Mike, On Sunday 02 October 2005 11:43, Mike wrote:
...
I was thinking of something like the gumstik
http://www.gumstix.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=gumstix
which draws <250 mA at 400MHz without Bluetooth.
Bring back some LED status lights to let you know what's going on. Turn off the screen during a download and keep cranking until the light changes. My original thought was to hook up pedals, or a tredle, but a hand dynamo might do the trick.
I don't think it could be considered practical if continuous mechanical input is required. Also if the generator was far bigger than the device it powered, it would probably not be generally accepted. Another aspect of a practical device of this sort would be immunity from power loss, since it could be expected to occur regularly. I think realistically hydrocarbon or alcohol fuel cells or even tiny reciprocating or turbine heat engines may prove to be a practical solution to portable computing power supplies: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/11/freedman1104.asp http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6559 http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/10/19.html Randall Schulz