Cool concept question...Laptop with extra power?
T&E Engineer
Posts: 1,396
I was reading in an online magazine something about a contest that·a company like Intel is holding.
If you have a laptop and remove the power·cord and battery, how can you design in an alternate power source to keep the laptop running for 30 additional minutes kind of like what a UPS would do - but keep in all in the laptop idea.
I was thinking of either solar pannels built into the laptop case or possibly a super cap circuit.
What are your ideas? I thought this was an interesting question that I wanted to pass along for fun and discussion.
BTW: Happy Thanksgiving to all forum members!
If you have a laptop and remove the power·cord and battery, how can you design in an alternate power source to keep the laptop running for 30 additional minutes kind of like what a UPS would do - but keep in all in the laptop idea.
I was thinking of either solar pannels built into the laptop case or possibly a super cap circuit.
What are your ideas? I thought this was an interesting question that I wanted to pass along for fun and discussion.
BTW: Happy Thanksgiving to all forum members!
Comments
The dimensions of the Solar Cells required for a stand alone Solar powered Laptop might prohibit a continuous Solar solution, but you could certainly design something that is rechargeable.
Looking at my own Laptop... I have a 1.9Amp 19V power supply going into my Laptop.... 1.9Amp X 19V = 36 Watts ... For comparison, I also have a Solar Panel rated for 23 Watts that measures
18 x 11 inches for an overall area of 198 square inches or roughly 9 square inches per Watt.
Compared to my laptop dimensions of 16 x 11 inches for an overall area of 176 square inches I could produce about 19.5 Watts given the surface area of my laptop ... from a charging perspective,
using Solar Cells, your charging ability would be almost cut in half compared to what you would have while you are "plugged in" with a power supply. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the only thing
I would be concerned with would be leaving my laptop sitting out in the sun.
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Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
It could be small - handpowered....or it could be larger - pedal powered....
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<FONT>Steve
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36W isn't that much, really. Even my humble 12" iBook(1.33GHz) has a 45W PSU, and I can't remember the last time I saw a HP PSU rated at less than 3.5A(usually at 18.5V)...
My Psion MC400 runs about 20Hours on a 7.2V/1AH Ni-cad pack, but I doubt that you're using a computer that old...
(1989)
Anyway, a solar panel is not really going to do the trick, and if it's to be built INTO the machine itself, a hand-crank is probably not the way to go, either.
Is the solution to be a 'multi-use' or single-shot solution?
(single-shot assumes that you can do maintenance between uses, while multi-use assumes that it's instantly ready to use again)
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Nov 2007 issue of Elektor (UK)
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/2259791
It's on page 40.
It is also attached in a WORD document.
Ohh Yeah.... Woops... I rechecked the Power Supply... try 7.9Amps at 19Volts rather than 1.9Amps at 19Volts ... So 150 Watts rather than 36 Watts.
For some reason I could have sworn that it was 1.9Amps ... Anyway it's a 3.2GHz Gateway Laptop with 2 Gigs of Memory.
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Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
We'd still have to assume at least 30W for a small/ultraportable or 45 - 60W for larger models.
I'd still like to see the contest rules, not just the Elector article.
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Don't visit my new website...