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The uBeam FAQ

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PaulReynolds:

--- Quote from: sdpkom on June 25, 2019, 07:15:14 am ---
"Excuse me, I'm a bit low, could you put your phone under a piece of paper for the whole week so I can get some charge?,
Sure, no problem, I can't look at the screen anyway in this room as it keeps rotating near the uBeam transmitter, the accelerometer goes crazy here"

--- End quote ---

On the list of "Why not to use uBeam" that high power ultrasound knocks out MEMS accelerometers keeps falling off the bottom, well remembered.

https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/07/mems-gyroscopes-smartphones-and.html

madires:
I think we should also look at the financial side of charging/powering devices. Some numbers about recharging your gadgets via the standard SMPSU based on the average price for power in Germany (EUR 0.30 per kWh) which is quite expensive. The yearly cost for recharging daily:
- smartphone EUR 1 - 1.50
- tablet EUR 4
- laptop EUR 10

Any wireless charging solution has to compete with those numbers. A few bucks more for the convenience of not dealing with a cable might be acceptable. But anything much less efficient or much more expensive is a show stopper.

PaulReynolds:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on June 25, 2019, 01:01:03 pm ---

--- End quote ---

You know I almost switched off when you linked to Perry's TEDx talk at the end, she triggers my "uBeam PTSD", but I watched it and for the first time didn't want to claw my eyes and ears out. I guess I'm making progress there.

BTW thanks for calling me CTO and not VP Eng, Berte is going to be so pissed about that!

PaulReynolds:

--- Quote from: madires on June 25, 2019, 02:07:32 pm ---I think we should also look at the financial side of charging/powering devices. Some numbers about recharging your gadgets via the standard SMPSU based on the average price for power in Germany (EUR 0.30 per kWh) which is quite expensive. The yearly cost for recharging daily:
- smartphone EUR 1 - 1.50
- tablet EUR 4
- laptop EUR 10

Any wireless charging solution has to compete with those numbers. A few bucks more for the convenience of not dealing with a cable might be acceptable. But anything much less efficient or much more expensive is a show stopper.

--- End quote ---

On a large scale and for a business there does need to be a compelling case that the cost of inefficient charging does allow a valuable function to be performed or saves other expensive functions like labour. For individuals it's a matter of convenience and people will pay for that - I can guarantee you 99% of people have no idea what it costs in a year to charge your phone every day. So if you ask it like this "Imagine you never have to plug in your phone, ever, and it just keeps being powered up. What would you pay every year for that convenience?" and then say "$1, $10, $100, $1000". Basically everyone will say yes to $1 and $10, I think a majority (but not large majority) will say yes at $100, and basically no-one will say yes at $1000. So that says that with a yearly charge cost of say $1 at 100% efficiency, you need to keep real world efficiency at >1%, or ideally >10% (very hard to do but you can get marketing covering for that). So while you are correct, I actually don't think this is the primary show stopper (the massive inefficiency meaning 500 million people block doing this every day adds around 200 PWh to the yearly power demand, not very green).

The first line killers are that it just doesn't charge fast enough, target the devices well enough, for long enough under real world conditions to be practical, the cost of the actual hardware is likely on a par with the phone itself, and it's IMO not safe - the ongoing cost thing comes in after that as a show stopper, as consumers are lazy and pay for dumb stuff.

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: PaulReynolds on June 25, 2019, 02:10:34 pm ---BTW thanks for calling me CTO and not VP Eng, Berte is going to be so pissed about that!

--- End quote ---

I had a niggling feeling I goofed that. Berte's flame SMS incoming in 3... 2... 1...

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