Fuel Cells for Laptops Due Next Week 186
prostoalex writes "AVC and Antig Technology will demo a production-ready fuel cell for laptops next week on CeBIT trade show. According to PC Magazine, 'the CD-ROM size fuel cell will fit within the media bay of a notebook PC, replacing the drive with additional battery power.' The fuel cell battery will last 8 hours."
More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:2)
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:2)
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:2)
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:2)
that's another kilo, and yet another part.
I guess there are really precious few laptops on the market--there are many portable computers, but few of them are really usable on the lap without inelegant kludges like add-on cooler tables.
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:2)
To be more serious, existing batteries do horrible things when they get very hot as well.
Re:More 'burned groin' stories? (Score:5, Interesting)
Headline: Fuel Cells for Laptops Due Next Week
Subtitle: Embarrased-looking early adopters with warm wet spots in their laps due week after that
Unfortunately... (Score:1)
Power Brick (Score:4, Insightful)
A better option would be to make a power "brick" with a DC output and a number of tips for popular notebooks, much as currently done for universal power supplies. You could then make a single device that works with a lot more notebooks, and have more power available as it's not constrained to fit into a particular form factor.
Re:Power Brick (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Power Brick (Score:2)
Precisely. Often permanently attached. And not "all" support an extra battery at that location. And, of course, there are notebooks and sub-notebooks without CD-ROM bays at all. And Macs with slot-loading, non-removeable drives. Or Panasonic Toughbooks with their top-loading drives. Or...
Never mind. It's apparent that "most all" of the notebooks with which you're personally familiar adequately represent the entire notebook universe.
Re:Power Brick (Score:2)
Personally, I think this is brilliant. Here everybody was thinking about how far off fuel cell notebooks wer
Re:Power Brick (Score:2)
Re:Power Brick (Score:2)
And not "all" support an extra battery at that location
Then the people who bought those notebooks aren't getting to use one, at least internally.
At least at first, the biggest consumers for this product will probably willingly replace their laptops to get one that's compatible. They'll probably have laptops capable of accepting
Re:Power Brick (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Power Brick (Score:2, Interesting)
You're absolutely right on that... My laptop doesn't have a swappable drive bay (its slimline drive is "integrated," according to Acer), but it sure does use a power brick with a standard-looking barrel plug.
I think the main issue for people is that most don't want to have a big brick/box hanging off their laptop if they can avoid it.
But obviously if this fuel cell were integrated into an external box with a modular plug, then it would have applications outside of laptops - you could use it to power/cha
Fuel air bomb? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:4, Funny)
Answer your question:
Airlines: Yes if you're part of the platinum elite patrician class. No if you're flying as a proletariat.
TSA: Yes if you hand over your DNA, pictures of your family, especially your sexy, hot wife (don't worry about this one Slashdot), and prove that you're a supporter of the current administration. No if you're an average law-abidding citizen.
Jokes aside, it seems to me that if they allow even one, they might as well allow more since a malicious group of people can each carry one and get together while in the air.
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:5, Interesting)
On a lighter note, have you ever been asked at an airport if you are carrying anything that can be used as a weapon? What do they imagine you might be carrying that can't be used as a weapon?
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:5, Funny)
Everytime the TSA asked him if he was carrying anything that could be used as a weapon, he would deliver a roundhouse kick to the head.
Chuck Norris now takes the bus.
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
WTF? (Score:2)
What is up with it?
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
I don't get it (Score:2)
Perhaps this is like a virual marketing campaign for him and his workout stuff that he sells?
After all, I can't believe he is THIS popular?
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2, Interesting)
ICAO the governing body for these kind of regulations pretty much said that
if Li-Ion batteries came into the picture after 9/11, it probably wouldn't have
passed regulations.
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
Re:Fuel air bomb? (Score:2)
hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:2)
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:2)
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
"There's no mention/plan on how to refill the thing."
That's a show-stopper for me. I'd love to be able to deploy robust and renewable energy sources for field research, and for Internet access in very remote areas. If I can refuel these things myself (even if that means buying some patent-pending refuelly whizbanger for a mere 42 gazillion bucks), then I'm very interested. But if it's not trivially refillable, it's worse than deadweight.
