Geek dad over at Wired has a nice write up on how useful old battery cells are from laptops. If only once cell dies, the whole battery pack is kaput. So, why not use the cells that still retain charge?
Geek Dad explains
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I’m always astounded after watching a video of Kiva Systems order fulfillment robots in action. The Roomba style robots integrate into a warehouse worker’s motions seamlessly. This is one of the most successful applications of robotics I’ve run across.
“Kiva’s complete warehouse automation solution is sometimes compared to an automated storage and retrieval system [...]
McIntosh created a beautiful form factor for the mantle clock. The hours and minutes are shown with an analog meter and the display is lit with a cool blue LED. Elegant! The price is a bit hefty, however. via [...] “You think you’re smart? Well, not as smart as this guy. Jack Eisenmann, a programmer who just graduated high school, has built his own 8-bit homebrew computer completely from scratch using an old keyboard, a television, and a ton of TTL logic chips. No, he didn’t buy some computer parts and snap them together; [...] BoingBoing brought this device, which I’ve been wanting for years, to my attention. Anytime I find myself in a situation where I would want to record it, the moment has passed by the time a camera or smart phone can be brought out of a pocket. Afterall, those really cherished moments are the most fleeting and a recording device is far too obtrusive and distracting, much like testing quantum mechanics… the test affects the result.  What I dearly want is to have a camera embedded in my glasses which is constantly recording on a circular buffer. When I experience a precious moment, a simple tap on the frame downloads the previous hour to a smartphone (or marks the hour as non-writeable). Later I can edit the video on a computer to make it more tidy and clean. “The final concept demonstrator is called the ‘Nano Hummingbird’ and is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, flying forward and backward, as well as rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise, under remote control and carrying a video camera payload. During the demonstration the Nano Hummingbird flew in and out of a [...] It looks like those over at ThinkGeek one up’ed me. They threw the whole bluetooth retro-handset idea into a really nice package. So, instead of searching for an old phone handset and making your own, you can hop over to ThinkGeek and buy a pretty black one ($29-$50) that is ready to [...] Half-byte was hacked recently due to it using an old version of back-end software that was vulnerable to silly and easy security breaches. The site should be back to its full glory shortly. I’m taking the opportunity to make changes in security as well as the overall site appearance. Stay tuned. Update (2010/01/17): Half-byte.com [...] How much current does a simple over the counter five dollar laser produce when hitting a small solar panel? I wasn’t sure, so I did a little experiment. Using my handy multimeter, I determined the laser circuit was 4.5V at 25 mA. Since W = V * A, 4.5V x 25mA is 112.5mW. Now [...] |
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