact is they're just too expensive.
Dude. So got that one covered.
Yeah, they get hot... when discharging.
They can get hot when charging too. i.e. Periods of inactivity. There's no real difference here except that current batteries have a theoretical advantage that's never seen in practice.
You just repeated what I said. What is it with people these days?
The above is just as wrong.
Not as wrong as your post.
Plutonium doesn't power modern pacemakers.
No, it doesn't. It used to, which is what the article I linked to said. That doesn't mean that Los Alamos doesn't want their Pu-238 back.
WTF? How is Pu-238 going to explode? Hint: They want their Plutonium back. Doesn't matter if they're buried or cremated. They want their Plutonium back.
There's no profit in something that doesn't break and doesn't need to be renewed.
:-)
I've suggested a solution before. The answer lies in the very problem of making nuclear batteries affordable: lease them. i.e. I purchase a battery on a three year lease, paying something like $200 a year (~$16.50 mo) to use it. At the end of the lease, I must return the battery to the manufacturer or pay a fine (say, another $200). I can then, optionally, lease a new battery.
The brilliance in this plan is the many ways in which it solves the problems:
1. The manufacturer makes a constant income from the battery.
2. Nearly all the radioactive materials are kept out of landfills.
3. Manufacturers can refurbish the radioactive materials (which may last as long as 100 years!) thus slowly building up a stockpile of material.
4. There's less waste than with current batteries.
What's not to like?
Someone is trolling with a bot. The bot picks up highly rated posts from previous articles and then reposts them to places where they seem really odd.
I have something of a theory on why they are doing this. I think the purpose of the bot is to cause the moderators to use up all their points, thus ensuring that trolls get time in the limelight. The previous version of this scheme were all the "Please help me mod down this trash" posts.
That means something has to be done with the energy when it's not being consumed, and that means it gets emitted as heat.
:-)
As opposed to the 10+ watts of heat currently disappated by batteries today? Those suckers get hot! Nuclear batteries would be nothing new in this area.
Oh! Forgot this one:
I have a feeling they won't give you a consumer product with radioisotopes to play with at home...
Did you know that gun scopes, watches, and fun little keychains? Oh, and doctors inject you with radioactive materials for diagnostic purposes. And false teeth used to be lined with Uranium. (Gives it that shine.)
More radioactive products here. If you use Google, you should find a plethora of wonderful products!
And the (tiny) problem of smashing the battery open by mistake and releasing enough radio-elements in the environment to poison your entire neighborhood for decades doesn't bother you?
Depends on the design. A thero-electric battery (e.g. Pielter or micro-Sterling) could easily be encased in a steel cladding that would prevent the materials from ever being released short of being heated to a molten state. This probably wouldn't work for beta-voltaics, but a strongly sealed battery would achieve the same effect.
Did you know people with pacemakers who die are cut open to recover the darn thing before they're buried, to avoid exactly what I just described, on a much smaller scale?
Did you know you have this wrong? The pacemakers are recovered to be refurbished and reused. Plutonium is very expensive, so Pace Maker receipients were required to sign a contract that allowed the device to be retrieved after death. AFAIK, there are no concerns about contamination due to the fact that the pacemaker casing would easily outlast the life of the plutonium power source. Linky
What I think has the most promise is a conventional Li-Polymer cell augmented by solar cells or betavoltaics to increase the standby time
This is more or less what I said. Nuclear technology can be used *now* to extend the life of cell phones, PDAs, and potentially even devices like Laptops. What would then happen, is that this would create a market for nuclear materials. Once this market existed, it would continue to drive down prices until nuclear-only batteries become affordable.
The only nuclear battery that is capable of supplying enough power is a Polonium-based battery, which is extremely expensive, highly toxic, and only has a half-life of a month.
Strictly speaking, that depends on the application. My cell phone needs a bit more than 1 watt of power to charge. On standby it needs far less than that for regular operation. Nuclear technology could make charging unnecessary today.
As for the toxicity, it's a problem I'm afraid we have today. Most batteries are HORRIBLE for the environment. Alpha/Beta nuclear batteries with short half-lives are hardly worse.
Darn. Forgot to add on the end of point 2, "Nuclear batteries CAN'T explode!"
The Solution: Nuclear Batteries
The market is practically screaming for a battery that doesn't run down in a short period of time. At the very least, nuclear radioisotope technology could be used to create batteries that have longer lives and recharge themselves. If the full potential of this technology were used, then our devices could be powered for YEARS without replacing the battery. Potentially, the battery could even outlast the device!
I realize a lot of people have concerns over the safety of nuclear batteries. But before you run off half-cocked, consider a few points:
1. They use the radiation for power. As a result, the batteries would be designed to capture as much of it as possible. In the case of Alpha and Beta radiation, that can easily reach 100% even if power isn't realized for all of the radiation.
