h a l f b a k e r yIdea vs. Ego
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Most remote controls operate with a couple of AAA-sized
batteries* or worse, one of those little CR2032 lithium coin
cells. I understand manufacturers want their remotes to be
compact and sleek but, after talking to people this seems to be
misguided.
No one is bothered by how large/heavy a
remote is, within some
reasonable constraints. Everyone hates losing the remote, and it
usually gets lost because it's slim enough to slide between sofa
cushions or hide under a magazine. Everyone has had a remote
with dying batteries that cause annoyance. So, the solution.
You're buying a new TV, you admire the luxuriously large box
and note the model number. You head over to the D-Cell Remote
co website and order up a remote for your TV. A couple of days
later and a reassuringly heavy box arrives in the mail. Inside is a
reasonable replica of your TV's original remote, but the back
section of the plastic molding has been redesigned and
massively expanded to hold 2 D-cell batteries which come pre-
installed for convenience. Instead of 650mAh AAA cells that
might last a year, we have 30,000mAh that will see you into the
next decade or more. You could easily double the power of the
little IR LED for more range, and there's much less chance you'll
lose the thing**.
As a bonus, the D-Cell remote is likely to be on hand, and
effective in a home-defense scenario.
*Each one is technically a cell, multiple cells make a battery,
but whenever I refer to cells correctly, it seems to generate
confusion.
**Especially if you select the "EZ-find" fluorescent option with
the mini-strobe.
Zinc Air Large Capacity Battery
https://www.battery...strial-battery.html
[bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021]
Obviously I was not the first to think of a gun shaped remote.
https://patents.goo...atent/US5253068A/en
[xandram, Dec 18 2021]
My Remote (boring AAA batterys)
https://www.amazon....odels/dp/B07MG42VN5
[bs0u0155, Dec 20 2021]
[link]
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I would like a remote control with a crank handle
to generate a small amount of electricity to make
it work |
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Surely pressing the buttons could generate electricity |
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Also waving it around like an automatic watch |
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Or go retro and have it attached to the tv with a cord. |
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//If someone would offer this size with a Li-FeS2 chemistry// |
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meh, it's within a few % of standard alkaline chemistries. Zinc
Air (link) is where it's at for ultimate capacity. |
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Liquid fossil fuels are much more energy dense than the best batteries. |
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2-stroke pull-start remote is the obvious solution |
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//Liquid fossil fuels are much more energy dense than the
best batteries. 2-stroke pull-start remote is the obvious
solution// |
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The FUEL might be more energy dense, but the conversion
to kinetic energy by the engine is dreadful, then the
conversion from kinetic to electrical, poor. Then some form
of storage? How does it compare to Zinc-air? Lets have a
look at some numbers: |
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Zinc air is 0.4Whr/gram. Which is 1440J/g |
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Gasoline is about 46000J/g. BUT, a tiny 2 stroke engine will
be lucky to get to ~20% efficient (9200J/g). The electrical
generator on that scale will be ~60% (5520 J/g) and
probably another 10% loss in rectification/commutator
losses (4960J/g). So, still good. But, how are you using it?
You're not going to pull-start it for each time you press a
button, so do you leave it idling for the length of the show?
The whole evening? At that scale, you'd probably want to go
with a nitro engine, they're compression-ignition 2 stroke &
valve less, so a lot easier to make at that scale. Although
the fuel is less energy dense and the efficiency is horrible. |
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/I zink your link is on zee blink./ |
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Just give the remote wireless charging capacity and a charging
cradle. It won't ever actually be there, but you can pretend. |
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//give the remote wireless charging capacity// |
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Knock off replacement remotes are in the $10 range. Building
in wireless charging might be tough to get down to price. |
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//It won't ever actually be there//
So no one will know if it actually works? Great! Slap the
sticker on the box and ship it! |
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Retro cord with pushbutton rewind like the better
vacuums used to have. |
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+ I think this sounds useful. Maybe reshaping the
remote to look like a handgun or some thing where
the two large batteries can be stored.That way it
wouldn’t be awkward to hold and everyone wants
to shoot their television! |
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//but Apple iPhone and Apple Watch can both be used as
remotes for supported products.// |
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Another example of Apple's marketing. They do it all the
time "Look at this shiny feature (implications of exclusivity)
apple products have... " when I have had apps controlling
my various AV tech for years, Roku/Samsung/LG. The apps
are never as good as a dedicated device, having to unlock
your phone, pull up an app and have no tactile way of
finding the correct button. Not a great experience. |
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//Maybe reshaping the remote to look like a handgun// |
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Guns famously have a small number of buttons related to a
core featureset, remote controls have a fairly large number
of buttons. Although the ability to reshape the remote is
interesting, maybe re-prioritize is a better phrase. The
remote for my TV <link> has the emphasis all wrong. It has
very large buttons for numbers and channel up/down, but I
never use these. The buttons I use most are the little
play/pause/stop buttons way down the bottom. It's clear
that the remote design still assumes the main use is over-
the-air broadcast rather than streaming applications/other
inputs. |
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What do you people do, that your remotes run out of
batteries all the time? I've had my current TV for nearly
11 years; I think (not entirely sure...) I've replaced the
batteries once.
Also, gun remotes exist. I've seen ads for them, but not a
real one. Very basic; just channel, volume, power (maybe
mute?) IIRC. |
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//What do you people do, that your remotes run out of
batteries all the time?// |
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Well, the number of apps necessitates an awful lot of menu
navigation. Lots of things need signing in, which needs a lot of
booping about on alphanumeric menus. Then there's the apps
that you need to keep moving, lest the autoplay a loud trailer
at you. But, honestly I think the remotes spend a good amount
of time wedged between sofa cushions with the buttons
pressed. |
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So what you need there are sofa cushions intelligent enough to
creep or ooze away from the buttons. The mattresses of
Squornshellous Zeta would probably make a good starting point. |
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