3 ms·

Read it again, you missed half of the process. You twist to compress the spring. This spring then releases, causing a recharge generator to rotate and that rec

Read it again, you missed half of the process. You twist to compress the spring. This spring then releases, causing a recharge generator to rotate and that recharges the actual battery. Rather ingenious I say.

andrewcooke 15y ago
so what's the spring for? why not just rotate the generator directly (as i suggested)? or, if the spring is to store energy, what is the battery for? it makes no sense.
- jobu 15y ago
  My guess is that the generator can't handle the stresses (both physical and electrical) of someone cranking on the battery with all their strength. The spring would allow some slippage once it's completely wound, than then it would be able to feed a steady low-voltage charge into the battery. That said, it doesn't seem likely that this would provide a significant charge. It would be nice, but when things like this seem too good to be true, then they're most likely a pipe dream.
- beambot 15y ago
  Much like those old-school wind up toys, a torsional spring can provide controlled rotation (ie. slowly release the stored energy at a controlled velocity using a tuned gear train). This would let you operate the generator at a specific (more efficient) operating point. Just a thought.
- nrp 15y ago
  It's to take up the rest of the space in the 3D render. In seriousness, it is an interesting idea by some designers who presumably either didn't understand or didn't care why their imagined implementation was silly or wouldn't work.
  - tesseract 15y ago
    They could have at least drawn a torsion spring rather than a compression spring, and a generator with a more realistic aspect ratio, and I think that would have given them more space for the actual battery. Overall the idea seems like "sound science" (engineering really) in the sense that there's no reason it would be impossible or even difficult to build. It just... has no practical value at all.

andrewcooke 15y ago

so what's the spring for? why not just rotate the generator directly (as i suggested)? or, if the spring is to store energy, what is the battery for? it makes no sense.

jobu 15y ago
My guess is that the generator can't handle the stresses (both physical and electrical) of someone cranking on the battery with all their strength. The spring would allow some slippage once it's completely wound, than then it would be able to feed a steady low-voltage charge into the battery. That said, it doesn't seem likely that this would provide a significant charge. It would be nice, but when things like this seem too good to be true, then they're most likely a pipe dream.
beambot 15y ago
Much like those old-school wind up toys, a torsional spring can provide controlled rotation (ie. slowly release the stored energy at a controlled velocity using a tuned gear train). This would let you operate the generator at a specific (more efficient) operating point. Just a thought.
nrp 15y ago
It's to take up the rest of the space in the 3D render. In seriousness, it is an interesting idea by some designers who presumably either didn't understand or didn't care why their imagined implementation was silly or wouldn't work.
- tesseract 15y ago
  They could have at least drawn a torsion spring rather than a compression spring, and a generator with a more realistic aspect ratio, and I think that would have given them more space for the actual battery. Overall the idea seems like "sound science" (engineering really) in the sense that there's no reason it would be impossible or even difficult to build. It just... has no practical value at all.