Computer powered through inductance?

Why?

Hey, why not just buy an HP* computer?

• = Hamster Powered

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

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.

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

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.

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 snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Washington State resident

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 > I don't know whether it is available for laptops, but I've seen a

A myth that those external magnetic fields will erase disk drives. We would touch magnetized screwdrivers to floppy diskettes and still not erase any data. Numbers explain why. A magnetic field necessary to cause dipole changes (to erase data) is far too large.

Take apart a hard drive. Remove those magnets that are > w_tom wrote:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Mark Zenier wrote (in ) about 'Computer powered through inductance?', on Sat, 19 Feb 2005:

Scientific American?

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.

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

-adrian

And it will have interesting effects on the data on the harddisk.

I read in sci.electronics.design that Reinardt Behm wrote (in ) about 'Computer powered through inductance?', on Sun, 20 Feb 2005:

Maybe not: it needs calculating to be sure. What makes a lot of difference is having exposed pole-pieces on the base of the portable. An air gap is a killer.

I think that can be easily avoided, too.