I think you may need to rethink this idea a bit more. A number of your ideas are not really practical, let alone impossible. If you can get the pentagon to give you some backing, maybe in a decade or two you could develop the tech you need, but otherwise your not going to make a floating totally wireless PC. PS. why do you need a floating wireless PC? Its just going to float on your desk, where it could simply sit.
Ah, I thought you were referring to levitating the case from below. Raising it from above, that has more potential. But the thing is, he's still going to need a base structure in order to support the electromagnet. I thought that defeats the purpose of it all. He may as well rig it mechanically such that some heavy duty gear motors or servos just lift the case via some other kind of suspension. Also, studying physics and seeing physics is two different things. I've done them both and I can guarantee that reality and theory don't always play well with each other. In theory, this may be plausible, but there are going to be many facotrs to consider when applying any of these principles. I'm going to do some more reading/thinking about this before I post again.
stupid question in a modding forum... what do you need a moddet PC for? The PC will just work fine inside a boring standard case...
well i know my design is inherently flawed, airlev would need to much flow and way to much noise to be practical for a free floating device of this size/weight, it was just that i was inspired by the laserpowered spacedart (saw it on discovery) to go with a cone shaped design with a center mirror spike plus, i like thinking out of the box, finding new aproaches to problems anyway, occlocker, do you have any projection on the weight you want to lev? a nano itx itself isnt very heay indeed, but it comes with a massive peice of alu as a heatsink which is gonna be a problem... i suggest doing some weighing and getting an estimate of how much the total floater (mini itx, CF card, PSU, means of wireless comunication) is gonna weigh how about a hovercraft type design? like having a platform like a lid from a cooking pot, with the comp on it, and having the base blow air underneath it? it isnt really levitation in the coolest way, but you would have a free floating platform
for one...Go Here if you really want to make it lift (they have magnetic levitatior threads...) and if you want wireless power do a google search for "wireless power thesis" i read a thesis where a guy used a 2.5 ghz base unit from a phone and had it transmit a small amount of power across the room. it was quite small. or you could go here it may not look serious, but it does work. it's what is powering my mouse right now! it works just like a transformer, you have a 555 in astable circuit through a transistor that switches the power from a stronger supply through the base coil, when the secondary coil is in the feild the electrons jive together and make current flow!! (i only got a miliamp of power with a 1 amp 12V psu) and you need about 400 W
Did I say that? I said why do you need a FLOATING computer, not a unmodded computer. He can mod the hell out of it and have it sitting on his desk, like everyone else on earth. It doesn't need to be floating, that was my point. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome if he made it, and it would be extremely original, but its just not nessisary.
Well well... Delivering power wireless is nothing more than a free air transformer... Look at those Tesla coils, they all are free air transformers. something like a 555 is not useful... as you need a lot of power you won't be able to use microelectronics at all. And as your power comes from the socket in your wall (here in germany 220V @50Hz) you won't even need microelectronic circuits (which in the projects you've shown is only needed to convert DC to AC)... The first link u've provided is far more useful, as there's information about tesla coils...
damn... you don't really get the idea, do you? modding is just about that: being extremly original and unique... there's nothing more original than a floating computer... so why should he go the boring old way of having a boring box sitting at his desk (and by the way, the mods are starting to look all familiar, as they all are somewhat the same... a bunch of spraypainted, overlightet squared boxes sitting on someones desk. nothing original about doing it over and over again) Although one must appreciate and respect the work and effort that is put into these "standard modded" cases...
Yes solar cells may only be 20% efficient but even if it bloats out at 50W thats only 250w aprox.. and tft inside the case? nope prefer it on top where it can be seen . And weight is unlikely to be an issue tft wise - power consumption is (hence may dump backlight and deliver the backlighting wirelessly!! Only TFT I have that I'd attack at the moment is 12.1" and such old techology its weight is way to high. Anyways took me months to get around to fixing it (snagged a Mac powerbook ccfl) Powerbook 11.3" and I knew it would be useful someday! not as a computer of course.. I'm mad not insane Current top suspect is one of them 15.4" widescreens going about in the UK)
if inside or above the case doesn't matter, you'll still have to lift the weight... and now go on and weight it on scales. You'll come to the conclusion that 1kg is way below the actual weight of the finished case...
