Netbook powered by 8 AA batteries | Hacker News Reader

Netbook powered by 8 AA batteries

norhtec.com

58 pointsvaksel34 comments

What they are trying to do is build the 'ibm pc' of laptops. If they use enough off the shelf parts that are somewhat standardized (or open enough to make into a new standard) it could be a platform that takes off.

(though the market demand for such a platform is probably more aligned with people having to maintain large numbers of laptops than the casual consumer)

I'd say it is also more aligned with people in poor areas who find it cheaper to upgrade, rather than replace.

I have a 15-year-old Gateway Handbook 486 that only takes 5~6v at well under 1A (with a hard drive, much less with a CF card). It can run forever on 4 AA NiMH batteries, or from a USB port!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Handbook

Unfortunately, the screen is total crap -- I don't mind that it's grayscale, but that it's an ancient bottom-barrel passive screen.

of interest in the modularity of the chipset itself. why throw away the screen and power supply when you can upgrade by replacing the main board?

Ah, NorhTec! Quirky little Asian/Canadian company. They do lots of interesting simplifications like this. A few years ago I was seriously looking at filling a datacenter cabinet with 200 of their 5W microservers.

It's nice when traveling to have electronics that all runs from AAs.

AAs can be found all over the world. And, if all your stuff runs the same battery, you can swap them between devices in a pinch. This computer looks awesome.

Not really sure why some one would choose to use AA batteries on a netbook.

Quote from the article: "This allows the Gecko Edubook to be easily configured to the end-user's requirements and gives the opportunity the Edubook to be assembled or retrofitted locally. These batteries can be easily sourced and replaced as required."

I think the main advantage is that these batteries are cheaper and easier to replace.

And you can get generic rechargeable batteries from a variety of manufacturers.

Edit: Or a battery pack like described in the article.

I wish more laptop manufacturers would do exactly this. Most power-packs are just pure obfuscations for the purpose of extorting money from consumers.

How about a "dustbuster" style hand-vac with replaceable batteries? That would be awesome!

When a portable phone's battery runs out, it's cheapest just to buy a new phone!

Huh? My phone cost $140, and it was a pretty cheap model. Batteries are $20.

Obviously it depends on what kind of a phone we're talking about. A cheap phone might be a Nokia 1208, i.e. about $40 new.

I meant a landline phone, not a mobile.

My Mum bought a BT cordless phone for a landline, and the batteries were 40 pounds. A new phone only cost 25 I think, so she bought a new one when it ran out.

> Edit: Or a battery pack like described in the article.

Why would you want to pay extra to get 8 cells bundled together in a pack when you could just get 8 cells individually?

Not only are you getting closer to the commodity part rather than an assembly that's specific to the device in question, you also gain the ability to replace individual cells when they go bad.

Running on AA-style cells like that is a huge plus to me; I hope other manufacturers pick up on it.

Perhaps I am wrong: I thought the battery pack mentioned in the article was basically just some AA-style cells packed together for your convenience.

Anyway, I share your sentiment.

Same reason you buy a digital camera that takes AA's. So as when they run out, and you're away from home, you can pick some new ones up from any shop.

I bought a netbook lately, Asus Aspire One. It cost £179, and a new/spare battery for it costs £80. That's just obscene.

edit: ACER Aspire One.

I think your machine is Acer Aspire one :)

hah that's the one. Always get those mixed up, surprising they didn't choose more distinct names.

And imagine you are using the machine in an industrial app and you need it to work in 5years time. How much will they charge you for batteries then when they are the only source?

That's why we pay so much for Psion handhelds now

The AA is the closest thing to a generic battery. I often work in remote locations and more of my gear (also including cameras/sound equipment) that runs on AA, the better. A UPS style big battery with outlets is a worthy alternative, but they typically weigh 30 pounds, you have to keep track of more cables, and can attract suspicion from airport security. I'd way rather have a few hundred AAs - yes, I do recycle batteries, and use rechargeables, but in a work environment you just want to be able to grab fully charged ones, fast, even if that means recharging said few hundred after the job ends and you get home.

On a more general level, I like it that they've designed the RAM and CPU slots to allow easy upgrades. At a $200 MSRP, I would certainly get one (or even if they drifted up to $249). The specs are very good for such a small machine and I wish them every success with it.

Why wouldn't you? Most laptop batteries -- with the exception of some of the most recent ones that use LiPo packs, or some very rare designs using prismatic cells -- are just plastic cases built around commodity cylindrical cells.

