Computer powered through inductance?

[Helena]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.


Thanks,


-Helena

 

[Tim Shoppa]

heat pots on inducance stoves.

To charge wirelessly, you just need to:

1. Boil water

2. Use the steam to drive a steam engine.

3. Steam engine drives a generator

4. Generator drives your charger.

Steps 1,2, and 3 do not need wires at all! You can use steam pipes and
rotating shafts instead, after all they are much more convenient.

Tim.

 

[Rich Webb]

Why?

The OP has probably been stuck in a situation where there's just one
duplex convenience outlet and a dozen travelers in the waiting room,
all with laptop power cords ready to pounce on the first open socket.

 

[[email protected]]

wow you guys are really helpful :/

 

[Luhan Monat]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

Why?

 

[srbradbury]

I think it was more of a general wondering.

I'll have to remember to structure any future questions as you say, so
as to avoid patronising answers like these.

 

[w_tom]

Its called a transformer. Two coils not in contact but in
close proximity to each other. Most every electronic device
has a transformer somewhere between electronics and AC mains -
for human safety reasons.

 

[Luhan Monat]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.


Thanks,


-Helena

Hey, why not just buy an HP* computer?

* = Hamster Powered

 

[Rich Grise]

The OP has probably been stuck in a situation where there's just one
duplex convenience outlet and a dozen travelers in the waiting room,
all with laptop power cords ready to pounce on the first open socket.

If that's the case, he'd be better off to carry a couple of cube taps. ;-)

In answer to the original question, there are things that get recharged by
induction, but I've never heard of a computer that does.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.

Not that I know. It would be difficult to do, becaues the computer
is sensitice (i.e. will be damaged) to the magnetic field if it is
applied in the wrong place.

Such a solution would likely need:

A power reciever in the computer. Can be relatively small area, say
5cm x 5 cm. Maybe use a free drive bay to install it.

Shielding on the rest of the computer, may need to be Mu-Metal.
Very expensive and heavy.

Custom electronics and some mechanic to do the alignment
between sender and receiver.

I would say that you could have something designed professionally,
perhaps even as cheap as $10.000 or so. May be far more expensive
if it has to be reliable.

Arno

 

[Luhan Monat]

wow you guys are really helpful :/

Yea, it depends on how someone poses the orignal question. Many have no
'frame of reference' - just some technical question without any idea of
why its necessary.

In this case it would be better to ask:

I cannot connect my computer directly to a power source because ....

So I thought of doing it inductively....

 

[Gregory L. Hansen]

I think it was more of a general wondering.

I'll have to remember to structure any future questions as you say, so
as to avoid patronising answers like these.

Among them, you got the answer of a transformer. What's useless or
patronising about that? Powering a device by induction means to power it
through a transformer. Maybe you wanted a transformer with a removeable
core, but that's still a transformer.

 

[Rich Webb]

I think it was more of a general wondering.

I'll have to remember to structure any future questions as you say, so
as to avoid patronising answers like these.

Quite often the answers seem flippant because the questions are
incompletely specified. The questioner may (and probably often does)
have in mind a precise situation. If the question itself doesn't include
all of the contingent conditions, however, then it's hard or impossible
to give a meaningful response.

 

[Genome]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.


Thanks,


-Helena

http://www.splashpower.com/

DNA

 

[Al Dykes]

If that's the case, he'd be better off to carry a couple of cube taps. ;-)

In answer to the original question, there are things that get recharged by
induction, but I've never heard of a computer that does.

Cheers!
Rich

It wouldn;t work at any distance, at least a practical version.
It would have to be a plate that the laptop sat on.

Why bother.

For regular use a doscking station connects all the cables
at once, nicely.

 

[Mark Zenier]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.

I just saw that in a magazine/newspaper article for a new standard for
cordless devices. You just put everything on a countertop induction
charger pad, and the smart charger in each battery pack or cordless
widget does its thing. (I'll be damned if I can remember where I saw
it, though. It was more "gee whiz coming soon" than a real product).

Mark Zenier [email protected] Washington State resident

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Mark Zenier <[email protected]>

I just saw that in a magazine/newspaper article for a new standard for
cordless devices. You just put everything on a countertop induction
charger pad, and the smart charger in each battery pack or cordless
widget does its thing. (I'll be damned if I can remember where I saw
it, though. It was more "gee whiz coming soon" than a real product).

Scientific American?

 

[Nico Coesel]

Hi,

I was wondering about the feasibility of powering a computer through
inductance.

I've seen this used to recharge toothbrushes, and heat pots on inducance
stoves.

Is there an existing product like this? (put laptop next to power source
and it charges up without using wires.

I don't know whether it is available for laptops, but I've seen a
similar non-contact system for charging electric cars. So tranferring
a large amount of power is possible.

 

[Adrian Godwin]

I just saw that in a magazine/newspaper article for a new standard for
cordless devices. You just put everything on a countertop induction
charger pad, and the smart charger in each battery pack or cordless
widget does its thing. (I'll be damned if I can remember where I saw
it, though. It was more "gee whiz coming soon" than a real product).

That sounds like the Splashpower system that someone referenced earlier
in this thread.

-adrian

 

[w_tom]

Again, stop with the mysticism. It's called a transformer.
One example was used in that pathetic GM electric car called
EV-1 (which was made defective when GM bean counters ordered
the innovator to downgrade to lead acid batteries). The car
had numerous neat little ideas. Then cost controllers 'fixed'
the design after engineers had finished the design. But
again, it is called a transformer as was taught in primary
school science.

Notice what must be inside that laptop. The secondary coil
of that transformer. Without the special design, a laptop
cannot recharge. Furthermore, the recharge would be both
inefficient and slow.