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Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

freethegameboy.info

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Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#101

Post by tootie »

rom-antics wrote: post #4

When I was a kid I had a toy electronics kit and one of the circuits was an AM radio that worked without batteries. A normal radio station signal is strong enough to drive a pair of earbuds without any additional power. Since then I've always wondered if you could harvest that same radio energy to power other things without batteries, maybe even a Game Boy. There's electromagnetic radiation in the air all around us.…

I still have a solar calculator. They were pretty common in the 90s. Similar principle to the Gameboy, but also the workload was a lot slower (no frame refreshes).

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#102

Post by tootie »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #13
knodi123 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always wondered if you could harvest that same radio energy to power other things without batteries That's how passive RFID tags work. The tag has a tiny little computer, and you hold it near a thing that emits an electric field that energizes it.

I think the poster wants this to work without the “you hold it near a thing” part.

RFID can absolutely work at long range. Most applications don't by design because they don't want the data on the chip stolen. But there are applications that can read RFID from tens or hundreds of meters away.

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#103

Post by PebblesRox »

schappim wrote: post #50
IIAOPSW wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is negotiation. Start by trying to bum a cigarette off mom. Then settle for using the cigy lighter for your gameboy

Our son does this when negotiating his Minecraft screen-time allowance; we call it "creeper commitment".

"Mom, can I set fire to my bed mattress?"

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1985/12/10

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#104

Post by vanderZwan »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #96
vanderZwan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha, so a clever ploy to get you to practice reading and learn about taking care of your own needs? My apologies to your parents, I clearly underestimated them! :)

No, they just didn't want the wire snaking through the center console. Maybe not wanting to lose the lighter was a secondary goal, but I doubt there was any lesson behind their decision.

Well, I think most parents put a lot more conscious thought into these things than their children give them credit for, simply because as a child you're not aware of all the things they have to consider. I've noticed I've started re-evaluating childhood memories of my parents since my partner and I had a child. So I'll give your parents the benefit of doubt and suggest that there is a possibility you are the one underestimating them now ;)

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#105

Post by planede »

sbierwagen wrote: post #38

Oddly enough, the "energy harvesting switches" they used in this are commercial products! https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/zf-electronics/AF... https://switches-sensors.zf.com/us/product/energy-harvesting...

From the datasheet:

> Energy Generated: 0.33 mWs actuating and releasing

I assume it means that it generates 0.33 mWs (or mJ, come on) in a full cycle of actuating and releasing. So you have to make 3 button presses per second to generate 1 mW of power.

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#106

Post by Rebelgecko »

atahanacar wrote: post #21
StrangeATractor wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard a tale in the days of yore where a radio station was not getting the range promised by the laws of physics. When they did some investigating they found an engineer that lived next door to the tower was syphoning power from the radio waves as part of a home experiment. I'm not qualified to determine the plausibility of this, but I hope it's true.

Can you siphon power from the sun so other people can't get its radiation, without you covering the entire surface with something like a Dyson sphere?

In moderation, isn't that a potential upside of space based solar farms?

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#107

Post by anthk »

Shish2k wrote: post #93
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of software emulation, why not hardware emulation? The original Gameboy ran on two AA batteries for 12-20 hours (depending on whether the light was on); I'd argue that rebuilding the original hardware with modern-day technologies could reduce that energy consumption by 90% or more.

> The original Gameboy ran on two AA batteries for 12-20 hours (depending on whether the light was on) I wonder if you googled for this? Googling for “original gameboy battery life” gives nearly this exact quote, but then reading the wikipedia article that it came from reveals that this is talking about the Gameboy Light (1998 - arguably “the original hardware with modern technology to reduce energy consumption”). I…

No one but Japan got the GB light.

Everyone had either the GB and many more people had the GB Pocket because of Pokémon.

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#108

Post by hbn »

once_inc wrote: post #57
jandrese wrote: post #22

I have to wonder just how much power they get out of those button presses. It seems like it must be such a tiny amount that it's hardly worth the effort.

The more interesting take would be: can we build a handheld with a haptic input that generates more energy than mashing these buttons. I am reminded of an odd controller for one of the consoles in what I think was generation 1 or 2, which consisted of two parts that you could rotate opposite each other. Another is the 'powerball' concept of physically rotating something to a certain speed. I'm sure large companies ca…

> I am reminded of an odd controller for one of the consoles in what I think was generation 1 or 2, which consisted of two parts that you could rotate opposite each other.

I knew what you were talking about but couldn't think of the name either. Google was failing me, but thankfully ChatGPT got it first guess - Magnavox Odyssey

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#109

Post by neogodless »

diceduckmonk wrote: post #58

> Can ENGAGE play all Gameboy games?... Yes! It is running a custom emulator which allows it to impersonate the Game Boy and play any Game Boy game (not the Color versions though). That said, just like with any emulator, not every title may work, and some bugs may prevent some games from loading some parts. This bit seems a little disingenuous.

If they were selling you an emulator, I'd agree. But they're not advertising the capabilities of the emulator so much as telling you what to expect if you take this project on. In theory, all games should work, but emulators can be imperfect, so know what to expect.

Re: Battery-free Game Boy (2020)

#110

Post by hbn »

It's a neat proof-of-concept, but the video gets a little optimistic and hand-wavey about how practical this could actually ever be.

"Right now we have interruptions, but[...] that interruption amount is going to continually decrease as we make these systems better and more energy-efficient."

Is that really the case? The limiting factor here is not just the efficiency of harvesting energy. The energy being harvested from the sun and from the button presses has a hard cap at some point, and while I don't know enough about the topic to do the math, I'd have to assume it's not particularly high. Even if you were able to harvest 100% of the sunlight hitting a smartphone (quick Google search says solar panels harvest ~15%), and 100% of the energy from the taps of a user's finger, would that be anywhere close to enough power to run the thing? This seems like more of a conceptual limit than a technological one.

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