Hand-Powered Hardware?

quiddity writes "Following the Goofy USB Devices post, one has to know what can be self-powered when the batteries all die. You can handcrank your Gameboy, recharge your cellphone or pda (even grandpa), wind up a webserver (with minions, a beowulf..), see in the dark, and project a movie. What else can we propel through the next blackout/apocalypse?" Some of these devices have have been on Slashdot before; what cool hand-powered tech hasn't been and should be?

Masturbation

[Lord_Dweomer]

"You can handcrank your Gameboy, recharge your cellphone or pda (even grandpa), wind up a webserver"

So that's what they're calling it these days...........

Re:Masturbation

[acariquara]

hehehe Beavis, they said "masturbation". hehehe huh huh

Re:Masturbation

[mvdw]

We have a euphemism for masturbation around here: "Charging the Torch". Obvious, really, when you see the hand-powered torch demonstrated...

Re:Masturbation

[st0rmshad0w]

Dude, I am NOT hand-cranking my grandpa.

Re:Masturbation

[kommakazi]

Yeah those exist - it's called a "dildo"....just drink a shitload of caffinated beverages before use and you'll get the shakes (read: vibration) going on soon enough...

Universal Battery Replacement?

[Rick the Red]

How about a universal battery replacement hand-crank generator? Then I'd just need to buy the one.

Not an academic question -- we lost power for 5 days last December and again for 4 days last January.

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[benjamindees]

• bicycle
  
• electric motor
  
• package of various resistors
  
• diode(s)
  
• speaker wire
  
• basic electronics book/training
  

There isn't much you can't power with this type of setup.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[karnal]

I would think it'd be better to have something with a little more "ooomph", which would probably be a battery -- unless you wanna ride that bike the entire time the radio is on.

But, the parent actually said a hand crank battery replacement... oops. I would think that a battery would be a better choice in this situation in order to "make the charge last". A typical cap isn't going to do much to keep something running if you step off the bike, right?

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[armb]

> unless you wanna ride that bike the entire time the radio is on.

One of the many things you could run is a battery charger.

> a hand crank battery replacement... oops. I would think that a battery would be a better choice

So your plan is to replace a battery with - a battery. Not exactly a "hand crank battery replacement" is it?

> A typical cap isn't going to do much to keep something running if you step off the bike, right?

No, it will help smooth the rectifier output while you are on the bike. Like the parent said.

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[paganizer]

Well, you could use a bank of huge caps and a bank of coils in a big LC circuit.
sort of keep the magic smoke trapped in a continuing cycle.
Might have some loss to heat, and I would use REALLY good conducters, to avoid that whole "lightning bolt" problem.
it's not technically a battery, and as a added benny, you could do neat light shows.

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[Polo]

You don't need any of those things!!

You just need a coconut shell!

As a matter of fact, there are lots of things you can do with:

• bamboo
• coconuts
• vines
• palm fronds
• seashells

and of course, Some Basic Ingenuity... [russell-johnson.com]

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[cosmol]

That's not a DC generator! You've just got two coconut halves and you're banging 'em together!

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[Polo]

I think that's the funniest thing I've read in the last month on /. ;)

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[JackpotMonkey]

You forgot the most essential DIY tools, Duct Tape and Bailing wire..

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[FattMattP]

Repeated outages that last for days? If I was in your situation I'd just invest in a good gas-powered generator.

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[sh0rtie]

I'd just invest in a good gas-powered generator

with a little more hacking instead of using gas you could use a diesel generator (engine) converted to run on vegetable oil [northwales.org.uk], while its not as green as a hand crank, its from a renewable source and recycling oil that would usually be disposed of (by restaurants so its more or less free) :)

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[Rick the Red]

A) Got one. Doesn't power everything, just the basics (refrigerator, well, a few lights). With a propane cooktop and waterheater, we do OK. With hot showers and hot meals we were better off than most neighbors.

B) It's been seven years since we last lost power for more than 24 hours. These were rare, freak events. December windstorm. January freezing rain.

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[SubtleNuance]

a good gas-powered generator
Gas powered generators should be illegal. Do you know how much 2cycle (which most generators are these days) engines pollute?

Re:Universal Battery Replacement?

[Rick the Red]

2 cycle? What are you talking about? Those little Honda jobs? Even these [hondapowerequipment.com] are 4 cycle. This [colemanpowermate.com] is what I have.

