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Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

trontium.com

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Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#11

Post by sdfjkl »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #3

From FAQ: >> Can I bring a Reactor on a plane? > Yes. Per FAA rules every traveler can carry-on up to two Reactor sized batteries. Well, if supposedly[0] a charged laptop battery can be shorted to unleash energy equivalent of a small hand grenade, how strong a bomb made of two Reactors would be?... [0] - so I read at random places in the Internet.

Air travel is ruled by irrational fears more than by FAA rules. I can absolutely see how a metal case that looks like a pipe bomb on x-ray is going to cause some interesting conversations at the security gates.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#12

Post by slazaro »

sdfjkl wrote: post #11
TeMPOraL wrote: post #3

From FAQ: >> Can I bring a Reactor on a plane? > Yes. Per FAA rules every traveler can carry-on up to two Reactor sized batteries. Well, if supposedly[0] a charged laptop battery can be shorted to unleash energy equivalent of a small hand grenade, how strong a bomb made of two Reactors would be?... [0] - so I read at random places in the Internet.

Air travel is ruled by irrational fears more than by FAA rules. I can absolutely see how a metal case that looks like a pipe bomb on x-ray is going to cause some interesting conversations at the security gates.

Especially if you say, "No, it's fine, it's a Trontium Reactor".

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#15

Post by shankysingh »

slazaro wrote: post #12
sdfjkl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air travel is ruled by irrational fears more than by FAA rules. I can absolutely see how a metal case that looks like a pipe bomb on x-ray is going to cause some interesting conversations at the security gates.

Especially if you say, "No, it's fine, it's a Trontium Reactor".

All I can hear in my head was "Stand Back!! I am doing science" :P ref xkcd

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#16

Post by onion2k »

The fact the website's team page is essentially devoid of information is worrying. I'm not a hardware guy so I have no idea about this sort of thing, but how hard is battery design? Is it wise to trust $thousands worth of Macbook/camera/etc to a battery designed by a group of anonymous people behind a Kickstarter campaign? If any of the people involved is an experienced and qualified electrical engineer, they really need to be shouting about it.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#17

Post by frik »

kayoone wrote: post #10
frik wrote: post #6

What a bad name for a product. It reminds one of strontium and nuclear reactor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strontium It's an accu battery pack (lithium-ion), no nuclear reaction, the name is misleading.

thats probably intended. A mash of thorium and strontium maybe.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

I don't get the fanciness.

Thorium reactors are a dead-end, as European research found out. They had stopped all work years ago. There were major accidents with this type of reactors and one even happened at the same time as the Chernobyl disaster: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_THTR-300#St.C3.B6...

For some reasons some countries don't want to learn from history.

Edit: English language links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble-bed_reactor#Thorium_high...

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#19

Post by arethuza »

The should include a camera in the device as well - just to record reactions when people take it out of their bag at airport security checks.

The only way I can see they could have made it look more threatening would be to write "Atomic Bomb" in large letters down the side and have a large LED display counting down to zero in 15 seconds or so.

Edit: The perfect add-on for your reactor: http://www.instructables.com/id/Crazy-Countdown-Timer/

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#20

Post by luka-birsa »

frik wrote: post #17
kayoone wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thats probably intended. A mash of thorium and strontium maybe.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

I don't get the fanciness. Thorium reactors are a dead-end, as European research found out. They had stopped all work years ago. There were major accidents with this type of reactors and one even happened at the same time as the Chernobyl disaster: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_THTR-300#St.C3.B6... For some reasons some countries don't want to learn from history. Edit: English language links: http://en.w…

I always find it amusing when links provided by "nay sayers" present contrary evidence or no evidence at all.

From the link: The nuclear power plant THTR-300 ( thorium high-temperature reactor) was a helium-cooled high-temperature reactor of the type pebble bed reactor in North Rhine-Westphalia Hamm with an electrical output of 300 megawatts . Despite its designation as a thorium reactor , it was essentially a normal on uranium fission ( 235 U) based reactor: While there was his nuclear fuel to 90 per cent of thorium, but this was holds less than 30 percent of its energy. Because of its high cost and because of his unsatisfactory, short operation he is widely regarded as the greatest technical debacle in post-war Germany.

The reactor was in fact a URANIUM REACTOR!

I still need to see relevant proof that Thorium technology failed for any other reason than good sales and marketing from the Uranium camp.

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