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What's the goal of having a MacMini running off an external battery? I mean, it seems less cost effective than just getting a MB Air and not using the screen..
by r00fus 3y ago
What's the goal of having a MacMini running off an external battery? I mean, it seems less cost effective than just getting a MB Air and not using the screen...
- lapetitejort 3y agoThe goal of most of these projects are usually to demonstrate that they're possible. Actual use cases are left as an exercise for the reader.
- Dalewyn 3y ago[flagged]
- okonomiyaki3000 3y ago[flagged]
- simlevesque 3y ago> it seems less cost effective than just getting a MB Air and not using the screen... how ? why would paying for a screen and not use it be cheaper ?
- arcticbull 3y agoEconomy of scale, mostly.
- bravetraveler 3y agoAvoiding the inevitable spicy pillow seems like a good reason An external/easily replaceable battery would be excellent come time to deal with cell age
- bravetraveler 3y agoDoes this read like an attack against Apple laptops specifically, or something? Already -2 five minutes after posting it. Leaving as-is for feedback. I don't get the controversy. I could've been a jerk and said just buy a UPS - this is an established concept. Edit: thank you kind souls for restoring the imbalance - carry on :D
- NavinF 3y agoNo it just reads as kinda paranoid because li-ion cells typically become spicy pillows long after the device becomes obsolete. It's also trivial to avoid by limiting cell voltage. Many devices, most notably iPhones, automatically go into kiosk mode after charging for a few days for exactly this reason: https://support.apple.com/en-gu/HT208710 https://support.apple.com/en-gu/HT208710
- WWLink 3y agoDefinitely disagree. My own anecdotal evidence is that many many laptops left plugged in 24/7 will develop a spicy pillow after a year or two. That includes a set of Apple laptops and hundreds of Dell laptops.
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agoAnecdotally: this has never happened to me despite owning a whole bunch of laptops over the past 25 years or so.
- bravetraveler 3y agoThank you for taking the time to follow up! Definitely a bit paranoid - even if I'd prefer to call it robust :) I've had very bad luck in this regard... but haven't honestly used a laptop in probably a decade. I was pleasantly surprised to see my latest (dust-collecting) Lenovo will stop somewhere around 80%! Point being, sure - there are safety things... but batteries are consumables. I like these things to be easy-to-replace! I find these being difficult to replace accelerates this pattern of obsoleting. CPUs and (especially disks) tend to pack plenty of punch/life, these days - well beyond the mechanical/chemical things they depend on. Something to ponder - these chips may see particularly long use, being so power efficient. The utility bill won't be such a driver, sipping power and parallelizing decently.
- chrisweekly 3y agoheh, I understood what you meant by "spicy pillow" from context but it's a new phrase for me, I like it
- datapolitical 3y agoCan you explain
- RockRobotRock 3y agolipo batteries expand
- lvncelot 3y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/spicypillows/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spicypillows/
- pcdoodle 3y agoThe batteries puff up like an overstuffed pillow and if you let the spice out, you're going to have a bad time.
- Someone 3y agoThe article is about a Mac Mini. Those machines are mains powered, not battery powered.
- bravetraveler 3y agoI was replying to a question on why one wouldn't "just get a MB Air/not use the screen"... not the article. How is this relevant? I don't say this to be rude, but this internet phenomenon of relentless pedantry is annoying. Things tend to make [some degree of] sense when your first reaction isn't to shoot from the hip. Mains batteries exist - most people should save the effort, get a UPS. Hackers on the other hand... it's kind of silly to ask why. The answer is 'because'.
- poolopolopolo 3y agocheaper and bigger batteries? always replaceable in the future? And tbh laptop batteries are not meant to be used 24/7, personally would avoid it.