Hand Power PC?

[Graemee]

Say a Mini-ITX low power, embedded OS on flash with a broswer & email. Modem and Ether net. TV output for my battery powered TV.

Re:Hand Power PC?

[Anonymous Coward]

Could energy be harvested from the keyboard?
Every key press producing a tiny amount of power??

Re:Hand Power PC?

[cos(0)]

For keys that you can actually press (since you could increase torque to get more power), a keypress most likely wouldn't produce enough power to travel an inch down the wire before being destroyed by attenuation.

Re:Hand Power PC?

[Doubting Thomas]

You could use some sort of piezoelectric mechanism in a 'clicky' keyboard, and trade pulse duration for higher voltage. Still, I'd be surprised if you could do much more than create a self-powered keyboard from such an arrangement.

Personally, I still want to get back to my childhood, and have an electronic device that was powered by a pull-string, like those little "The cow goes 'moo'" toys. Of course, I used to break the string in a month or so. Maybe if they used Spectra instead of nylon...

Re:Hand Power PC?

[Ohreally_factor]

What you really want for one of these babies is a potato battery [latteier.com].

Re:Hand Power PC?

[toddestan]

I would just hook it up to a few LEDs and a capacitor to light up the keyboard as you type. That would actually be useful, doesn't hurt the battery at all, and would look cool.

Re:Hand Power PC?

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

Sigh. And what will you do with a browser and email when the power's out?
Back in the day, a guy in Denver ran a BBS on an Apple //c. He got a UPS for it, and advertised as "the only BBS you can call in the dark"

I burn Beowulf to get energy..

[Creepy Crawler]

Yeah, I use Beowulf to power my server.

Every day, I toss in the pallets of discarded Beowulf pallets from geeks who though it told you how to build a redundant array of inexpensive computers (RAIC). ...

Offtopic, I know, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

...what the fuck is a "Minnesota wristwatch"? Could someone take just 30 seconds to tell me what it is?

Re:Minnesota wristwatch explained

[PedanticSpellingTrol]

Cleveland Steamer?

Hand Powered Computer

[Lord_Dweomer]

Seriously. This could help single geeks everywhere save on their electricity bill. You laugh, but you know you want one too.

Re:Hand Powered Computer

[k4_pacific]

Of course, with Broadband over power lines [slashdot.org] you would need a hand-cranked internet connection too.

Then what's

[_ph1ux_]

Next? Hand cranked content?

Oh, wait....

I remember...

[SisyphusShrugged]

I remember reading about a device developed specifically to assist third-world countries with their crop planting and communications via a radio that is hand-cranked and provides a large amount of listening time per crank.

Apparently these countries suffer from a lack of information about weather patterns, which would greatly assist with the crop planting, and which is provided by the hand-cranked radio

An example of geeky inventing that actually has practial application, rare on slashdot :).

Re:I remember...

[jejones]

I've bought a couple of theose radios; one AM/FM, the other AM/FM/shortwave.

The generator starts to sound like it's grinding itself to metallic powder in fairly short order. I gave away one of them, so I don't know its fate now, but the AM/FM/shortwave one sits unused. It didn't take very long for whatever governs it so that the spring doesn't immediately unwind to break, so that if you wind it up, the knob turns at amazing speed, the mechanism sounds like you should do a bad imitation of Scotty and yell "She's gonna blow for sure, Captain!", and it unwinds itself in about one white-knuckled minute.

The radio circuitry is constrained by the power source and the need to not consume it quickly. No doubt ingle-conversion, poor image rejection. Analog dial that you can't tune with certainty, just like in the old days! The sound quality, though is very nice (which for SW means wide selectivity--ouch...).

I hasten to add that Freeplay has some far more sophisticated radio products these days, vide the Summit [freeplay.net] receiver.

Re:I remember...

[General Alcazar]

It was developed by the Jhai Foundation with help from Lee Felsenstein. Lee Thorn founded Jhai - he is a Viet Nam vet who wanted (needed) to find a way to reconcile his experiences in the war with the people of Laos.

Here is a link [techempower.net] to an article about the bike-and-linux powered computer they developed. It is pretty cool.

