Cables suck.

[iago]

Cables suck. There, I said it.

This story got me thinking:
http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/my-life-with-cables/

Why does every single stinkin' power cable have a different tip, even when there's no good reason (like different voltage)? I have 50000 different power cables in a box, many of which are probably for stuff I don't have any more. I have cables for cellphones, for speakers, for wireless keyboard/mouse, camera, iPod, Blackberry, external harddrive, external cd drive, KVM switch, etc etc etc. Most of them are roughly the same voltage. Why do I need so many?

Imagine if you had to buy special lightbulbs from the socket manufacturer, or bread from the toaster folks, or cups from the juice cartel, or doorknobs or locks or harddrives or video cards or whatever. Luckily, those are all more or less standardized. So why not power cables?

I think it's totally ridiculous. When I go on vacation, I have to pack cables to charge my camera, two cellphones, mouse, and laptop. Whyyyyy?

</rant>

[Hitmen]

Why does every single stinkin' power cable have a different tip, even when there's no good reason (like different voltage)?....

$$$$$
Huge profit margins on replacement power adapters.

[Sidoh]

Hitmen brings up an excellent point, I think.

However, I agree.  It's a bit of a pain.  It does seem like there needs to be some variation, though.  I'm no EE, but it seems like the little dinky ones wouldn't do the trick for a giant ass laptop.

[iago]

Why does every single stinkin' power cable have a different tip, even when there's no good reason (like different voltage)?....

$$$$$
Huge profit margins on replacement power adapters.

Yeah, and there'd be a huge profit margin if you bought a Sony DVD player, and could only play Sony DVDs, especially when they started raising prices!

The whole idea of locking somebody into a product like that should be illegal.. it has the same feeling to me as monopolies. It's basically hurting the consumer to make extra money for the companies -- a typical (but unpleasant) practise.


On a sort of related note, I got an emergency flashlight that charges by winding, and that can charge cellphones (comes with the 5 most common adaptors for cellphones, plus USB) by winding. it's pretty cool.

[Sidoh]

Why does every single stinkin' power cable have a different tip, even when there's no good reason (like different voltage)?....

$$$$$
Huge profit margins on replacement power adapters.

Yeah, and there'd be a huge profit margin if you bought a Sony DVD player, and could only play Sony DVDs, especially when they started raising prices!

The whole idea of locking somebody into a product like that should be illegal.. it has the same feeling to me as monopolies. It's basically hurting the consumer to make extra money for the companies -- a typical (but unpleasant) practise.


On a sort of related note, I got an emergency flashlight that charges by winding, and that can charge cellphones (comes with the 5 most common adaptors for cellphones, plus USB) by winding. it's pretty cool.

Oh, those things are sweet.  It would suck to have that if you're in a zombie apocalypse, though.  I think I'd prefer something that takes a little less time from shooting zombies in the face.

[truste1]

Somebody more educated on science than me evaluate this idea: Since energy waves are floating around anyway, is it possible to harness the energy "out of thin air"? As in, each energy-requiring device would be able to use the energy that's already available instead of having to get it from the power company, thus limiting the needs for wires. Or if there isn't enough to power modern electronics, one generator per building which would capture power from the company and then just send energy waves throughout the environment.

[Sidoh]

Somebody more educated on science than me evaluate this idea: Since energy waves are floating around anyway, is it possible to harness the energy "out of thin air"? As in, each energy-requiring device would be able to use the energy that's already available instead of having to get it from the power company, thus limiting the needs for wires. Or if there isn't enough to power modern electronics, one generator per building which would capture power from the company and then just send energy waves throughout the environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_effect

I don't have a very good understanding of this subject, but I can tell you that the EM waves that are normally floating around don't have enough power to do much of anything.  You can build a functional radio that doesn't require any additional power (here's a cool howto video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKmwT0EccE).

