Self-powered computer

[klingens]

Good luck playing doom1 at 200MHz. He will need FAST reactions...

 

[ThePCGuy]

?, my 166 Pentium with 32MB of ram played Doom 1 quite nicely. In fact, I've got a 233Mhz Pentium sitting on top of my shelf, I should boot it up with an old Seagate Bigfoot HD I've got and play some good old doom.

- Jim

 

[klingens]

Doom came out 1993. Back then the fastest x86 CPU was a P5-66 but most people had either a 386-40 or a low 486 (33MHz often). Coupled with the fact that DOS games play faster when you have a faster CPU, makes original Doom on a P200 so fast you can't keep up unless you have superhuman reflexes.

 

[ThePCGuy]

Not if you were running Doom 95 .

- Jim

 

[eobard]

The first machine I ran Doom1 on was a 386DX40 with only 5megs ram and it ran fine.

 

[four4875]

moslo or a similar prog should take care of the fast thing fine.

 

[Skeith]

I run doom 1 on my old laptop with AMD 386SX 25Mhz with 8MB ram and MPU co-processor installed. Graphics lag a bit but its playable. I also play origional sim city on it.

 

[Janglur]

I checked into the Geode, and while it is overall better, it's way faster than it needs to be, and uses many times the power of a VIA chip.
Not to mention the motherboard would also draw much more wattage.

I don't want to have the entire side of my home boarded over with solar panels to power this project. =D


And if anyone is skeptical about the LNBF output, it registers as 19V at 500mA average, and pretty stable at that reading. (It drops if you point it out of peak with a sattelite. IE, it stops registering if you point it at the ground.)
It isn't hooked up to ANYTHING, either. Just the LNBF, dish, and cable running to my multimeter.

So take it as you will.

 

[klingens]

If nothing is hooked on you can't measure the current is delivers. And I know that a satellite doesn't have more thant 50-100W transmission power for a whole continent. So if it's really delivering that much power, you just found a perpetuum mobile and solved the world's energy crisis. I'm sure you will get the nobel price for that.

 

[Janglur]

I guess I have.

Solar energy rocks, eh? Who would have ever thought that a giant solar array located in space, without the interference of gasses and airborn particle to dampen it, would be able to provide an enormous amount of power, very efficiently?

And who would have thought that energy could change forms? Solar to Electrical to Microwave to Electrical again...


Klingens, sude, seriously. Learn a bit before trolling. Microwave power has been theorized for some time. The biggest drawbacks are the exhorbant initial costs, and the possibility of signal drift. If a focused microwave beam capable of powering a small town were to begin inching off the receiver dish, it would have a gradual negative effect on the area. Not to mention reduced power output.

And if a 10W device solves the world's energy crises, it wasn't much of a crises was it? Sarcasm not appreciated. kthxbi

 

[JDXNC]

You did know theres a crank powered laptop already in the works right?

 

[eobard]

Keep it civil people, Anyone makes me get off my *** and do my job as a moderator and I'll probably get irked.

 

[jediman]

i would like to voice agreement with klingens. if you are getting 14 watts outta your dish it is being amplified somewhere between the dish and where you are measuring it. If it is not being amplified you don't have 14 watts.

 

[jivetrky]

3) Microwaves. My satellite produces 12 and 17v on two rails at 1100 mA and 850 mA respectively. About 14 watts. (13.2 and 15.3 respectively) And it is enough to power the satellite and switch (just not the DVR box). It gains this power entirely from the satellite signal itself. Thus it should be possible (though I don't, as yet, know how) to build a microwave power device. It seems the best power output for cost, though, so far.

Those voltages are provided by the reciever...they don't come from the dish...they go to the dish to power the LNBF.
The 13v power is used for ODD numbered transponders and 18 for Even.

 

[Cjwinnit]

Do you have a stream or river nearby?

 

[Evilsizer]

i would say mini windmill with 12v cells and using a bit of solarcells when there is no wind.

If you reallly wanted cheap... buy alot of lemons and go make lemon batteries.
http://www.hilaroad.com/camp/projects/lemon/lemon_battery.html

or you could buy lemon juice and do the same thing in a pot(s).

 

[dlavrenz]

Maybe you could put the solar cells on the windmill

Sarcasm aside, wind and solar power combined isn't a bad idea.

 

[jivetrky]

how about hamster and wheel?

 

[shellshock]

how about hamster and wheel?

This is what i was thinking. Get a hamster array

 

[jivetrky]

HAHAH! hamster array FTW