"Also, it weighs a lot - more than 3 lbs, which could almost double
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Informative)
The bad news is, it only likes the really good stuff.
100cc worth of the lab grade methanol it uses (why couldn't they have made it run on ethanol, which is so much better for the environment (and your belly)) is about a buck or two, if I recall correctly.
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, I can imagine a battery-renting business at the airport or converntion centers. You won't have to carry it or buy it, just rent it for 5 bucks to wait for your much-delayed flight. (Now a even better excu
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:2)
Especially not if you're dressed like this guy [pnl.gov].
Fun with chemicals! (Score:2, Insightful)
HA! HA!.....uuugh....
waiting for extreme battery power (Score:2)
Re:waiting for extreme battery power (Score:2)
Re:waiting for extreme battery power (Score:2)
Apparently not:
Neither Antig nor AVC stated what the fuel-cell module would cost, nor offered any plan for consumers to refill them
If they're publicly traded companies, I know which way I'd place options.
8 hours? (Score:4, Funny)
Er, no (Score:3, Interesting)
HP made two versions of their HP zv5000 and Compaq R3000 notebooks two years ago, an Intel P4 version and an AMD Athlon 64 version. With a 12 cell battery, the AMD version gets 3-4 hours of battery life in average use. I was able to play just over 3 HOURS of DVD video on mine.
The P4 version gets about an hour. HP wisely decided to drop Intel CPUs from the following year's zv6000/R4000 lines.
So, substitute "Prescott-core P4" for "AMD64" in the parent post to make i
Re:Er, no (Score:2)
I get about 1:45h w/ all kinds of power savings enabled, no wifi, and LCD at medium brightness. And that was out of the box.
Re:Er, no (Score:2)
I get about 1:45h w/ all kinds of power savings enabled, no wifi, and LCD at medium brightness. And that was out of the box.
What size battery? What's your battery wear level? Use MobileMeter [geocities.co.jp]'s Battery Info tab to find that. I've run into lots of people on r3000forums.com and the HP forum on notebookreview.com who've had battery runtime issues that were traced to their Li-ion batteries weari
Re:Er, no (Score:2)
Battery: 8-cell
Can't run Windows programs, sorry.
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
And if I'm near enough to civilization to have the wireless work, I'm near enough to just plug it in anyway. And if I'm not in wireless range, it's intentional and I don't want to be on a computer at all.
But maybe you have one of those "portable" desktop systems, heavily promoted by chiropractors since they are great for business.
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
When your laptop dies on you.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:When your laptop dies on you.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:8 hours? (Score:2)
CGA (Score:2)
This was on a self booting CD and when loaded it choose the color scheme for Yellow Red and Green.
In the CGA (In medium Resolution 320x200) days you had the ability for 16 colors for the background to replace black, Even colors outside the display margin. Then CGA Defaultly uses White Magenta, and Cyan. But they can be switched to Yellow, Light Red, and Light Green or to Brown, Red, and Green. Neither color schemes were ever good for anything but they were colo
Refilling? (Score:4, Insightful)
Neither Antig nor AVC stated what the fuel-cell module would cost, nor offered any plan for consumers to refill them, however. Both companies are based in Taiwan, and company representatives were unavailable for comment.
What? I can't refill it? Whats the point then?
Nothing to see here... Please move along...
Price? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Price? (Score:2)
Re:Price? (Score:2)
This isn't much help if you don't have a source of fairly high voltage DC available, but if you feel like putting some 12v cells in series you can directly power a computer PSU with it.
I'd Buy It (Score:4, Informative)
If true, I'd buy it.
My last laptop (a Dell Inspiron 8000) I kept two batteries in (it was a three spindle notebook). This increased the weight, but gave me over three hours of battery life with normal use (it was a desktop replacement that just loved to eat batteries). I would gladly replace one in that notebook with one of these for the extra battery life (if I still had it).
My currently laptop is a Apple PowerBook (15", Feb 2005 model). I'm not sure it would have the room necessary for one of these to replace the standard battery, but I would gladly do it (I currently get 3 hours of use, or about 45 min if I run a full-on 3D game with the laptop in "high performance" mode).