Here's a photo of the inside of a Dell: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery1.ht...

It's pretty trivial to build the charging circuit into the device and let the end user swap out the cells directly, but doing that gives up the obscene margins that manufacturers charge for replacement batteries, and (although I don't buy this as the actual reason) might conceivably lead to more damaged devices due to users swapping cells improperly, reversing the polarity, or mixing cell types.

It looks exactly like an Asus eee PC. Is this some sort of retrofit or something?

If history taught us a lesson, next step will be solar powered netbooks.

In order to do that all you need is to get rid of power consuming devices like HD, DVD etc and just leave a motherboard, memory, SSD and a low consuming display.

I must have missed that history lesson...what consumer electronics are solar powered, other than perhaps those cheap calculators?

"other than perhaps those cheap calculators?"

Read about the history of calculators to understand their evolution.

Since the abacus...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator

Thanks...think you're missing the point. A much better comparison for netbooks is not cheap handheld calculators, but graphing calculators, few of which are solar powered (if any). In the entire spectrum of consumer electronics, the only thing that I can think of that is solar powered is cheap handheld calculators. Not mp3 players, cell phones, pedometers, tv remotes, cordless phones, pdas, etc, etc. Why would you think that netbooks (a class of electronics more complex and power-hungry than any of those categories) would have solar power as their next step, or any step in the foreseeable future? History has taught us the exact opposite so far.

Also watches? I'm skeptical on the idea but the math seems to be reasonably close as to justify hope.

Suppose the notebook's lid is 20cm x 30cm, direct sun light is 1000wt/m^2, so we're getting 60 watts of energy per lid. Best solar cell efficiency available today is 20%, with 40% in the works (it takes very long time to make stride though). So, we're looking at 12w today and 24w in the future.

This is not entirely outlandish. Moving parts can be removed and silicon parts can be optimized for smart power management (e.g. sleep some regions of RAM, some parts (cores) of CPU, shutdown some SSD controllers while keeping others etc).

The only big thing left is the screen. Latest 2.2" OLED screen works at 100mw. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/tmdisplay-oled-scree... So this screen is, (2.2 * 2.54)^2 * sqrt(3)/4 = 13.5 cm^2 and to cover a big 20x30cm screen we need 600/13.5 = 44 such small screens, and they should consume 4.4watts total. So the screen problem is manageable in the long run.

This can be made to work, at least in sunnier climates.

I would probably expect cell phones to get there first, however. the technology is expensive (both OLEDs and solar cells) and ARM&cell phone companies have better expertise in deep power management.

But this assumes you're letting this thing sit in direct sunlight for hours at a time...who does that? I really doubt that cell phones or laptops will ever be solar powered, at least as their primary power source, because if they're not in use, they sit in a bag or a pocket.

You're right, that's why I'm sceptical. I think it may work as a last resort (e.g. I forgot my power adapter at home), when camping/traveling or in poor countries with no electricity grid. The problem is with such marginal and cost-sensitive usage scenarios who will be compelled to develop it in the first place? In poor countries they use simple dynamo machines to power the cell phones afaik.

I think realisticaly there is a point for a special traveler's cellphone - take one with you when going hiking and know that you will be able to call help no matter what happens. That sort of thing.

Hey, take a look at this!

http://www.voltaicsystems.com/bag_generator.shtml

15w solar laptop briefcase.

That's even more useful to the urban thief. Not only will they know they have a laptop, but they'll know they've got everything they need in a convenient briefcase.

I'm not saying these things aren't a good idea, I'm just saying most people live in highly urbanized areas where leaving stuff like this in the sun will get them stolen. If you want to take a laptop with you on a fishing trip or into cottage country, then this is ideal.

On a slightly more serious note, a good playground for developing thses kinds of things might be products for developing countries. Specifically, those parts that are not on grids.

A lot of things you make must be cheap, must have own power source & must be useful enough to (a) justify spending money in a place without much (b) worth the hassle of putting panels on your roof or whatever.

What seems relatively sensible is a solar powered desktop to start with.

I'd rather a cheap general purpose solar-panel/ crank-handle/ battery combo. Or those bags I've been seeing recently with solar panels worked into the flap. You can't depend on the back of the screen being pointed directly at the sun enough of the time. In hot countries you might well want to get into the shade before sitting down for an hour.

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