I think the problem with the generator idea is that it isn't yet practical.  EM waves will attenuate (weaken) the further they travel, especially when they travel through certain types of material.  This is why I can't pick up radio stations from iago's house in Colorado.  This means there's a big drop in efficiency.  I'm not even sure if the people working on this have been successful in transmitting it more than a few meters.  If you're interested, I bet you could find some good articles on slashdot about this.

Also, I wonder if cancer is a concern?

I would imagine that there are some other people here that could remark on this further.

[MyndFyre]

EM waves will attenuate (weaken) the further they travel, especially when they travel through certain types of material.

The bad news is that attenuation is exponential (unless you could use something like a laser, where the energy would be coherent - but that's not really an "out-of-thin-air" scenario) due to the way the energy moves through media.

Why does every single stinkin' power cable have a different tip, even when there's no good reason (like different voltage)?

I can't speak specifically to the device-end tip, but a lot of plugs do have different plug-ends for that reason.  I've used laptop power supplies that have had 65W, 95W, and 115W; they've all had different power adapter components.  Most contain AC-DC converters for different voltages (commonly 6V and 9V DC), and the size directly impacts heat generation.  Larger surface area enables the use of cheaper components, because the larger surface area enables greater heat conduction.  Some support both 115 and 230 power outlets (such as my cell phone charger) whereas others only support the North American standard.

There's a lot of room for variation.

[Chavo]

The bad news is that attenuation is exponential (unless you could use something like a laser, where the energy would be coherent - but that's not really an "out-of-thin-air" scenario) due to the way the energy moves through media.

Exactly.  The wireless power concept is not a new one, it's just horribly impractical.  MIT has some projects on it that are interesting (I could provide links later), and the upcoming Palm Pre has a "wireless" charging device that uses this concept but that's the closest anyone has come to a practical application. 

[truste1]

What about towers like cell towers that provide power for the neighborhood. I didn't click that wiki link yet but I'll go read it now, thanks.

[MyndFyre]

What about towers like cell towers that provide power for the neighborhood. I didn't click that wiki link yet but I'll go read it now, thanks.

They'd consume so much power in order to radiate (which is effectively what would be happening) that power to the neighborhood that it wouldn't be worth it.

[truste1]

It sounds like the best doable solution right now is to have electricity coming in to the home in a standard way, and some apparatus sending "short-wave energy" throughout the home, powering consumer electronics and eliminating wires.

Good point on Cancer though.

[Sidoh]

What about towers like cell towers that provide power for the neighborhood. I didn't click that wiki link yet but I'll go read it now, thanks.

It has the same problem.  If attenuation is exponential, then depending on how much it decays, this could be worse than the one-generator-per-building idea.

MyndFyre provided the insight that attenuation is exponential in distance traveled.  This would mean the effects of attenuation become exponentially (c^n) stronger as distance increases.

What about towers like cell towers that provide power for the neighborhood. I didn't click that wiki link yet but I'll go read it now, thanks.

They'd consume so much power in order to radiate (which is effectively what would be happening) that power to the neighborhood that it wouldn't be worth it.

Plus, the neighborhood in question would be inflicted with a cancer epidemic!  Lol, I don't really know how much of a carcinogen this kind of thing would be, but it seems like it could be a problem.

It sounds like the best doable solution right now is to have electricity coming in to the home in a standard way, and some apparatus sending "short-wave energy" throughout the home, powering consumer electronics and eliminating wires.

Good point on Cancer though.

Or maybe replacing outlets with smaller instances of said generator.  Regardless of the scale, though, it's still way less efficient than wired power.  That means there's a lot of wasted energy, and, of course, that it's more expensive to consume the same amount of power.

[truste1]

Unless excess energy was recycled. A wireless world would be so nice.

[Sidoh]

Unless excess energy was recycled. A wireless world would be so nice.

Excess energy isn't the problem.  It's lost energy.  It's roughly analogous to friction or electrical resistance.  Some of the energy that's in the waves is lost before it even gets to your device.  The further you get away from the source of the waves, the more energy you lose.