- SmellTheGlove 3y agoNo idea, but if they got it running on USB PD, battery pack aside, it would make it a one cable connection to a monitor that has PD support. Multiple cords don’t actually bother me but it sounds kinda neat. Anyhow I guess the goal is “because you can”
- dylan604 3y agoThis would be fun for when LEOs come in to take your computer, they can easily keep it powered so all of the decrypted keys stay in memory. Killing power means going back to an encrypted state. In high profile cases for desktops, there's techniques for splicing the power cable to switch to a battery pack. This would make it much easier for the unskilled LEO to take your shit. Cause we all know you're the one they're after. Sleep tight! ;-)
- NavinF 3y agoThat's why pretty much all desktop and server mobos have a "chassis intrusion" header that you can connect to a sensor/switch. Your machine should wipe keys or reboot if it's opened or moved.
- dylan604 3y agohow does that work if the case is never opened?
- NavinF 3y agoYou can connect multiple switches in series. Eg one could be a reed switch that detects whether the PC is within 1mm of a tiny magnet in the floor.
- xp84 3y agoThis is a good idea! Kind of makes me wish I was a drug kingpin with a PC full of secrets so that I could justify trying that. Sadly I would just end up with a kid rebooting the PC by bumping into it :D
- OJFord 3y agoI could see it making sense in a 'van life' context to use a smaller local battery rather than plug everything in to your main leisure battery. Use the latter to charge Makita packs say and then run most other stuff off those (there's a decent amount of open 3D printable adapters for them, as well as third-party/AliExpress stuff).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Gigachad 3y agoWould make way way more sense to have a macbook that you can then charge direct from a DC battery over USB-C. With the mac mini you still have to work out how to power an external screen as well.
- virtue3 3y agoThere's a lot of low power HD screens out there. It's not super difficult. Not the ideal case for sure but low power is all about tradeoffs.
- tyingq 3y agoThat it happens to be 12 volts DC has some value versus whatever power loss an inverter has for use in a vehicle. Though I'm with you on the relative ease of starting with a laptop instead.
- iseanstevens 3y agoTwo large monitors or projectors with Mac mini.
- cyberax 3y agoE.g. to run home automation in case of a power outage. I have an Intel NUC with a li-ion DC UPS exactly for this reason.
- kposehn 3y agoBattery aside, POE also allows you to put it anywhere you have ethernet cable with sufficient power delivery. In this case you could have a workstation powered entirely off ethernet delivered to the location (some monitors will also work with a POE splitter as well).
- WWLink 3y agoHeadless servers where you want a modular or easily removable battery backup. I really wish desktop PC power supplies would support such a thing. It seems stupid that we need to use a UPS with an inverter when the power supply should be rigged to accept DC input straight from a battery.
- jacknews 3y agoExactly, the PC PSU coverts AC to 12v for the PC anyway, so 12v batteries should slot into that scheme, without a separate PSU and inverter.
- consp 3y agoYou would still need a DC to DC converter as lead acids deliver anywhere from 12.8 to about 10v depending on SoC and load.
- windexh8er 3y agoRemember that DC to DC power supplies are much smaller because existing AC PSU has to deal with the transformer aspect. I worked for an ISP that was also a CLEC back in late 90s / early 2000s. All of the telco side was DC (massive 48v battery banks) - so when we were doing server implementation it made sense to get all DC PSU on the servers. Not sure why DC PSU aren't a more universal option as you'd think UPS providers could easily offer DC output models. There are options out there, I ran across this [0] looking for typical ATX DC to DC PSU. [0] https://lazer3d.com/dc-dc-power-supply-guide/ https://lazer3d.com/dc-dc-power-supply-guide/
- icehawk 3y agoFor anything larger than about 500W that'd become untenable because at 12V as you'd need cables that can carry in excess of 50A. UPS systems start connecting the batteries in series to provide higher voltages for this reason
- jacknews 3y ago
- may_i_ai_plz 3y agoIn the event of that solar flare that wipes out the grid.
- ricardobayes 3y agoIn that event, personal computing will be the least of our worries