Ragitsu Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 can create. It has to be beyond our current level of technology (on a backpack scale, at least) and not be quite as advanced as zero point energy / dark energy cells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer How about (cinematic) Tony Stark's miniaturized ARC reactor? He built one in a cave out of salvaged parts, so even if your gadgeteer isn't a comparable genius, with the right facilities he or she should at least have a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/84085-Zero-Point-Energy-Field-Manipulator Not my thread, though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer There's always the ever-popular cold fusion reactor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer How much power are we talking about, anyways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer How about (cinematic) Tony Stark's miniaturized ARC reactor? He built one in a cave out of salvaged parts' date=' so even if your gadgeteer isn't a comparable genius, with the right facilities he or she should at least have a shot. [/quote'] I know it's all superscience anyhow, but is a power output figure listed for it anywhere? There's always the ever-popular cold fusion reactor. What's the difference between cold fusion, fusion, and fission? How much power are we talking about' date=' anyways?[/quote'] Technically, enough to provide juice to a good sized apartment building, and the odd equipment that needs plugging into it/charging. However, it can, of course, be more powerful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Technically' date=' enough to provide juice to a good sized two story house/couple of apartment rooms, and the odd equipment that needs plugging into it/charging. However, it can, of course, be more powerful.[/quote'] So, tens of kilowatts. If you have a source of reactants, you can simply call it an advanced fuel cell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer So' date=' tens of kilowatts. If you have a source of reactants, you can simply call it an advanced fuel cell.[/quote'] It's also got to last for many years (despite the campaign likely not taking place over the course of years, which basically means it won't run out of juice) and be quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt the Bruins Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Mr. Fusion! We know it can generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. [ATTACH=CONFIG]37967[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer What's the difference between cold fusion' date=' fusion, and fission?[/quote'] Fission is when you smash apart heavy elements like uranium and plutonium. Fusion is when you smash together lighter elements, producing heavier ones. Human-generated fusion fuses hydrogen atoms into helium, but ALL of the elements are the result of fusion in the hearts of stars and supernovas, producing increasingly heavy elements as lesser elements are fused together. Cold fusion, if it worked, would be a means of achieving fusion at room temperature (or at least, something closer to room temperature than the insanely high temperatures necessary to achieve it in the center of a star. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Don't forget muon-catalyzed fusion aka the other cold fusion. And then there's bubble fusion -- it worked for Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer I know it's all superscience anyhow' date=' but is a power output figure listed for it anywhere?[/quote'] According to the first Iron Man movie, Tony's first crude prototype could generate three gigajoules per second. Stark's collaborator said that it was enough "to run your heart for fifty lifetimes." To which Stark replied, "Or something big for fifteen minutes." Presumably the refined model is more powerful, or at least could sustain its maximum output for longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Weapon Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Mr. Fusion! We know it can generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. [ATTACH=CONFIG]37967[/ATTACH] Yeah but for how long? The DeLorean only needs that power output for the duration of a lightening flash. Presumably the gadgeteer needs power for longer. Then again maybe the Mr. Fusion is actually grossly overpowered for the DeLorean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer I doubt the device needed will require being fed fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Weapon Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Have you considered not a generator but a remote reciever of energy? You get a generator, a power transmitter than sends the power through the air to the reciever. Much harder to drain (consider "difficult to dispel" on the REC of the END reserve). It is not recommended that you hook it up to the mains supply without backup. So how far can you transmit power? Well by simply mangling the logic of quantum physics entanglement effects (like it's not mangled already) the range can be unlimited. If you have enough backups then you don't need to worry about all of them being found and destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Have you considered not a generator but a remote reciever of energy? You get a generator' date=' a power transmitter than sends the power through the air to the reciever. Much harder to drain (consider "difficult to dispel" on the REC of the END reserve). It is not recommended that you hook it up to the mains supply without backup. So how far can you transmit power? Well by simply mangling the logic of quantum physics entanglement effects (like it's not mangled already) the range can be unlimited. If you have enough backups then you don't need to worry about all of them being found and destroyed.