EEVblog 1495 - Quaze Wireless Power for Gaming

[EEVblog]

Yes, wireless powr is BACK! And this time they are trargetting gaming rigs.
Quaze want to power gaming rigs up to 500W with 15MHz resonant RF wireless desktop power. Let's take a look!



https://www.quazetech.com/
Demo video:
Focus Demo Day:
https://zumtl.com/en/news/demo-day-focus-decouvrez-la-nouvelle-cohorte-dentrepreneurs/
https://www.laptopmag.com/au/features/quaze-maingear
Energous: https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/12/energous-it-just-keeps-getting-worse.html

Patents:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11133714B1/
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11374438B2/

00:00 - Quaze desktop wireless power. We've heard this before.
02:38 - Targetting the gamer market through Maingear
05:49 - Laptop mag interview and demo
08:41 - What's that plugpack?
16:16 - Is it safe?
17:08 - Zu Focus demo day video
18:24 - The rules are hard coded in our mind (for a reason)
20:18 - It's all thanks to gravity!
22:45 - Do gamers actually need or want this?
25:07 - Are you with me? Are you seeing it? No, not really.
26:18 - Phone charging
27:55 - Astonishing isn't it. Walls, floors, ceilings! Yeah, nah.
30:37 - Unlimited potential!
32:46 - A look at the patents and the efficiency numbers
39:41 - Conclusion

[woofy]

This old chestnut has been going on for sooo long.
Way back in 1989, BBC's Tomorrows World predicted getting power by sticking a "pad" anywhere on the wall.
https://youtu.be/xFTPoiXU_EI?t=81

[Schottky]

This looks to be very similar to what EPC-Co has shown back in 2018. See the videos below which shows construction of the receiver coil






and also they have this patent which shows how the transmitting coils are arranged across the surface

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180269727A1/en?oq=US20180269727A1



There is also another company called Metaboards  that also does something similar

[thm_w]

I see the value in keyboard/mouse/controller/laptop. I'm ok with wired mouse/kb but seems like the majority of people all want wireless.

As mentioned on youtube we have:
Logitech powerplay mouse: https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/gaming-mouse-pads/powerplay-wireless-charging.943-000109.html
Corsair qi mouse: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Gaming-Mousepads/Wireless-Charging-Mousepads/MM1000-Qi%C2%AE-Wireless-Charging-Mouse-Pad/p/CH-9440022-NA

You might be able to DIY your own powered keyboard using one of these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256803549038136.html If its even worth it.

Monitor makes no sense to me as you have to have a display cable anyway.
Tower, they specifically don't say they will power it, so you'll have a power cable going to there.

[SiliconWizard]

Nice! Maybe they should team up with SpinLaunch though.

[Nominal Animal]

Nice! Maybe they should team up with SpinLaunch though.

In the investor meeting:

Good news, everyone!  Our final prototype exceeded all our expectations, and achieved over-unity power transmission!

Unfortunately, the prototype was accidentally launched into the sun in an regrettable mishap when collaborating with the SpinLaunch team.

Also, we lost our head of technical design and all the design documentation in an unplanned and unforeseen industrial event involving a walrus, a can of Campbell's tomato soup, and a small booklet of Eastern Philosophy, so now we are seeking an additional $100M in order to finalize this proven world-changing technology, including additional retention bonuses for the executive officers of course for reaching this important and ground-breaking milestone.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Nice! Maybe they should team up with SpinLaunch though.

In the investor meeting:

Good news, everyone!  Our final prototype exceeded all our expectations, and achieved over-unity power transmission!

Unfortunately, the prototype was accidentally launched into the sun in an regrettable mishap when collaborating with the SpinLaunch team.

Also, we lost our head of technical design and all the design documentation in an unplanned and unforeseen industrial event involving a walrus, a can of Campbell's tomato soup, and a small booklet of Eastern Philosophy, so now we are seeking an additional $100M in order to finalize this proven world-changing technology, including additional retention bonuses for the executive officers of course for reaching this important and ground-breaking milestone.

You forgot to mention the rainbow-farting unicorn.

[Nominal Animal]

Nice! Maybe they should team up with SpinLaunch though.

In the investor meeting:

Good news, everyone!  Our final prototype exceeded all our expectations, and achieved over-unity power transmission!

Unfortunately, the prototype was accidentally launched into the sun in an regrettable mishap when collaborating with the SpinLaunch team.