Here is a link [slashdot.org] to a previous slashdot story on the machine. There were a lot of dumb comments previously on this story for some reason.

Here is a link [jhai.org] to a page on the Jhai Foundation's web

Wired story about inventor

[iamr00t]

here [wired.com]
That radio was distributed in war zones and refugee camps.

By the way that's a great article on subject, i.e. personally powered devices :)

How many hands?

[powerpuffgirls]

Even if we have some cool hand-powered hardware, how are we going to use it properly?

Maybe a power-generating keyboard and mouse, so the faster you type and move your mouse, the longer your hand-powered PC will stay on.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:How many hands?

[shokk]

To paraphrase a Morgul Goblin from LOtR: TTT, "What about their legs? They don't use those."

Freeplay

[amembleton]

Freeplay [freeplay.net] are a company that specialise in wind-up electronic toys including a mobile phone charger.

I have this radio [freeplay.net], designed by Freeplay that has a wind-up charger and solar panel. Works on FM, MW, SW and LW with a 30 station memory. Its not bad, works well and with good sound quality. It also doesn't look dorky like some of their earlier models.

Re:Freeplay

[lommer]

Are there any broadcast stations on MW and LW? I wasn't aware of any - maybe it's just where I live though...

MW still in use...

[Dogtanian]

Are there any broadcast stations on MW and LW? I wasn't aware of any - maybe it's just where I live though...

Where do you live? The US?

There are quite a lot of MW stations in the UK; BBC Radio 5 Live, some commercial stuff using old BBC frequencies (for BBC stations where FM coverage is now almost universal); and there are also local stations which nowadays use their FM and MW bands for totally different services (local MW tends to the MOR/retro stuff, FM for more modern music).

LW is... not much used

as in the blackout of 1977

[segment]

What else can we propel through the next blackout/apocalypse? I'm going old school [abc.net.au] and cranking up the old 8 tracks with some Barry White and my wife fsck all that other stuff. I'm contributing to the kids... segment lub dem kids

Re:as in the blackout of 1977

[bloggins02]

with some Barry White and my wife fsck all that other stuff

Real shame about that missing period...

Get paid to view porn!

[Capt'n Hector]

Sell energy back to your local utility!

Hmm...

[AstrumPreliator]

This is nice and all but I would much rather see a device (like your cellphone, pda, or gameboy) take advantage of the piezoelectric effect [gsu.edu] so the batteries charge when you use the device.

Re:Hmm...

[BillX]

If you can find a cellphone that runs on micro-amps, go for it :-)

Only for 6 minutes at a time?

[loyalsonofrutgers]

The Cell Phone hand crank article wasn't too clear, but can you only wind for 6 minutes of call time at once? The way i see it, if 30 seconds of cranking gets you 6 minutes of call time, then why don't I just crank for 5 minutes and get a whole hour? The article, however, kind of implies that you gotta crank it everytime you want to make a short call. Which would suck.

I recently broke my cell phone charger (cheap POS from sony ericcson seperated, leaving the plug in the phone and the leads not). I'm too ch

Re:Only for 6 minutes at a time?

[powerpuffgirls]

It is probably because energy is stored in the spring (mechanical?), so unless you have a really big spring, you can only do so much (30 seconds).

I would imagine if you are a fast winder, you could achieve the same talk time in 15 seconds.

Re:Only for 6 minutes at a time?

[LordK3nn3th]

Why don't you get a converter that allows you to use the car-charging port on a normal wall outlet? My dad has one, I've used it with my gameboy before. Not sure how much they cost, though.

limitation

[thorgil]

A well-trained human body can produce around 100 W of motion effect for a couple of hours. (bicycle style)

So don't even think p4 ok?
maybe an via mini-itx or something ...without display.

Re:limitation

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

A well-trained human body can produce around 100 W of motion effect for a couple of hours. (bicycle style)

Wrong: the average Jow Blow who doesn't smoke and exercise somewhat regularly puts out between 75W and 120W for 2 hours. Well trained folks can put out 200/300W, and extremely well trained people (thing Lance Armstrong rushing to the finish line) up to 1kW peak for a short time.

The Gossamer Albatros [rtpnet.org] for example, was powered by a 40Kg athlete woman who put out an average of 300/350W for more than 3 hours continuously, which explains why she was pretty knackered when she arrived.

Very true...and...

