Something possibly useful... and a question.

[TheNineRings]

Alright. My wind up rechargeable LED flashlight broke, so I decided to take it apart. I found a small metal cylinder with a cog on the top, and two wires coming out. I figure that as long as some of us dont mind sacrificing some size, they could take one from a flashlight and build it into their portable. This could be useful if the battery died, and you werent anywhere you could charge it. It seems to fully power a 3.7 v 40 mah battery in a minute or two, and it would be great for people using systems that have a low power draw. It would take a small amount of time, but the potential usefulness I believe is high(but only for portables with a low power draw). Also, I have a question. What are these called and where can I get them?

 

[grossaffe]

Those would be hand-crank generators.

 

[TheNineRings]

Yep. I think that it would be useful to have on that is modified to plug into a portable, so that it can be wound up when the battery dies. Therefore, I have not thrown it away.

 

[TheNineRings]

I now realize that it would eat through the batteries life span, so it would not be useful. I would only use it on cheap batteries that you would not be sad about having them die.

 

[PalmerTech]

Or Ni-CD batteries, they tend to handle that kind of charging better.


These things are dynamos. They are pretty cool, but a crank is a terrible way to generate power. Far more efficient are pull-string generators.

And by low current, you must mean REALLY low current.

 

[TheNineRings]

Yeah, really low. It barely shocks one when it is placed on the tongue. And it is Ni-cd.
I must consider that it takes a couple of minutes to charge 40 mah, would take forever for an even relatively recent portable to get enough of a charge for an hour.

 

[snowpenguin]

Motors also work well for this, get a 12v motor and spin the shaft, it'll output voltage. Stick a regulator on that bad boy and you've got a source of.... a few mA.

 

[zeturi]

This reminds me of a while back when I used to think people running on giant hamster wheels would solve our depends on fossil fuels.

 

[Jidan]

Wait, zeturi, you're saying that DOESN'T work? God Dang, have I been wasting my time...

 

[Jewjo]

This reminds me of a while back when I used to think people running on giant hamster wheels would solve our depends on fossil fuels.

In theory, it would. We just need to perfect wireless electricity for cars and such.

 

[zeturi]

*And when I thought all would be well with Flint-stone style, push-with-your-feet cars.

 

[grossaffe]

This reminds me of a while back when I used to think people running on giant hamster wheels would solve our depends on fossil fuels.

Sounds like the plot to The Matrix.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Wireless electricity:

2nd favorite superhero evar.

Also, epic win.