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From: Jeff Liebermann on 15 Apr 2010 17:54
On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:44:56 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer(a)comcast.net> wrote:

>> I'm surprised nobody has made a wind-up cell phone. Besides not
>> requiring a battery or charger (uses a super-capacitor), it will keep
>> the chronic talkers in line. Not exactly energy scavenging, but (in
>> my opinion) just as good.
>
>I have a hand-crank radio/flashlight/charger that can charge cell phones.
>The problem with building it into the phone iteself is that it's "too big"
>for such a small device.

I've seen small pancake PM motors that are made to be wound up with a
pull string. They're flat, small, and fairly powerful. Most of the
space in the flashlight contraption is in the gears to gear up the
speed. It can be done.

Think of it as a form of hand exercise while yacking on the cell
phone.

>> Incidentally, I designed, prototyped, but never produced a paper tape
>> printing pager in the early 1970's. The pager ran on batteries, but
>> the 1/4" paper tape transport and printing was all wind-up mechanical.
>> I also proposed a wind-up portable floppy disk drive in the 1980's,
>> which was summarily rejected by literally everyone as a lousy idea.
>> Oh, well.
>
>As the drive would have to be connected to computer that could power it, and
>the wind-up mechanism + interface would be more complex than a motor -- what
>would be the point?

This was the early 1970's. What's a computah? The original pager was
Motorola H04ANC (all germanium). I later hot wired it to a Pageboy I
and a much nicer Pageboy II. This was all before the introduction of
LCD displays on pagers. You either got a blast of tone (tone only
pager), or you a blast of tone followed by a blast of unintelligible
noise (tone and voice). LED displays were around, but between the
logic and the LEDs, sucked far too much power. My wind up mechanism
printed a permanent record of the message on a 1/4" wide strip of
paper. The mechanism was similar to a stock ticker, but much smaller.
The drive was mechanical, but the printing pins were solenoid driven.
The solenoid drivers, idler/capstan ratchet, tone decoder, and timing,
were the major electronics, which ran off 2ea AA batteries. If I had
to include a battery to power the tape motion mechanics, my guess
would be about 6ea AA batteries. While not a totally mechanical
replacement, it wasn't all that horrible for the 1970's technology.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl(a)cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
From: William Sommerwerck on 15 Apr 2010 19:39
>>> Incidentally, I designed, prototyped, but never produced a
>>> paper tape printing pager in the early 1970's. The pager ran
>>> on batteries, but the 1/4" paper tape transport and printing
>>> was all wind-up mechanical. I also proposed a wind-up portable
>>> floppy disk drive in the 1980's, which was summarily rejected
>>> by literally everyone as a lousy idea. Oh, well.

>> As the drive would have to be connected to computer that could
>> power it, and the wind-up mechanism + interface would be more
>> complex than a motor -- what would be the point?

> This was the early 1970's. What's a computah?

You said '80s for the floppy-disk drive, which is what I was referring to..


> The original pager was Motorola H04ANC (all germanium).

Really? Perhaps for the RF transistors, but not the rest of the device.


From: mm on 15 Apr 2010 20:34
On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:54:31 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl(a)cruzio.com>
wrote:

>On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:44:56 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
><grizzledgeezer(a)comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>> I'm surprised nobody has made a wind-up cell phone. Besides not
>>> requiring a battery or charger (uses a super-capacitor), it will keep
>>> the chronic talkers in line. Not exactly energy scavenging, but (in
>>> my opinion) just as good.
>>
>>I have a hand-crank radio/flashlight/charger that can charge cell phones.
>>The problem with building it into the phone iteself is that it's "too big"
>>for such a small device.
>
>I've seen small pancake PM motors that are made to be wound up with a
>pull string. They're flat, small, and fairly powerful. Most of the
>space in the flashlight contraption is in the gears to gear up the
>speed. It can be done.
>
>Think of it as a form of hand exercise while yacking on the cell
>phone.

I don't like hand exercises. Maybe you could connect it straight to
my jaw, so it would charge when I talked.

--
Posters should say what U,S. state if any they live in. Why
do so many keep their state as secret as their own name?
From: Michael A. Terrell on 15 Apr 2010 21:09

mm wrote:
>
> On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:54:31 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl(a)cruzio.com>
> wrote:
>
> >On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:44:56 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
> ><grizzledgeezer(a)comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> >>> I'm surprised nobody has made a wind-up cell phone. Besides not
> >>> requiring a battery or charger (uses a super-capacitor), it will keep
> >>> the chronic talkers in line. Not exactly energy scavenging, but (in
> >>> my opinion) just as good.
> >>
> >>I have a hand-crank radio/flashlight/charger that can charge cell phones.
> >>The problem with building it into the phone iteself is that it's "too big"
> >>for such a small device.
> >
> >I've seen small pancake PM motors that are made to be wound up with a
> >pull string. They're flat, small, and fairly powerful. Most of the
> >space in the flashlight contraption is in the gears to gear up the
> >speed. It can be done.
> >
> >Think of it as a form of hand exercise while yacking on the cell
> >phone.
>
> I don't like hand exercises. Maybe you could connect it straight to
> my jaw, so it would charge when I talked.


Watch out for exploding cells, though. ;-)


--
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'
From: Jeff Liebermann on 16 Apr 2010 01:16
On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:39:22 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer(a)comcast.net> wrote:

>>>> Incidentally, I designed, prototyped, but never produced a
>>>> paper tape printing pager in the early 1970's. The pager ran
>>>> on batteries, but the 1/4" paper tape transport and printing
>>>> was all wind-up mechanical. I also proposed a wind-up portable
>>>> floppy disk drive in the 1980's, which was summarily rejected
>>>> by literally everyone as a lousy idea. Oh, well.
>
>>> As the drive would have to be connected to computer that could
>>> power it, and the wind-up mechanism + interface would be more
>>> complex than a motor -- what would be the point?
>
>> This was the early 1970's. What's a computah?
>
>You said '80s for the floppy-disk drive, which is what I was referring to..

Sorry. I thought you meant the paper tape pager printer. I never
built the wind up floppy disk drive. You're correct that the drive
would require power to run the electronics. The plan was to power it
from a small generator connected to the clockwork spring mechanism. I
built a non-functional prototype to impress the investors. It didn't
work because I couldn't keep the 300 rpm rotation speed sufficiently
constant for reliable operation. The head actuator was run by a
stepper motor, but I had some ideas to make it mechanically driven.
When I saw the first 3.5" floppy disk drive in about 1984, I gave up.

I suppose you don't want to hear about my gasoline engine powered hard
disk drive?

>> The original pager was Motorola H04ANC (all germanium).
>
>Really? Perhaps for the RF transistors, but not the rest of the device.

I'm fairly sure the H03ANC pager was all germanium xsistors. I don't
have a manual for it to check. I think (not sure) that the next
model, the Pageboy I, was all germanium, but I'll have to check the
manual.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Pageboy>
I know the associated walkie talkie, the HT200, was all germanium,
because I worked on enough of them. I should also have a manual for
the HT200.

I still have one or two tube type walkie talkies from that era. Pencil
tubes are fun.
<http://home.netcom.com/~wa2ise/radios/penciltubes.html>
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl(a)cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
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