[StressGuy]

The average "elite" level cyclist can sustain about 700W, which is darned near 1 HP. Pretty impressive but, based upon some reading I've done in the wake of the death of Marco Pantani, I'm beginning to believe that it's also inhuman. It's starting to appear that the UCI actually permits athletes to artificaially bump their hemocrit levels, they just limit the extent to which they can do it...but I could be wrong. I'm not a doctor, but I am an engineer and constantly overdriving a system generally means i

Someone ought to patent this idea!

[The Other White Meat]

I think it would be really cool if someone would invent a two wheeled electric scooter, with a seat, and add pedals, so you could charge the battery. That way, instead of constantly going home to recharge, you could just hop on, turn the pedals, and ride it all day...

Re:Someone ought to patent this idea!

[soft_guy]

They already have that. Its called a Big Wheel.

Hand-Cranked Generator

[Doctor Sbaitso]

For a physics assignment last year a friend and I created a hand-cranked generator using an old windshield wiper motor. It worked pretty well: we were able to power a boom box, a Game Boy Advance, a small water pump, a large light, and a few other items.

We were thinking of selling it on the street during the blackout last summer, but decided that its nostalgic value would end up outweighing any monetary compensation we would gain.

Re:Hand-Cranked Generator

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

It worked pretty well: we were able to power a boom box, a Game Boy Advance, a small water pump, a large light, and a few other items.

Did you friend manage to get rid of the cramps in his arm?

Re:Hand-Cranked Generator

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Actually, the funny thing is, my friend did most of the cranking during the testing/construction of the generator, so when it came time for the actual presentation his arm was so sore that the cranking part was left to me.

Re:Hand-Cranked Generator

[nizo]

Hellooooo, this is a computer geek we are talking about. I mean think about it, boardroom full of engineers trying to figure out the best way for geeks to power devices, when one mentions "hand powered" I mean c'mon it is obvious.......

blackout/apocalypse situation

[way2trivial]

1- if it's a blackout, the cell phone won't do much good- unlike baby bells- cell towers don't have batteries (around here at least- ymmv)

2-and how many of these gizmos would be killed by a nuclear EMP anyway?

Re:blackout/apocalypse situation

[MoralHazard]

Actually, during the blackout last August, my cellphone service in NYC didn't drop at all. I mean, it was almost impossible to get a call through to anybody, but Verizon kept service the whole time--and I believe most of the other providers did, too.

A cell tower may or may not have battery backup or generator hook-ups, but I know that many cell towers in big cities are placed on buildings, and are hooked into the power system of the host building. Many large office buildings these days have redundant pow

Ummmmmmmmmm

[Monkelectric]

Did anyone else read the cell phone charger link carefully? "This device uses 3 "AAA" rechargeable batteries (not included). Generator measures about 6"L x 2" W x 1"D."

WTF!?

Hand Powered Webserver?

[Zone-MR]

I predict the owner will be getting a LOT of excercise right now.

Low power budget

[G4from128k]

How about pedal-powered aircraft [yale.edu] as the ultimate human-powered tech-toy?

One problem is the low power budget [green-trust.org] for human-powered systems. The average fit adult can only crank out about 75 W. (No specs on the power output of the average computer user). Even a athletic cyclist only puts out about 200W.

A cyclist should be able to power a laptop, but running much more than that would be difficult.

Solar Power

[Vo0k]

I wonder what kind of portable hardware could you keep powered up just by using reasonable size solar cells. Like a laptop with its LCD backside/cover covered with them, so you direct it towards the sun (the cover casts shadow on the screen for better contrast, and even partially transparent for free backlight) and it runs, charging standard battery... Of course it won't be a P4 or such, but with current technology, how hard would it be to create extremely-low-power 486 clone with flash instead of HDD, no

Re:Solar Power

[jdrogers]

I always wanted one of these [icpglobal.com]. A solar charger that comes with converters for pda and cell phones.. neat.

Re:Solar Power

[Vo0k]

By the name, you'd think it's some mutant child or a perverse intercourse between Sun and Apple.

So...

[Jeff Breker]

How many slashdot editors does it take to handcrank the slashdot servers?

Re:So...

[/dev/trash]

Ever since they put Cowboy Neal on that treadmill, they don't need no stinking GRID power source.

