GM investing in PowerMat, hoping for wireless charging for the Volt

Spectre said:
Also, pacemakers would be a problem in this scenario. There is nowhere in a vehicle that you can get far enough away that the field from the road feed won't mess with it.
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Assuming its made out of plastic with no shielding whatsoever.
 
As has been stated before, Tesla Coils are the only sensible option.

800px-Lightning_simulator_questacon02.jpg
 
prizrak said:
Assuming its made out of plastic with no shielding whatsoever.
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Shielding can only be accomplished with heavy metal materials. Only makes the problem worse because then you'd have to increase the current to make the heavier car move, which means a larger field, which means you need more shielding...

Here's something from a maker of magnetically-driven scientific gear.

Makers of cardiac pacemakers have placed magnetic switches in them that can be activated when the pacemaker is in a 5 gauss magnetic field. The critical 5 gauss line varies from 5.5" to 22.8" above the deck or cylinder guard with our stirrers. The graph indicates that the magnetic field falls off very fast with distance. However as a safety factor we recommend that people with pacemakers keep at least 36" or 91 cm from the Alligator Vertical Tumble Stirrers and the Vortex Lateral Tumble Stirrer. The cardiac pacemaker company Medtronic has a webpage and pdf that discusses the 5 gauss line in more detail.
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All this for something that's basically a very slow magnetic-drive paint mixer. Please note the significant distance between the 5 gauss perimeter and the safety perimeter for those with pacemakers (which are surprisingly common).

This doesn't even get into the other medical appliances out there. So, yeah, you can have your inductive charging roads - if you are willing to KILL a significant portion of your populace.
 
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Spectre said:
Shielding can only be accomplished with heavy metal materials. Only makes the problem worse because then you'd have to increase the current to make the heavier car move, which means a larger field, which means you need more shielding...
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I was under the impression that a Faraday cage would be more than sufficient to shield from a magnetic field.

Here's something from a maker of magnetically-driven scientific gear.



All this for something that's basically a very slow magnetic-drive paint mixer. Please note the significant distance between the 5 gauss perimeter and the safety perimeter for those with pacemakers (which are surprisingly common).
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This is somewhat different though, it's not an induction charger this is something that has to move huge pieces of machinery as opposed to give them some juice.

So, yeah, you can have your inductive charging roads - if you are willing to KILL a significant portion of your populace.
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That would reduce traffic significantly and free up quite a bit of resources. :)

Speaking of inductive charging....
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/f...ireless-tesla/
 
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What's the bug deal about this? Why would it need to only be on the volt? It doesn't take much electricity; any car could have it inside. However, wouldn't your phone/whatever just slide around on it? I suppose the easy solution would be to use it as the bottom panel of a short-walled bin that would be just big enough for the larger phones...

Lame, in any event.
 
Electric-Mayhem said:
Nope....as far as I know there is no way to really do this safely and reliably. Your idea with the Tesla coil is about as close as it gets. Tesla did manage to provide power to flourescent fixtures this way, and even over miles of distance, but the tesla coil had to be huge. The largest one ever created was made by Tesla himself and was in Colorado Springs and could evidently produce detectable electrical charge up to 25 miles away.
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What about this?

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/japan-wants-power-300000-homes-wireless-power-space
 
That's the orbital power sat, an idea invented by Robert Heinlein decades ago.

The satellite will have a surface area of four square kilometers, and transmit power via microwave to a base station on Earth.
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Don't stand between the sat and the base station.
 
I always thought connecting the moon via tether to a giant generator would be a great idea.
 
funny I was just thinking "i wonder when a car manufacturer will do this." I've already got a ghetto version rigged up in my e30 using a powermat for my HTC evo.
 
Jacobfox said:
BTW, Tesla was showing off a wirelessly charged roadster today.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/fulton-innovation-blows-our-minds-with-ecoupled-wireless-tesla/
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Beat you to it :p
funny I was just thinking "i wonder when a car manufacturer will do this." I've already got a ghetto version rigged up in my e30 using a powermat for my HTC evo.
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I'd rather they have a universal smartphone hook up in all cars, you will charge through that wire as well as be able to use all of your smart phone stuff.
 
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You mean a USB port?
 
smib said:
You mean a USB port?
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I mean a system that allows to connect to any smartphone and use it with the head unit. Like Ford's App Connect that allows you to use Pandora and stuff using the controls on the headunit/steering wheel. Pioneer has something similar in their flagship models as well and are looking to expand on the number of apps they will allow and also the head units that will support the functionality. Pioneer is iPhone only though, which is great for me but limiting in the long run.
 
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