Everyone has seen the flashlight you shake to power up, why not combine that with any remote, Tv, DVD, CD player, just shake to power it up , Never Dead Remote.
-- Mr_Turner, Apr 15 2006

Build A Kinetic Remote Control http://makezine.com/12/kineticremote/
Shake batteries out of the picture with this muscle-powered remote. [baconbrain, Apr 19 2008]

Hrm. Sometimes with universal remotes if you remove the batteries, you must reprogram them.

You'd save a mountain of cash on batteries - and maybe I'd quit having to rob my smoke alarm for a few more days worth of channel surfing.
-- Letsbuildafort, Apr 15 2006


[+] if you will improve your spelling.
-- Acme, Apr 15 2006


True, you sometime have to reprogram universal remotes. My idea to combat that problem is my remote contains a form of flashdrive to hold the information. Of course this would raise price a bit.
-- Mr_Turner, Apr 15 2006


Or, alternatively have a small battery back-up.
-- Jinbish, Apr 15 2006


If the remote had persistent memory, it would also need a reset button. +.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 15 2006


//save a mountain of cash on batteries// I think it's overkill. It's a good concept but the return probably won't be worth the money used to produce this.
-- the fiddler, Apr 18 2006


Small EEPROM devices are quite cheap. A 256 byte EEPROM costs under $0.16 in quantity; an 8192-byte EEPROM costs under $0.35.
-- supercat, Apr 18 2006


or you could buy rechargeable AA and AAA batteries! they are a bit expensive, but not by much more than disposables, adn you save money in the long run. I would suggest a rechargeable remote(I.E. like a cell phone) but those built in batteries often cost $30 and up when they do need to be replaced. Of course rechargeable AA batteries eventually stop holding a charge, but even rechargeable ones are cheaper than having to replace Non-standard, built in rechargeable batteries.
-- Dickcheney6, Apr 19 2008


_Make_ magazine has instructions on how to build one of these. It appears to be a good idea and to work well. (I can't get a good link to the article.)
-- baconbrain, Apr 19 2008


Didn't someone here post an idea for standard-sized rechargable batteries which include their own kinetic charger? They would be ideal for something like this, where power demands are low, and could replace the batteries in existing remotes rather than buying new ones.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 19 2008



random, halfbakery