Subject:
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Re: Rechargeable Battery question.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 30 Jan 2003 22:50:36 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <SJBAKER1@AIRMAIL.nomorespamNET>
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Viewed:
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1431 times
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Dan Novy wrote:
> Does anyone have any information about the rechargeable battery pacs
> used in certain electric tooth brushes? They recharge in a cradle,
> without any kind of metal contact. Does anyone know how these work,
I presume they are use some kind of inductive method. Put A/C current
through a coil - and another coil placed nearby will pick up some of the
current and - in principle - be able to recharge a battery.
I have not idea whether that's what they actually do - but it seems likely.
> where to get parts, or have plans for building your own? I'd like to
> build a robot that can recharge itself just by parking in a "home"
> position. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
I tried something which came close being a pure Lego solution:
The idea was that if you spin a Lego motor, it acts as a generator (try
connecting two motors together with a wire - no batteries, no nothing -
spin one motor and the other one spins too). It's a suprisingly good
generator too.
So the idea was to have a motor connected to a Lego train controller
that's spinning a bunch of magnets (train couplings). On the robot,
there is a motor with a wheel on it that has a matching set of magnets.
As the robot reverses into the 'garage', the two sets of magnets line
up and the motor on the robot spins - generating voltage. In theory,
you could connect that up to a battery pack containing rechargable
batteries and you'd recharge them.
The problems are twofold. Firstly, the voltage generated by the
motor has to be bigger than the voltage generated by the batteries
(it isn't) and secondly, you need a way to stop the 'generator'
motor from spinning as soon as the robot drives out of the garage.
Presumably you could do that with a simple diode in the circuit...
Anyway - it was just a thought.
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net> WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Rechargeable Battery question.
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| Does anyone have any information about the rechargeable battery pacs used in certain electric tooth brushes? They recharge in a cradle, without any kind of metal contact. Does anyone know how these work, where to get parts, or have plans for (...) (22 years ago, 30-Jan-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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