COMPLETELY Wireless Power!!! HOLY S#!T - Wi-Charge Technology
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,446 words · ~7 min read
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magnetic induction or qi chargers let
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you just plonk down your phone on a little pad to
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get juiced up which is really cool way better than wires
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but they only work over very short distances
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and they need to be correctly aligned for optimal efficiency
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well what if i told you that there's a better way
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what if i told you that this speaker right here
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and these trains going around me are all
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being powered by that space-agey looking light fixture
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up there that there is the prototype of why
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charge's long-range wireless power delivery system
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and holy is this thing ever cool
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cablemod's configurator service makes it easy to customize and order cables for
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your rig and customers in europe now have their own configurator where
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cablemod handles all duties import taxes and documentation check it out at the
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link below so this right here is the transmitter and although i guess
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technically it could work if we just plugged it in while i'm holding it i
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definitely get tired of hauling it around and also this is the only
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prototype in existence that can deliver
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the amount of power that we are going to need today so if i dropped it
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that would be pretty tragic i wouldn't do that
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deploying the transmitter is surprisingly simple if you have a drop
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ceiling so this prototype is actually held in place by these magnets
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and zip ties this is for quick and easy testing but
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production models should have more permanent fixtures
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once it's secured all we need to do is plug it into a regular dc power source
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okay so this light right here is just
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a regular light and then this one around the rim is more of a status indicator so
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while it's booting up it blinks blue and then once it's green it means that it's
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actually good to go the really cool tech though is actually
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this black bit in the middle which is an infrared window behind which is an ir
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transmitter and then this right here is
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also an infrared window and behind that
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is a receiver so if i just put this let's say for example right
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here and it does need line of sight
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give it a second
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so if i just take this phone and place it
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let's say right here on my ladder and boom
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it's charging and if you look up here the status
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indicator changes to solid blue but how is it doing that
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from up top the transmitter is actually
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projecting some very high energy
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infrared light and the receiver is basically like a
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solar panel so there's a special photovoltaic cell in here that is tuned
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to the infrared beam that the transmitter is outputting and now i know
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what you guys are thinking i was thinking the same thing
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is this entire room being blasted with
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infrared radiation right about now am i going to turn into like a mutant more
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importantly will my tv remote stop working
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the answer is no not at all so the
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receiver has a very specific signature
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that the transmitter looks for and when it sees it it shoots out a very
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thin ir beam basically like a laser directly at the
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receiver which is pretty cool
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but what makes it loads better is the transmitter's ability to track a moving
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receiver so i thought that this demo was smoke and
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mirrors when i first saw it back at computex last year
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but these trains right here can be fully
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powered by the transmitter up in the ceiling giving you some idea of how
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quickly your phone or your other device could be
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moving around the room and still be powered and or charging and to prove
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that the trains have no batteries the instant the beam is broken
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the trains stop once line of sight has been restored it
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just takes a second or two and then power transmission will resume this
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means that there's no way for a person or like your eyes or something to be
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exposed to the high energy beam and the fda and other international safety
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regulators have already given it the seal of approval
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plus you get to feel like a magician
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okay so what you're probably wondering now though is how much power
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can it actually deliver well why charge brought two different
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models here there's this smaller one that's aimed more at like internet of
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things applications this can deliver about one watt while having a smaller
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footprint making it a little more subtle then there's the larger one that we put
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on the ceiling that can do up to three watts
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so this is one of their receivers hooked up to a speaker
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not bad
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but if we try to go too high
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it tanks out a little bit now let's hook up a larger receiver that
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they've got here this one does one and a half watts
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and see how much louder we can go
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not bad that's too shy of max volume
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but i mean if we're being entirely honest
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here that's still not a whole ton of power and like if i wanted to charge my
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phone or heaven forbid a tablet
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a what and a half isn't a ton and putting a case like this on it is
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probably not that practical
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fortunately this guy is more of a proof of concept
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and why charges first commercial product makes a lot more sense
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so this guy right here is a qi charger with regular usb on the underside that
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can be placed anywhere in the room and still receive power so for something
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like a coffee shop they could offer charging at their
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tables without running cords to every
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single one of them and that way if someone wants to
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relocate the table to sit with their friends it's totally not a big deal they
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would just kind of go like that and bippity boppity wham it is wirelessly
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charging what makes it really well integrated is
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the fact that it sits actually in the table like this like obviously we're not
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going to drill a big hole in our table in order to do that right now and the
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fact that it has a battery inside it so
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that acts as a buffer so that battery can trickle charge all day and all night
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and then when someone plugs in or puts their phone down on the pad it'll be
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able to charge at more than just you know three quarters of a watt and it
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won't matter if somebody you know is in the middle of a really really you know
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fascinating conversation and blocks the beam for a little while
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and this is just the beginning i'm really excited to see where this
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tech is going i mean just how much power will they be able to get out of these
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systems in the future could receivers just be built right into
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your phone or tablet and a little with a little you know window right there i
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mean that would allow your device to trickle charge all day long if you're in
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range of a transmitter maybe this will finally be the solution
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to what has been the biggest problem with smartphones
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those pesky headphone jacks no not those battery life
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thermaltake's vue 37 mid tower case features an enlarged transparent gull
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wing window panel design and remarkable expansion with support for up to eatx
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motherboards and multiple drive bays it's got a fully modular design it
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supports vertical and horizontal radiator placement and it comes with two
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pre-installed ring 14 led fans or you
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can actually get the full RGB variant check it out today at the link below to
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learn more so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you clearly hate
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technology and you're on the wrong channel but if you liked it hit the like
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button get subscribed or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description just
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kidding it's still prototypes you can't buy it yet but at some point you will
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also linked in the description is our merge store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which
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you should totally join that this speaker right here
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and these trains running around me bloody