Your phone is winding me up
How to make crank calls and save electricity
A UK firm has designed what’s thought to be the world’s first mobile phone with an integrated wind-up charger mechanism.
Wind-up chargers for a wide variety of gadgets have been available for years. But TCL - the firm behind the wind-up handset - claims a greater amount of energy will be created by cranking power directly into a phone’s battery, through an integrated ultra-thin dynamo.
“With our system the generator accesses the battery directly, and that really increases the efficiency of the system," Tony Davies of TCL told the BBC.
The result is more charge per wind, he says.
One minute of cranking should create enough power for a four-minute voice call, but integrated rear-mounted solar panels provide an additional method of power collection.
But one downside to the phone’s integrated crank, as we see it, is that you will need to keep cranking the handle while the phone’s clamped to your ear. Surely this process is made much easier by a wind-up charger with a long power cable?
The wind-up phone is at the prototype stage, but TCL expects it to come to market. It thinks it will sell well in developing countries and in areas where network coverage is good - but the power supply isn’t. ®
COMMENTS
@Chris211
That would be "You're all dumb!" and "believe" or an I being dumb....
forget calls...
Will you be able to play games on the things?
Cranking?
"But one downside to the phone’s integrated crank, as we see it, is that you will need to keep cranking the handle while the phone’s clamped to your ear."
Sure that would be hard. And presumably noisy when the phone is help up to the ear, so who would even be able to crank and talk at the same time anyway?
Now, for continuous use for longer periods a "remote crank" would sure be useful indeed. For quick emergency calls... not sure whether the extra hassle of gear would make it up for it.
Gone full circle
Anyone else remember the old war films where the army had to wind up the land-line to generate enough juice to make a call?
And to add insult to injury, the technology goes by the oldies' name for it: 'wireless'!
@TeeCee again
Actually, this would be massively useful in lots of Africa, where the mobile phone network is distinctly more reliable than the power grid. So, whilst you may be finding imagination a bit of a struggle, I'm sure some people would manage...
