Author Topic: Batteries? Who needs them?  (Read 2018 times)

Batteries? Who needs them?
« on: 11 April, 2021, 07:51:19 am »

WIRELESS POWER FROM 5G NETWORKS COULD REPLACE BATTERIES
Quote
Researchers have uncovered an innovative way to tap into the over-capacity of 5G networks, turning them into “a wireless power grid” for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices that today need batteries to operate.

Bring it on. Just don’t tell the conspiracy theorists.

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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #1 on: 11 April, 2021, 07:55:53 am »
When Ben T sees this his head will splode




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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #2 on: 11 April, 2021, 10:13:49 am »
In that case you could have self-charging phones.  Might almost make them useful.
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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #3 on: 11 April, 2021, 10:19:42 am »
With all these wireless power devices, the physics means that you have to be very close or get so little power that it's not really useful.

It might be an alternative to a solar cell for something like a temperature sensor that only needs to transmit a tiny amount of information, very rarely.
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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #4 on: 11 April, 2021, 10:37:40 am »
With all these wireless power devices, the physics means that you have to be very close or get so little power that it's not really useful.

It might be an alternative to a solar cell for something like a temperature sensor that only needs to transmit a tiny amount of information, very rarely.

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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #5 on: 11 April, 2021, 11:38:01 am »
With all these wireless power devices, the physics means that you have to be very close or get so little power that it's not really useful.

It might be an alternative to a solar cell for something like a temperature sensor that only needs to transmit a tiny amount of information, very rarely.

That's quite similar to what critics said about radar in its earliest incarnation before it was even called radar.  The yanks invented it, the name, that is.
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Ben T

Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #6 on: 11 April, 2021, 01:24:09 pm »
When Ben T sees this his head will splode


I wouldn't have anything against this but can't see how it could work.

I would have assumed something like this:
... the physics means that you have to be very close or get so little power that it's not really useful.

For instance what if I'm trying to charge my phone remotely and something (or someone) gets in between the charger and the phone? Does that object/person heat up? Does the phone stop charging?



Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #7 on: 11 April, 2021, 07:56:59 pm »
I would have assumed something like this:
... the physics means that you have to be very close or get so little power that it's not really useful.

For instance what if I'm trying to charge my phone remotely and something (or someone) gets in between the charger and the phone? Does that object/person heat up? Does the phone stop charging?

Exactly. Power transfer over any distance will either be very lossy or very directional, or both.

Existing WiFi signals have to be low enough in power that you can't get burned by the aerials (with a good safety margin) but communication works because the receivers can work on such small radio frequency power.

To get enough power to keep a mobile phone running on standby, it would either have to be really close to a WiFi device or the radio power would be too high to be safe.

Depending on the frequency used, radio power can be directed. That's how radar measures the distance in a particular direction. The antenna is then rotated to read the distance in all directions, and a 2D map appears as if by magic. Modern radar rotates the beam using lots of fixed aerials and clever electronics.

People have tried using similar devices to direct power at a phone or other device that needs charging. While that could improve the distance / efficiency trade-off, I still think that it would be difficult to get enough power across a room to be useful, while being safe. It would also need very expensive electronics and would be very inefficient, and would only work in line-of-site. If wireless charging of a phone achieved 5 W of charging, at 1% efficiency, putting all the UK phones on charge at the same time would approximately double the UK electrical power consumption.

I think that a lot of people who suggest these things don't see the difference between WiFi getting full signal across a room, where 99.99% of the power is lost, and a wireless charger, which only loses 50% of the power but needs the phone within millimetres of the transmitter, and the correct orientation.
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ian

Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #9 on: 12 April, 2021, 09:16:30 am »
Good god, both the inverse square and cube laws have called and left a message.

Sadly, Mr Tesla isn't taking calls at the moment.

rogerzilla

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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #10 on: 12 April, 2021, 09:24:44 am »
This is what happens if you get in the way of the beam

https://youtu.be/KMvB6zVs15M
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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #11 on: 12 April, 2021, 10:28:07 am »
It should be borne in mind that radar was originally expected to make enemy pilots uncomfortably hot as they crossed our borders.  So much so that they would be unable to carry out their mission, ideally as a result of their untimely ends and the loss of the aircraft. 

As it turned out, the signal was only strong enough to detect the aircraft's presence.  Later, when the cavity magnetron arrived, it enabled us to cook chickens which could not fly anyway.  As Sir Robert Watson Watt said:

"Give them the third-best to go on with; the second-best comes too late; the best never comes"

He was right: to date it is still not possible to fry pilots from any kind of distance.
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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #12 on: 12 April, 2021, 10:31:49 am »

[…] to date it is still not possible to fry pilots from any kind of distance.


Just wait until The Man introduces 6G.
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Re: Batteries? Who needs them?
« Reply #13 on: 12 April, 2021, 10:45:37 am »
He was right: to date it is still not possible to fry pilots from any kind of distance.

Having been the driver of a very large airliner at the time my first officer was struck by a frikkin' lazer beam, I disagree!