I see your point but i've been modding PCs since some people here were single cell organisms (pre 1986 for various reasons I haven't modded for ages, so I have decided to restart mods. First mod is fitting an Asus p4p800 with P-m chip into a Hiper htpc dvd layer size case. watercooled blah de blah - but thats no doubts already been done somewhere . What I want is something unique and this fits the bill. lots of research etc to be done but I am convinced its doable once the 500W cray clones are forgotten about. Crunch thing is getting power low enough Anyways have to finish non-pc mod in Kitchen and prove my very "thinks inside the box" Neurosurgon wrong (she is good Neurosurgeon mind)
dude occlocker, a 15" TFT? do you have any idea what kind of weight you are gonna need to stabilze that mofo? the mounting rig for such a TFT will add a lot of weight to the total id say the 12.1 sounds a lot better, also since you are gonna run 800*600, there is no need what so ever for a large screen as for the power, according to: http://www.epiacenter.com/powersim/powersim_v2/epiasimulator_v2.htm you should be able to stay under 20 watts using any epia N with just a CF card and a fan or something now add a good 10 watts for I/O and you are looking at 30 watts of needed power, so you need to transfer 150 watt to the solar cells if you go optical for the power supply you should probably start with some experimenting, get the epia and all the stuff you want to float, start experiments on wireless power and levitation
OK ya slippimg back into that box have you ever stripped a TFT? all it is is a sheet of clear glass/plastic and the tft pixels are literally printed on - all it needs to operate is power to logic board and a display signal coming in. almost every part you see as an operating TFT can be dumped (think OHP + tft projectors.) so supply logic board with power and sheet of tfts produces a picture - admitedly almost invisible but a picture none the less). Two options spring to mind both involve using only the part of the backlight that sits behind the TFT )thin white plastic so light. So as I said earlier project a beam of light from behind (masked of course) - result one display. Or dump the metal back of the TFT screen retain the plastic parts of backlight and use LEDs to illuminate (easily doable) with modern LED technology. So saying putting a TFT on top is impossible (not aimed at any one person) is patently wrong. Oh and so far this is an under 48 hour idea that WILL be tested researched etc.
If you run a small res... use a 7" TFT... there are some 7" TFT's with VGA Input and Touchscreen via USB... I know one resource in germany http://www.pollin.de where you'll get those for 150 Euro per unit.
Seen 7" TFTs in uk for £50 + VAT (£58.75) But the Laptop inc tft is starting to sound good to me - maybe unfeasible on economic reasons as the kinda Laptop I would want is not cheap.. But ya never know
OK last post until I do some research -: Yes thinking of light as power source - and specifically something that will focus light into a narrowish beam for delivery - and what is getting cheaper by the minute (1800 ANSI dlp at Misco for under 400 quid) now admit unsure if dlp suitable but if whatever projector uses to display image as light gets sent to screen can be removed and powered via LEDS then its doable - but def needs lots more research - BUT what def available and strong chance could be used if I had 600 quid spare) is one of the Samsung LED Projectors (never said anything about strong ambient light! - they are under 700g before I started stripping it ! Maybe ask samsung nicely later when its a more solid project Thanks for the input (even those who think I'm wrong)
I doubt you could use light as a power source commercial solar cells require too much area for it to be feasible on a small lightweight case however I did see a thing on tv about these German scientists who were using small solar cells(5 cm or so developed for salelites ect.) with light focused 400X on them for an experimental power source, I think they could power a house with about 100 of these units the problems are that you probably couldn't get your hands on such solar cells and the light was so focused that water cooling was nessassary
I see your point - but am hoping to see what I can obtain in the cutting edge solar power wise but first I have to do the calculations and see what my minimum power needs will be -
Current experimental solar cells (of extremely high cost) are currently at the 34-36% efficiency range. Now remember, these are the best of the best, and not yet publically available. The next highest experimental cells reached 24% about 8 years ago and I'm not seeing further data on those. All other cells are at 20% and below. There are cells available that could power whole homes, but they're slightly costly to implement. I've been made aware that large panels are much cheaper to purchase overseas, even with international shipping. If you want me to find out more about this, let me know as I'm not sure I'll be able to contact my colleague after the semester ends in 2 weeks. I still believe that the panels are going to be quite cost prohibitive, but an array of smaller cells will be even less economical.
Thanks - I was intending to try to get some from the US as cheaper and as I have a resident gophers (family) in the US then easily shipped over here.
