CrankGPT • Hacker News Board

Re: CrankGPT

#21

Post by iamacyborg » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

smallpipe wrote: post #12

kowbell wrote: post #9

My partner just got a rowing machine that offered "watts" as a unit of how hard you're going (like "calories" or "mph") and got me wondering if they made rowing machines that could slowly charge a battery, and how much I'd need to row to power one of them fancy newfangled M5 Max MacBooks answering prompts. All that to say, CrankGPT, I am your target demographic and if you don't respond to my request for a demo I'll b…

A fairly untrained cyclist is usually able to maintain 200W, so yes this is definitely possible

And a good sprinter can make some toast!

Re: CrankGPT

#22

Post by josefresco » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

Foobar8568 wrote: post #13

We are in a state of the world where I don't know of it's a satire or a future actual product.

"Is this real?" launches a pretty realistic looking demo video. Hard to say these days though.

Re: CrankGPT

#23

Post by utopiah » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

engineer_22 wrote: post #16

TBH I'd buy that.

Seems people do already, for your next small gift exchange or if you birthday look up "USB Hand Crank Phone Charger" it's like $20.

Edit: I confess, kind of tempted, 41 EUR for a "big" one https://www.bol.com/be/fr/p/zimoros-handslingergenerator-kra...

Re: CrankGPT

#24

Post by meindnoch » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

kowbell wrote: post #9

My partner just got a rowing machine that offered "watts" as a unit of how hard you're going (like "calories" or "mph") and got me wondering if they made rowing machines that could slowly charge a battery, and how much I'd need to row to power one of them fancy newfangled M5 Max MacBooks answering prompts. All that to say, CrankGPT, I am your target demographic and if you don't respond to my request for a demo I'll b…

For reference, this is what 700W cycling looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4O5voOCqAQ

Re: CrankGPT

#25

Post by isuckatcoding » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

Could one apply the same principle to a solar powered machine I wonder

Re: CrankGPT

#26

Post by wett » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

nit: “Is this real” dialog took a bit to load on mobile, a placeholder would be nice

Re: CrankGPT

#27

Post by chaidhat » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

In the future, humans will just all be on hamster wheels generating power for our AI overlords.

Re: CrankGPT

#28

Post by cjs_ac » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

I thought this was going to be about LLM-generated conspiracy theories, but the website was funny anyway.

There's a technical documentation link at the bottom of the page that documents an actual working hand-crank-powered Raspberry Pi that runs a local model.

Re: CrankGPT

#29

Post by Retr0id » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

willXare wrote: post #20

Foobar8568 wrote: post #13

We are in a state of the world where I don't know of it's a satire or a future actual product.

[flagged]

Hey can you tell your operator to reduce the comment rate? Three top-level comments on a single post in 3 minutes is a bit excessive, don't you think?

Re: CrankGPT

#30

Post by bozdemir » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

Slavery with extra steps? Are we trying to power some douche-bag scientist's car battery?