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Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

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Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#61

Post by IgorPartola »

lukan wrote: post #38
Fwirt wrote: post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

"We could replace so many data centers with old desktops." But I assume for way more energy costs? And the manual labour to sort out the different mainboards and make everything interoperable is not free either. But I guess it means lots of opportunity for unconventional low costs projects to scramble things together. Win 10 got another year of support, but I assume next year, even more computers will be avaiable qui…

Exactly. Also space.

I suspect that if there was any reasonable amount of economic advantage to using old hardware we would see multiple organizations systematically building large datacenters out of the free hardware.

As a hobbyist, I would love to get my hands on more stuff like this. But I don’t see how it could be used for anything at scale.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#62

Post by hrimfaxi »

Fwirt wrote: post #46
lukan wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We could replace so many data centers with old desktops." But I assume for way more energy costs? And the manual labour to sort out the different mainboards and make everything interoperable is not free either. But I guess it means lots of opportunity for unconventional low costs projects to scramble things together. Win 10 got another year of support, but I assume next year, even more computers will be avaiable qui…

See my other reply, when people count energy costs they fail to take into account the existing sunk cost of producing said resources, and the energy from having to build out new infrastructure to create these “more efficient” datacenters. It’s like when people replace their fridge with a “more efficient” one and wipe out any energy savings with the cost of the new fridge. The difference in energy use will not pay for…

The only energy cost that matters is to the operator. Old hardware costs more to run so why would I run it? That there was energy used to produce the device and the replacement is literally not a factor in the calculation.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#63

Post by JKCalhoun »

oulipo2 wrote: post #27
viraptor wrote: post #3

Just curious: if you wanted to do something like that, but prevent a... thermal event, how would you protect an experimental battery realistically? Build a brick enclosure? A fire safe?

Shameless plug: we're building a repairable e-bike battery where you can use your own cells at https://infinite-battery.com We worked on a very sturdy casing, with some specific features to release pressure and limit the fire event propagating cell to cell, you can check it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0NXXfCA2CY

Nice.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#64

Post by [deleted] »

detritus wrote: post #44
trollied wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are illegal now in the UK.

'illegal' in that manufacturers add on a usb port and the basic board to tick the reusable check box. I'm still seeing almost as many of these cast on the streets as I did a year ago.

[deleted]

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#65

Post by PeaceTed »

crmd wrote: post #28

After all networked smartphones and computers were placed under control of the regime, resistance hackers relied on microcontrollers harvested from ordinary household devices like smart lamps and vape pens to slowly rebuild the covert but resilient mesh internetwork that became known as FreeNet.

Congratulations, welcome to the dev team of Collapse OS. https://collapseos.org/

Now they are more focused on supply chain break down but your scenario would also be valid.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#66

Post by adrian_b »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #16
Animats wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I think that about ten years out, when solid state batteries are widely available, lithium-ion batteries bigger than laptop-sized will be prohibited.

Once we have solid state cells I really hope the entire industry moves over to them and we just have solid state, LFP and Sodium Ion, all nicely non combustable chemistries that offer different price, power and weight density trade offs.

Solid-state batteries will never be suitable for all applications, even if they should suffice for the most frequent of them.

Batteries with liquid electrolyte will always be able to provide greater power (i.e. greater current) within certain physical constraints. This should not matter for smartphones or laptops, but it should matter for many things with motors.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#67

Post by wildzzz »

killingtime74 wrote: post #15
viraptor wrote: post #3

Just curious: if you wanted to do something like that, but prevent a... thermal event, how would you protect an experimental battery realistically? Build a brick enclosure? A fire safe?

Doesn't matter. If you try any of these techniques your insurer will still void your home insurance if your house catches fire.

"Hello, State Farm? Yes, I'd like to put in a claim for my home insurance. My homemade electrical bomb exploded and my house- hello? Hello?!"

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#68

Post by PeaceTed »

Aurornis wrote: post #42
Fwirt wrote: post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

> A 12 year old i7 server runs my NVR, home automation setup, web server, and network router (not to mention a small handful of other services) without even breaking 25% CPU usage. We could replace so many data centers with old desktops. Replacing concentrated and highly optimized data center servers with 10-1000X as many old desktop computers idling away at 50-100W or more would be a terrible tradeoff. That would ex…

I did the math a few years back on how long you would have to run old machines to (roughly) offset the carbon emissions instead of purchasing new hardware. This included all mining, refinement, manufacturing, shipping and electrical savings from more efficient processors.

A big part of this is the very intense amount of energy producing the silicon wafer from Quartz ingots. While they weigh only a few grams of the total machine they reside in, they have a very sizable impact on total energy.

Funnily enough, for most desktop computers it would take about 15 years of non-stop usage to manage this. That is if powered purely by Lignite/Brown Coal. Anything cleaner, so almost any other energy source, and you have to run them way longer. If purely on solar panels and their manufacturing carbon output, it moves into the centuries range.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#69

Post by Neywiny »

PeaceTed wrote: post #65
crmd wrote: post #28

After all networked smartphones and computers were placed under control of the regime, resistance hackers relied on microcontrollers harvested from ordinary household devices like smart lamps and vape pens to slowly rebuild the covert but resilient mesh internetwork that became known as FreeNet.

Congratulations, welcome to the dev team of Collapse OS. https://collapseos.org/ Now they are more focused on supply chain break down but your scenario would also be valid.

When I think of what's out there I think of cheapy ARMs, maybe STM32 knock offs. Honestly the F103C8T6 is so prolific that's probably a solid chunk of all processors in existence. And then things like ESP32s. So to not see ARM or Tenscillica on there is a bit weird. But maybe I'm reading too much into it and it's more of a thought experiment

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#70

Post by pcdoodle »

oulipo2 wrote: post #27
viraptor wrote: post #3

Just curious: if you wanted to do something like that, but prevent a... thermal event, how would you protect an experimental battery realistically? Build a brick enclosure? A fire safe?

Shameless plug: we're building a repairable e-bike battery where you can use your own cells at https://infinite-battery.com We worked on a very sturdy casing, with some specific features to release pressure and limit the fire event propagating cell to cell, you can check it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0NXXfCA2CY

That’s pretty cool, but it took me quite a while on my phone to figure out what I need. Been doing e-bikes since 2007. Also, the little plus next to the shop was confusing to somebody that had a beer. I think your product is hot, thanks for making something that the world needs.
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