Also, we lost our head of technical design and all the design documentation in an unplanned and unforeseen industrial event involving a walrus, a can of Campbell's tomato soup, and a small booklet of Eastern Philosophy, so now we are seeking an additional $100M in order to finalize this proven world-changing technology, including additional retention bonuses for the executive officers of course for reaching this important and ground-breaking milestone.

You forgot to mention the rainbow-farting unicorn.

No, you confuse the meeting with the later one, where they need an additional $250M, as the new prototype was accidentally glued to the rainbow-farting unicorn that eats blockchain technology and produces the nanoscale components used in the prototype manufacture, and it happened to eat itself and pop out of existence on our plane.  The additional funds are needed to build the interdimensional gateway to recover the unicorn and the prototype.
They swear they won't connect the gateway to the rich hell-beast dimension, again; extra-special protections (a neon sticker with a 3D effect of a wagging finger) have been put in place to avoid repeating that incident.

[madires]

Quaze's demo even showed why putting their technology into floors, walls or ceilings won't work. Have you observed the jars with the LED strings? They start lighting dimly a few cm above the table.

[nctnico]

Quaze's demo even showed why putting their technology into floors, walls or ceilings won't work. Have you observed the jars with the LED strings? They start lighting dimly a few cm above the table.

Having some experience with designing wireless power myself: their system seems to be quite clever. One of the things that I'm wondering about is how they detect that a device is within range. There has to be some communication (like Qi does) between the receiver and transmitter so the transmitter can crank up the power only when there is a receiver in the field. Otherwise it will also heat up any metal object like a wrist watch or ring. This can also explain why the LEDs in the jar light up a little bit. The transmitter is always transmitting at low levels to ping potential receivers. The receivers can use the small amount of power to negotiate their required power level.

[Marco]

What would be the limiting cost factor for giant charging surfaces, the power MOSFET per coil or the copper?

[nctnico]

What would be the limiting cost factor for giant charging surfaces, the power MOSFET per coil or the copper?

Good question. I'd very much like to see the inside of the transmitter to see how they constructed it.

[Bud]

Can't wait for cats and other small house pets to become fried by 500W @15 MHz when walking on such floor and surfaces.

[nctnico]

Can't wait for cats and other small house pets to become fried by 500W @15 MHz when walking on such floor and surfaces.

You didn't get the part where the field is only activated when there is a receiver in sight.

[SiliconWizard]

Can't wait for cats and other small house pets to become fried by 500W @15 MHz when walking on such floor and surfaces.

You didn't get the part where the field is only activated when there is a receiver in sight.

What if the receiver is close to the cat?

[nctnico]

Can't wait for cats and other small house pets to become fried by 500W @15 MHz when walking on such floor and surfaces.

You didn't get the part where the field is only activated when there is a receiver in sight.

What if the receiver is close to the cat?

First of all 15MHz is not going to do any harm. The levels for each coil are too low for that; it is not a microwave. Secondly, the magnetic field lines are caught up / concentrated by the receiver as this has the path of least resistance for the magnetic field.

[twospoons]

That image from  the patent looks remarkably similar to the stuff I was working on for Power by Proxi (now owned by Apple) in 2015. Here's the PbyP patent, that presumably Apple now own, EU WO 2016024869 A1. And yes, I am one of the listed inventors.

I came away from that job rather unconvinced by wireless power transfer, except for a few situations where wires really couldn't be used.

[EEVblog]

I came away from that job rather unconvinced by wireless power transfer, except for a few situations where wires really couldn't be used.

Any competent engineer who is not ideogically possesed by the idea will come to the same conclusion.

[Bud]

Can't wait for cats and other small house pets to become fried by 500W @15 MHz when walking on such floor and surfaces.

You didn't get the part where the field is only activated when there is a receiver in sight.

What if the receiver is close to the cat?

First of all 15MHz is not going to do any harm. The levels for each coil are too low for that; it is not a microwave. Secondly, the magnetic field lines are caught up / concentrated by the receiver as this has the path of least resistance for the magnetic field.

Oh yeah? I still remember as a teenager at the club station sticking my hand with a neon bulb in a 3.5Mhz antenna tuner  running at 1kW or so, i still remember the burning feeling. The hand was a few inches away from the tank coil.

[floobydust]

Diathermy machines I remember an old one using a pair of 6146's that heated a person up quite well, chiropractor used it.

[Marco]

The coils are likely backed by ferrite plates, which is another cost problem for huge surfaces. So as long as active transmission coils are always below the receiver leakage should be minimal.

[SiliconWizard]

Diathermy machines I remember an old one using a pair of 6146's that heated a person up quite well, chiropractor used it.

Weren't the soviets doing some weird experiments with that too?