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Power Transmission by Fabric | |||||||||||||||||
First, a thread is needed that is some sort of conductive material (probably copper or steel), possibly surrounded by an insulator. This thread can be weaved into a cloth. Place a charge on the thread. Then reverse the charge repeatedly. You'll end up with a tiny electric current as electrons are pumped in and out of the conductor. Around this current will be a small magnetic field. Now any device you want powered can have its power leads placed near the fabric conductor. Amplify the small signal on the power leads enough so you can store it, and you can intermittently (or continuously, if power requirements are small enough) provide your device with power. If you needed a more efficient power transmission method, attach your power leads to the conductor in the fabric, and handle the leeching internally. A possible side effect (though one I'm not really sure about) could be the presence of power in the fabric when near RF sources. :)
MikeMol, Jul 07 2004
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I don't get this idea. What are you going to use to "place a charge on the thread"? Wouldn't placing the charge require and electric current itself?
I think a better idea is piezoelectric generators. There are actually alot of outfits working on this (not new) idea currently for use in "wearable computers".
I'm not all that experienced in electronics, so it's probably a problem with terminology.
Think of it like filling an enclosed volume with air. As long as your enclosure doesn't burst(or, in this case, so long as electrons don't leave the wire ala vacuum tube cathodes), you can continue to fit more air molecules in it.
The process of filling and emptying the enclosure results in a small flow of particles. If we return to thinking of those particles as electrons, you now have a small AC current, generating an EM field.
If you can leach from the EM field, you'll get an AC signal.
Except amplifers themselves need power to operate.
Also, a wire doesn't really store current like a container can store air pressure, it just carrys it (and as a side effect may convert some of it to a magnetic and/or heat field..
I'm not thinking of an amplifier, really. Picture a capacitor with one lead grounded and the other lead connected to a diode. Current that flows through the diode becomes trapped in the capacitor, save for leakage. Once the capacitor is sufficiently charged, you can dump its juice for a brief period of high current. The problem is finding a diode with a low enough voltage drop to be effective. A similar device that charges directly from the inductive field of the fabric wires could be more efficient.
And no, a wire doesn't store a current. It can, however, hold a charge. If you charge and discharge the wire repeatedly, you will have a small current flowing through the wire when the charge is not at its positive or negative peaks. And that small current will generate a small magnetic field.
I have to apologize, though. I'm not that good at expressing my ideas, so that may be part of the problem.
You are describing inductive powering using a AC magnetic field to couple energy between two inductors. It could be done if the inductors are placed in specific locations on the fabric. Ofcourse, the efficiency is a function of distance, angle, and offset between the two inductors. You would also need a battery and a RF source to power the device. Also, if you get too close to a High power RF source, you could fry the circuit, and burn the fabric.