[/quote'] I didn't consider that, but in any case, it's impractical due to the PCs being on-the-run: they need their equipment to be carried by them alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Windup spring? Rubber band? I'm being half serious here; you might have some kind of nanotech-enhanced rubber band that makes it feasible. Of course these are more like batteries than actual energy sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Windup spring? Rubber band? I'm being half serious here; you might have some kind of nanotech-enhanced rubber band that makes it feasible. Of course these are more like batteries than actual energy sources. Hmmm... a very thin metallic coil (I'm talking nano-scale here) could pack a LOT of surface area into a small package to extract energy from the Casimir effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Weapon Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Hmmm... a very thin metallic coil (I'm talking nano-scale here) could pack a LOT of surface area into a small package to extract energy from the Casimir effect. Could you slide the plates along parallel to each other so that they change whether they are attracted or repulsed? Because if you can I'm not seeing why this doesn't work in the real world (other than it's really expensive to make all those thin plates and arrange them right). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Could you slide the plates along parallel to each other so that they change whether they are attracted or repulsed? Because if you can I'm not seeing why this doesn't work in the real world (other than it's really expensive to make all those thin plates and arrange them right). As I understand it, this is kinda like Babbage's "difference engine." It would have worked when he designed it -- if anyone had the technology to build it properly. The tolerances and precision and required were unheard of in his day, so it never came together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer As I understand it' date=' this is kinda like Babbage's "difference engine." It would have worked when he designed it -- if anyone had the technology to build it properly. The tolerances and precision and required were unheard of in his day, so it never came together.[/quote'] Uh, no. There's traditionally some confusion with the Analytical Engine, but it was never funded because Babbage never actually designed it. Difference engines are another matter. Per George Scheutz built the first successful one in 1853, and the design itself goes back to an eighteenth century inventor. What we need to know about Babbage is that he was politically engaged, and specifically the form of his political engagement was kind of a performance piece intended to present the Tory party as being anti-science. For precisely this reason, Lord Liverpool's Tory government was only too happy to spend small amounts of money supporting Babbage, as it undermined his rhetorical position. Either Babbage wasn't very good at running an R&D programme (which is admittedly a very hard thing to do), or he was willing to go to the wall to embarrass the government, or some combination of both. As it happens, 1822 was not a good year to be playing for high stakes in British politics. Babbage lost his funding, gained the rhetorical high ground, and went on to eternal fame. Unlike that Scheutz guy. Who's ever heard of him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Could you slide the plates along parallel to each other so that they change whether they are attracted or repulsed? Because if you can I'm not seeing why this doesn't work in the real world (other than it's really expensive to make all those thin plates and arrange them right). Yeah, that last is the problem, especially (in this thread's context) for a portable device in which vibrations are inevitable and the requisite tolerances cannot be maintained. The force has a really short range, so to harness lots of energy out of it you something really mechanically strong and rigid while being very small. Those don't go together.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer I wondered about hypothesizing an efficient neutrino absorber, and so harnessing the Sun's neutrino luminosity (which penetrates everything). Unfortunately, the solar neutrino luminosity is only a couple of percent of its luminosity in ordinary radiation, so even at 100% efficiency a backpack-size 1 square meter neutrino collector would get you about 35 watts, tops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer What if you use the neutrinos as a catalyst for some other sort of stored energy? Analogous to fast neutrons hitting enriched uranium? Your collector could be a lens that focuses the neutrinos on a small but ultradense matrix of heavy elements, thus making it possible for the neutrinos to actually interact with it, and releasing energy as... heat? Loose protons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tylorsama Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Re: I need recommendations for a whiz-bang portable power source my group's gadgeteer Maybe go for an inertial confinement Polywell fusion reactor. These are being funded by the Navy right now, and may be able to generate 100's of MW in something the size of a large car. While they don't really scale down well in reality... that's reality. You could easily say you've made a backpack scale fusion reactor to put out tens of kW. They run on tiny amounts of hydrogen and boron, produce no significant radiation, and can convert the fusion products directly into electricity without the steam turbine setup you need for more conventional heat engine power plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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