FCC approves first 'power-at-a-distance' wireless charging device

Patents are not the whole story, what about the loss factor?
The whole thing is a novelty for low power batteries. Some one is going to try to do this with their electric cars then what type of interference are we going to see? Whats wrong with a hunk of copper wire? saves the losses associated with these novelties. Just imagine they want to sell to every person on the planet using and Ifone, what 20 - 30 million wifi chargers with 2 or 3 Watts loss thats a bunch of Megawatts of wasted power.

 

Please look at my other posts.... You seem to think we disagree, which is incorrect.

HNY,
Chip W1YW

 

Wrong.
The industry has been searching for "better mouse trap" - lithium ion batteries are results of this search.
The engineers are not dummies and know what makes them tic, now the managers need to convince the bean counters what is necessary to make this technology safe and as bullet proof as feasible.

For example - you would not want to have lead acid car battery in ziplock bags, would you ?

I worked on a consumer device which the (mechanical ) engineer determined was in need of "electrical brake" to be safe.
The reputable manufacturer did not want to spent the extra money until the engineers - both mechanical and electrical - demonstrated how unfriendly the gizmo could be without such "brake".

73 Shirley

 

I find it amusing Shirley that you seem to have no choice on whether to agree with me or not

Lithium ion batteries are inherently dangerous, thus many minds are working at better solutions. Knowing you , I assume that you do not qualify me as a 'mind'. That's OK. I don't 'mind'. Heck, I've got the patent;-)

HNY
Chip W1YW

 

Happy New Year, Chip.

 

My question is will the average short attention span plug and play American have enough patience to use this technology?

 

I am confused. According to the Friis formula the transmitter will need to radiate a few thousand watts for this to work. what am I missing?

 

"I find it amusing Shirley that you seem to have no choice on whether to agree with me or not"
Wrong again.
It is still free country and agreeing with yours points of view is not the the purpose of this thread.
But if my behavior tickles your funny bone, I would call "atta boy" point for myself.

After my 2 miles plus walk this morning when Houston area temperature is near freezing my frozen "mind" came up with this peculiar question .
I am a stickler for having a "measuring stick " so I can measure success or failure of the project.
I actually prefer sort of old fashioned spec written on napkin.Yuck.

Here is my dilemma -
IF the ISM specification calls for " no license required" why the hell are my tax dollars wasted on obtaining FCC permission to procure this (wet) dream?

Back to technology - we are surrounded with 60Hz RF radiated from power grid.
Why can this miracle remote charging USE this UNSOLICITED 60Hz field already present , and payed for , in my house?

Can I get a patent on that ?

73 Shirley

 

A system would 'work' with 10 watts, high gain antennas, and short distances, at 900 MHz ISM. 'Work' means low trickle charge; won't power your TV set, that's for sure. Pretty contrived.

HNY
Chip W1YW

 

You can devise a clever system with a simple multimile waveguide that terminates in a 3 hole plug. Then you can conformally attach those plugs as pairs flush to walls at many places. All you will need to do is plug in!

;-)

 

RFI aside...

This is a complete waste of energy. Just plug the damn thing in. Is it really that hard?

Given the number of phones in the world we are talking about a significant amount of energy wasted.

To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare, this is a device sold to an idiot, full of hum and buzzing, transmitting nothing.

 

Great discussion and great participants!

After reading all the responses I think the problem has already been solved here collectively.

"If you can think of it you can do it!" so Mr.Tesla is sitting on the cloud and smiling. He was a visionary without enough technology in SHF range and signal processing.

As W1YW mentioned there is a big demand for such a system and since he is also involved in the research in this field I am sure it is not a technological "pipe dream".

My understanding at totally amateur level is IMHO SHF + antennas with ultra concentrated pencil like beam(s) will make it feasible.

Maybe some type of active beam forming antenna arrays on both ends. System can detect and track devices, poll power levels and than form almost laser like beam, and automatically start charging pointing at selected device it's narrow RF beam with all available power.
If few devices need charging than maybe 2 beams at half the power etc.

Another subsystem can be monitoring power transfer/scatter levels and if beam starts to be attenuated with characteristics of moving "flesh like" object beam is turned off and system starts "pinging" receiver awaiting clear path.

So system should be safe, no exposure as most energy goes to target and if user approaches the "charging path" system stops charging.

If W1YW will design an active 3-D beam forming antenna arrays without need for any moving parts that can be i.e. an ornament on the ceiling or lampshade etc. we may finally stop furnishing our homes with countless wallwarts generating RF too.

Power level is not that important as devices are under charge almost all the time so they can trickle charge 24/7 instead of within 2 hrs because we are addicted to our smartphones etc and can't wait more than that.

Just my amateur 0.02$

Happy New Year 2018!
73

 

Contribution to discussion is appreciated, thanks.

Maybe I need to patent my ESA - Electronically Steerable Array.

As Tevye ( Fidler on the roof ) said - "on the other hand" - ever since I got into electronics , and for matter of fact into any project, my motto has been "KISS" - Keep it simple stupid.

This is ERG - "electronic Rube Goldberg " for sure .
But I am prejudiced - I do not own smart phone - just little toy Nemo swimming in paper wight powered by solar cell (!).

73 Shirley

 

I just wonder if grid power conservation standards organizations (states, Japan, and Europe) will ban most of these kinds of power-at-distance devices due to such pitifully low efficiency.

Not green enough.

Here in California, they banned older linear charging transformers (wall warts, etc) below a certain efficiency level many years ago, and mandated new standards that require auto shut off (below around 15%) when not actually charging. The "must use a switching power supply law" applied to external chargers for any device capable of playing music or video from memory.... something like that. For a radio-only devices, manufacturers can still design with linear transformers.

 

Well, That sure is a nice room.
More probable unsafe radiation exposure. Wont fly in California I bet !!