Then follow these links:
If that isn't enough, Google "Soccket" for articles in the NY Times, etc., and marvel at the extent of the viral infection. This scam started in my own back yard -- Hell, it even spent time in my own _lab_, and even with that much of a head start, I was powerless to stop it.
-JMac
No I don't want to have a bad day, so I'm not following the links.
Yahoo sezs sOccket is a soccer ball / lighting device aimed at Africa-- you kick it to charge an LED light. Hey, how about a combo soccer ball / composting toilet?
-- Cheers, James Arthur
Yet another way to 'Kick the bucket'? ;-)
No, just a s***ty game . . . . .
The whole concept is *CRAZY*. Yuppy feelgood junk.
The problem of generating usable amounts of electrical power with muscle power as the prime mover was solved in OZ over 80 years ago.
Third world technical skills are well suited to keeping a generator based on bicycle parts and a PM generator repurposed from a car wiper motor in working order and better equipped village blacksmiths/handymen could build them without much difficulty at a price average villagers could afford.
Sounds like a good way for Phil to work off hs anger. No pedaling, no trolling. ;-)
I wonder what the monetary efficiency is of that energy (food$/watts).
It's not really a scam per se, it's just a bunch of well-intentions "yuts" (as Rush calls them) who had an idea seemingly so novel that they were able to sell the idea to sponsors without ever doing a bit of arithmetic.
Not very good. One of the articles said one of the African kids they tested it with suggested adding solar panels, and while on the ball itself that's likely problematic, he is on to something: They say kicking the ball around for 15 minutes provides enough power for 3 hours of LED light. Perhaps that's... let's say... a 50mW LED? That's 150mWh of energy storage, then. Compare to, say, the 1.5W -- peak, no doubt, probably a factor of 2-5x less than that in practice depending on latitude and cloud cover and all -- generated by a $20 (retail price) solar battery charger:
Was it this thread where someone pointed out that pedal-powered generators have been around for over a century now? And that an average male in decent shape can generate around 100W or so pretty much indefinitely? Probably even better yet...
---Joel
...kick the sh*t out of the ball?
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