Re:Four

[Drathus]

Doesn't that make five?

1 + 3 + 1 ?

*has a flash back to the movie Clue. "1 + 2 + 1 + 1"*

Mice power

[brejc8]

Why hand power it when you can get mice to do it for you [man.ac.uk]

Also hand-powered:

[Dark Lord Seth]

My sex life.

:(

Telephone line powered stuff

[cryptec]

This site sells stuff that can be powered from your telephone line. Clock radios, calculators, vibrators, police scanners, wet dry brooms,etc.

weird...

Telco powered electronics [sandman.com]

Re:Telephone line powered stuff

[Magus311X]

Got to love the glow-in-the-dark telco-powered vibrator [sandman.com] for "sore muscles". Guess some chicks can't even make it through a power outage!

Love the anecdote though...

"Last time I was in LA, I had to walk down eight flights of stairs with two big bags to check out of the hotel that had been without power twice during my stay. The vibrator would have really helped my muscles after that stressful hotel stay!"

There's muscles down there, but c'mon, they weren't worked hard from carrying bags.

----- -----

Considering how people flail and pound on buttons

[squarooticus]

when playing Gameboys and other such devices, isn't it possible just to harness all the extra energy expended beyond that which is required to tell the device, "Yes, move up, and then left, and then..."? Don't mod this up to funny: I'm serious. Think of all the energy that is wasted by just heating the plastic, when it could go into powering the device in the first place.

Re:Considering how people flail and pound on butto

[reidbold]

If you can figure out a way to convert such a paltry amount of heat into useable electricity, tell me, and we'll both be billionaires.

Re:Considering how people flail and pound on butto

[Dun Malg]

when playing Gameboys and other such devices, isn't it possible just to harness all the extra energy expended beyond that which is required to tell the device, "Yes, move up, and then left, and then..."?

oo difficult to convert energy in the form of pressure into something the device can use. This is the same reason we don't "hook batteries up to lightning rods", as many electricity novices suggest. The equipment required to convert from a megavolt spark to a sustained output at a reasonable voltage is too

Hand Powered Fire Starter

[mnemonic_]

Haven't seen this one yet. I think there should be a hand-powered fire starter (spark generator basically) for lighting candles when the power's out or lighting camp fire kindling, or whatever else needs a flame. It'd double as a stun-gun I suppose if it could store sufficient power.

Re:Hand Powered Fire Starter

[Bombcar]

Here's [snapon.com] an example of something close.........

Also know an a lighter.

You could also carry an oxy-acetylene torch around, with the little spark maker, too. :)

Re:Hand Powered Fire Starter

[mnemonic_]

Well, I was thinking of something a bit more inexpensive. And something that didn't consume fuel (hand-powered, in fact).

Re:Hand Powered Fire Starter

[Bombcar]

How about this [welding-direct.com]?

It'll work if you have dry tinder, basically it is a iron and flint thingy. I remember using them as a kid trying to light paper; took awhile, but could be made to work. The flint wears out eventually, though. I think a Zippo would be easier.

And why does this thread remind me of a Prodigy song?

Re:Hand Powered Fire Starter

[lxs]

You mean one of these? [geocities.com] You can't shock people with them but you can give them a nasty burn :)
Lighting candles with this thing isn't easy, unless you know plenty of campcraft as it only produces a glowing ember, like flint and steel or rubbing two sticks together.

Idiot

[mnemonic_]

Flint and matches are not reusable. Also, in my experience using flint and steel is tedious and leads to cuts on hands.

primate power

[neuraloverload]

so the post is about human powered tech, not alternate power tech. they're already being looked at for militay boots ,but i'd like to see the piezio electric shoes/boots for use with an integrated system of things like woven heaters in pants/coat/shoe liners, entertainment/communications. a powered antennae woven into the back of a jacket would be a leap on signal strength and have the added bonus of being shielded, most use handsfree anyway so just plug into the clothes. granted, it is a specialized and initially costly set of applications but over time (assuming there's a technology rich future available to us given current events and lessons of history, but i digress) we could see such things as being more easily available.

Not new technology...

[djeaux]

But my 1926 Victrola always makes my old 78s sound "right." I've tried recording them on modern equipment but the result sounds "thin" compared to the old crank-model player.