I would be much more interested if it was a closed system that could recharge it's self (like a fuel-cell could be set up). That said, it's 45w of power and almost 4 pounds. My current battery is 46 watts and less than 1.8 pounds. And I know the newer PowerBooks and MacBook Pros have better batteries than mine.
3 more watts, double the weight. How will that give me 8 hours of battery life? I'm skeptical. Maybe in an ultra-light notebook with a slow processor doing word processing.
Still, at least someone is about to market something other than a "normal" battery.
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
Er, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. You do realize that watts are a measure of energy output per second rather than total energy?
Also, there's no infrastructure for refilling the cell right now, so this can't be marketed. It's only a technology demo.
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:3, Insightful)
For example, my laptop's battery is supposed to be 42 Watts. System profiler tells me it is about 12v, and full charge capacity of 4100 mAh. Multiply it out and you get 49 Watt-hours. If you take into account the voltage will drop as the battery discharges and the battery becomes useless at certain voltage level, it probably has 42 Watt-hours of useful ene
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
Ah, googling a bit it seems you're right. I guess I'm the idiot who didn't know my units. That's pretty confusing usage, though.
Amp-Hours, not Watt-Hours (Score:2)
Re:Amp-Hours, not Watt-Hours (Score:2)
Re:Amp-Hours, not Watt-Hours (Score:3, Informative)
In either case 45 watt hours is almost certainly incorrect for this device if it could run a laptop for 8 hours. More likely it can deliver 45 watts continuously for 8 hours which would actually be 360 watt hours. IE 1 watt for 360 hours or 45 watts for 8 hours. Which delivered
Re:Amp-Hours, not Watt-Hours (Score:2)
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
Note that it says 66 watt-hours, not 66 watts. I think you must have been mistaken in your original post saying the battery was sold as a 49 watt battery. Either that or the marketing department is lazy/ignorant.
I would also note that this is pretty weird notation. I think it's the first time I've seen batteries rated by watt-hours rather than amp-hours. I guess it would make sense
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What I wanna know... (Score:2)
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
If I just typed in Word or something like that, it would have given me much more.
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:2)
I can't wait to see... (Score:2)
Now I gotta carry methanol? (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides, 8 hours is not that huge of an improvement over batteries. Fuel cells seem to have promise, but I won't be switching until I can run a laptop for days at a time.
Just make sure (Score:2)
Bullcrap (Score:2)
If history is any guide, it'll take at least _two_ weeks.
huh? (Score:2)
especially since by the time this crap comes out, intel will have it's ultra low power core chips out (45 nm) for laptops that are supposed to get 8 hours or more battery life (late 06)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
3.7 pounds (Score:2)
The expense of hiring a bodybuilder to carry your laptop for you seems rather high.
Awesome (Score:2)
Slashdot=stupid (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.antig.com/english/mediabay.html [antig.com]
It used cartridges. There you go your refill.
Obvious Refill centre (Score:2)
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells. (Score:2, Interesting)
8 hours, are you joking? (Score:2)
I'd rather have a windup generator (Score:3, Interesting)
Heavy ........ (Score:2)
So heres another 1.7 kilos to lug around, which seems somewhat unfair, would it be possable to restrict this improvemnet to members of the legal profession, indeed, it should be made a compulsary accessory for patent lawers.
On a more serious note, why mess around with the CD bay format. Every poratable I have ever owned has a little 12v
Stop (Score:2)
Re:Oh the TSA is going to *love* these (Score:2)
Hmm, when will they stop allowing water to be given or carried onto planes because someone might mix it with their laptop battery?
Re:CD ROM Size? (Score:2)
Re:What happened to... (Score:2)
Re:Watts? (Score:2)
However, the article says it produces 45 watts, not 45 watt-hours.
That may be a misprint, maybe it's supposed to say 45 watt-hours. But if so, it's pretty pathetic. My laptop's standard LiIon batteries have 66 watt-hours of capacity and weigh 1 KG at a guess. Certainly 1.7 KG noted in the story for these things.
Re:Watts? (Score:2)