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On a sunny day (Fri, 30 May 2014 02:25:08 -0400 (EDT)) it happened bitrex wrote in :

How many watt/hours is in a hot cup of coffee? This can been done with a Peltier, Some girl won a price a while back by using a Peltier around the arm, and body heat to light LEDs as school project I think.

I have tried something like that years ago with the Peltier from my air-dehumifier, you need quite a bit of temperature difference to get some power. Philips one announced a car with Stirling engine, it was a fake, you could see it driving in a video, but then it turned out it was towed. So YMMV (literally). :-)

A million thermocouples? Sterling is the LAST thing I would expect, you need a generator too then.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

I'll be *very* impressed if they manage to get 5W electricity out of a low temperature differential Stirling engine. I have one built by my father that will just about overcome bearing resistance when heated over a cup of coffee. You can't really hope for much more than that.

I suspect the proof of concept version relies on a battery.

I had hoped to get a decent output (enough to outshine the candle powering it) from a high temperature Peltier stack but even with the hot side at the melting point of solder and the cold side clamped to a -18C heat shunt I could barely get a glimmer on a red LED.

I gave up on it as a demo because the hot and cold bits were a too dangerous for a childrens' Xmas lecture.

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

A lot of these kickstarters are based on the fantasies of ignorant people. Projects like a "Pen that creates electrical wiring on a paper surface." Conducting inks have been around a long time, but there it is. Another is this thing where they create solid shapes with a printer squirting plastic goo. It is being touted as the thing that will upset Chinese manufacturing, in the popular press fantasies. This also has been around for decades as a way to make models.

Reply to
haiticare2011

Sad.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

You have to think on the positive side of these things... this scam will only entrap those who believe in AGW and who have taxpayer-subsidized solar panels on their roofs >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Yes. That is why today europe needs Putin's oil and gas. They believed their own B.S. and have no credible sources of energy.

Reply to
haiticare2011

[snip]

:-( ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

This puck cannot possibly do what they claim. Besides, who's going to accept cold coffee? It's ridiculous.

They apparently still managed to extract some 130k$ from gullible fools. Most people have *no* idea of scale, when talking about energy.

Jeroen Belleman

Reply to
Jeroen Belleman

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Jamie

Reply to
Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.

I'd give up my cell phone before I'd drink warm coffee and warm beer.

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John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    
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Reply to
John Larkin

I did experiment with a induction coupler charger for my razor phone but didn't have good luck with that. I got the charger to work but the phone does not like the EMF. Need to work on the table to keep the reluctance low at the surface.

Jamie

Reply to
Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.

Oh, that will work. Its efficiency is the pits though.

Jeroen Belleman

Reply to
jeroen Belleman

Another one:

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This one is interesting.. they have a large (15Ah, they say) battery inside and the ability to charge it from the mains, so you might never realize the wind isn't doing much.

I wonder if you can run the generator (probably a little PM motor) in reverse so you can feel you're saving the planet on a windless day.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Pithy observations:

Nobody seems to be doing much math here. Charging a cell phone from a cold beer, or a mild breeze, is silly.

Are people actually going to carry that 12" aluminum cylinder with them everywhere they go?

Lots of people are paranoid about the batteries on their cell phones going dead.

A guy with Solidworks could make a nice living doing a crowdsourcing event every, say, 6 months, or whenever he runs out of cash, whichever comes first.

We already have a universal, mobile, mains-free charger. It's called a car.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
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Reply to
John Larkin

Probably.

I do have a "solar powered hat", though. IXYS solar cells line the brim, there's a low profile blower fan inside the top of the hat sucking in outside air, and a switching regulator on the back charges and drains a pair of ultracaps to keep the fan voltage steady. A USB plug under the regulator gives a phone 3 to 5 Watts in direct sunlight.

It's totally not mass producible because solar cells efficient enough to product 5W from a hat are expensive.

While the hat is nice to wear on a hot day, I found myself often reclined in a chair and sleeping with it on my face during my last vacation. It's a quiet, gentle breeze. I charged my phone with it when I felt like surfing the web.

Reply to
Kevin McMurtrie

WHY is the lip synch _ALWAYS_ so crappy?

Reply to
Robert Baer

On a sunny day (Fri, 30 May 2014 20:36:13 -0700) it happened Kevin McMurtrie wrote in :

Now all you need is a prepeller ;-)

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

It is also a suspiciously low weight for a 15Ah battery even for Li-ion. I tend to use lead acid as they are more forgiving. I still have some really big war surplus NiFe cells at my parents ~200Ah.

Wind turbines make a little bit of sense for keeping boat batteries topped up and cute ~300W ones are available using Nd magnets.

Just about everyone in the thread has made this point - even the OP. It isn't titled "scam" for nothing.

Solar power chargers for use when camping or away from mains make a little bit more sense and are compact and effective.

I was saved by a giveaway solar charger that contains its own small little battery when during a powercut my mobile phone ran out of charge. I was quite impressed that as a freebie it did actually work!

If you happen not to have a car in your back pocket though it may not be the most convenient solution when out walking. These days mobile phones run out of juice in the blinking of an eye. My favourite olf Nokia 6303 could go nearly a fortnight on a single charge. Today I am lucky to get an entire day out of one without a lunchtime top up!

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

It seems to be practical to use a solar charger for a sat phone.

When/if I do my big canoe trip up the Mackenzie river someday (up to Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort sea) that could come in handy.

If I'm in my car, at a coffee shop at a hotel or in an office, there's always plenty of cheap or free power available.

--sp

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

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