And oh yes, hand-cranked ice cream freezers never fail to produce a product that beats store-bought hands down. :-)

disrubt the balance of power!

[Wescotte]

This is just a bad idea! Forcing nerds, geeks, and dweebs into physical activity would give them the ability to finally defeat the jocks and get the girl.

Battery-less, shakable flashlight

[tedhiltonhead]

Thinkgeek has the Forever Flashlight [thinkgeek.com] that uses Faraday's Principle of Induction to generate power for superbright LEDs.

Re:Battery-less, shakable flashlight

[Cecil]

Wow, it uses Faraday's Principle of Induction to generate electricity? What a novel way of doing it!

Sorry, I couldn't help but make fun of you for stating it like it's something interesting or uncommon. Virtually ALL of the world's energy comes from changing kinetic energy into electricity using a dynamo or generator -- which use, you guessed it, Faraday's principle of induction. There are a few exceptions, such as photovoltaic cells and thermocouples, but those are absolutely marginal at best. Grid-scale solar power doesn't use photovoltaic cells, but typically heats water into steam to turn turbines. Thermocouples have never been widely deployed.

Even Better Idea..

[adeyadey]

Thats a great idea, a universal Dynamo that can power any portable device. Then if you hands get tired, you could build another device with a motor & batteries to turn it for you and..

oh.. hang on a minute..

How about thermocouple-powered hardware?

[Stavr0]

The LUFO [serras.net] can produce 12V DC at 3 watts using any fuel that can burn in a hurricane lamp. A cupful of fuel will last about 24h.

The original LUFO hurricane lamp-powered radio [serras.net] was designed as an alternative to hand-cranked radios with the added benefit of providing heat and lighting.

Books

[mwood]

Traditional paper publications have never needed batteries, work well in low light and extreme glare, and can even function underwater if you're careful when you turn the pages.

Siphon powered stuff?

[Ransak]

I've wondered this for awhile, and eventually I'll get around to testing this to some small degree. It wouldn't be that difficult to setup an elaborate set of tubes and small water resevoirs to run a siphon [straightdope.com] powered generator (although, the amount of power you could generate would be small, creative engineering of the resevoirs could be done to increase output).

You might not be able to run a P4 and a subwoofer, but you could easily light a room (LEDs), or power a small radio I would imagine.

Tyranny of the Plug

[Incadenza]

Dutch designer Dick van Hoff recently designed beautiful hand-powered kitchen utensils. To quote:

Dick van Hoff's Tyranny of the Plug series of kitchen machines chop, churn and blend, but don't require electricity. They are powered by human energy-- by pulling on them, turning them or moving them to and fro... and they function beautifully.

Van Hoff is calling into question the fact that members of contemporary society readily accept new objects that are powered by electricity, yet rarely contemplate where the power is coming from. Instead, his products make people invest their human energy into powering them.

Sleekly yet simply designed of cast iron, chrome, glass, and wood, these machines run smoothly and with efficiency, while fostering awareness and contemplation.

Pictures on Designboom [designboom.com] and Slowlab [slowlab.net].

GPS receiver

[ksheff]

If there is one on the market, I know I would like to get one. Being lost in the middle of nowhere and finding out that the batteries in the GPS are dead, sucks.

Dang spaces - here's links

[srw]

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/07/24/1628214.shtm l [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/06/18/1953203.shtm l [slashdot.org]

Re:Wind-up flashlight?

[trmj]

Somebody forgot to check [thinkgeek.com] the geek's survival store.

And then some

[cryptochrome]

Personally I prefer this [yahoo.com] hand-powered flashlight. Squeezing is a much more natural motion than shaking or winding, though it requires an extra gear or two.

While I'm on the subject, pretty much any device that you use infreqently and for short periods is a good candidate for cranking. IMHO, those noisy, em-field producing, plug stealing or battery eating electric toothbrushes they have these days are really good candidates for this - twist the handle until it stops, and it brushes your teeth for one minut

Re:And then some

[cryptochrome]

Since most smoke detectors are out in the open, they are exposed to light and therefore you could use a cheap photovoltaic panel that charges a good capacitor for nightime. Seeing as how they run for months on one battery, it'd probably be enough.

Re:Bicycles

[temojen]

The topic is hand powered hardware. The grandparent post relates to this how?

Because of this:

What else can we propel through the next blackout/apocalypse?