2. You're probably sitting on a highly unstable, very dangerous bomb right now. See that Lithium-Ion battery in your phone? It just happens to be a powerful explosive.
It was pretty slow even on cable but pretty cool.
:-)
Defitintely cool. The first ad-hoc P2P network ever to be developed. (That is, AFAIK.) The speed issues probably had more to do with the fact that everyone was on modems back then, and the Internet had very little bandwidth overall. I remember regularly seeing transfer rates of no more than 3K/s on "fast" sites. Amazing how things have changed.
Could be worse - it could be renamed iComputer.
Microsoft names everything else "Microsoft XYZ", why not your computer? i.e.:
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Computer
Microsoft Documents
Microsoft Music
Microsoft Network Places
etc.
Of course, if they wanted to be REALLY evil, they could name it the "iOpener". (I always think of an electronic can opener when I hear that.)
Ohhhh, I get it, built in P2P folders for "Pictures" , "Videos" and "Music". Now it all makes sense.
Hey, don't laugh! Back in the days of Windows 95, some enterprising individuals figured out how to share files over the Internet using SMB folder sharing. I forget how it worked (probably a publicly available workgroup controller), but you would be able to see other Internet users under "Network Neighborhood". It was tons of fun browsing people's computers to see what they had available. Some people even sent quick messages to each other using shared line printers.
The practice pretty much died after all the SMB security hazards started popping up, and paved the way for the script kiddies of today.
IMHO? Nothing. Other than possibly removing the LCD and reusing it in another project.
Hey, it's Microsoft innovation at its finest! ;-)
We have different opinions of "all in one", apparently. If you've got some sort of embedded PIC with OTP ROM, and it's embedded in epoxy, yah, you're probably done
:-)
:-)
I'm not even counting those. A PIC technically isn't even a microprocessor, just a microcontroller. Today's toys have gotten a smidge more sophisticated.
this is more of a "all-in-three-or-four"
Really, it's more of a "microprocessor with a few I/O ports and a bit of memory." Such a degree of I/O is rare in toys, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's useful. This definitely ups its "neatness" factor, but I have yet to see any cool hacks done with this. The only one I know of was the picture frame one mentioned in the article.
The original poster's desire for an inexpensive portable media player is a good idea that would seem to fit the JuiceBox perfectly, but the low processing abilities of the hardware makes such a task impossible.
Regarding the video: oh, definitely. The video potential of the device sucks. But I wouldn't expect anything else for $12.
Yeah, but what are you going to DO with it? It's like picking up cool pieces of plastic and cardboard when you're a kid because you swear that you'll find a brilliant use for something so neat. Then it sits in the closet until you're an adult and throw it out.
The only redeeming factor that I see to this hardware is that it's an inexpensive LCD. Otherwise you can custom build a similar device for only slightly more, but better suited to your needs.
The JuiceBox isn't one of the cheap, one-in-all chips:
;-)
Actually, it is. The chip you've just described is an "all-in-one" hardware design. The catch is that it seems like a flexible all-in-one design. And with an LCD screen, what could be better?
That is, until you dig a little deeper. Yes, this can be hacked a bit, but not much. The video seems to be decoded by the main chip, with a whopping rate of 6 frames per second. The only input method is via a ROM cartrige slot that can optionally take an SDCard connector. The SDCard connector, however, is an add-on that is not all that cheap in of itself.
Honestly, I think I'm having far more fun with my Spartan 3 board than most people would have with these toys.
And it wasn't supposed to be $12 - but clearance sales are wonderful things, especially when they involve devices with LCD screens.
This is true. I wonder how feasible it is to desolder the LCD and rejigger it for a custom board? Add a touchscreen overlay and you've got yourselve a very nice tablet.
As much as I'd like to help, I really don't have time to get involved in another project. I know that there are plenty of others around who are happy to accept money for a hardware side project.
Do any other hardware engineers around here want to help this guy out?
Maybe I'm just a luser who hasn't been paying attention, but this Pad2Pad thing is extremely cool.
;-)
You, my friend, are far too easily impressed.
But what the hey? Go build yourself a plastic case for your custom board.
More fun links.
Which means that ODE, the "Open Dymanics Engine", isn't really very good at solving ODEs, the ordinary differential equations.
Actually, that usually means that a library sacrifices precision for speed. i.e. The results will tend to have a much greater floating point drift than scientific libraries. Which means that you shouldn't use such a library for anything other than video games (a place where precision isn't that big of a deal) and other real-time simulations.
2.75 inch 240x160 color LCD
MPlayer and Xine would probably be too slow. I'm digging through the specs now, but my guess is that this has a built-in MPEG decoder chip. Alternatively, it might just accept the hit in ROM costs and store the video in a poorly compressed format. It would certainly make sense if all you're storing are a few, low-res, low-quality music videos.