Apple Files Patent to Make a Zero-Power PSU

[legacy7955]

"iSue therefore iAm."

 

[STravis]

To all the tards here talking about leeching power during normal operation keep in mind that switching power supplies tend to reach their peak efficiency when they are running at rated load, not when trickling power (that's when they are their WORST efficiency). Armed with that informaton try and put 2 and 2 together.

 

[jsc]

[citation][nom]GreaseMonkey_62[/nom]It's not a bad concept, but the benefits are likely to be negligible. There are already power strips out there that do the same thing.[/citation]
And if you are handy with a soldering iron, you can build a function that lets a device (such as a monitor)plugged into the "control" socket control the rest of the outlets for less than $10.

 

[ojas]

A) I just turn off the switch at the back of my PSU and it draws 0W of Power.
B) Thank god apple's trying to patent it, i hope they get it, because i don't want something like this in PC PSUs.
C) As others have said, what about the extra energy used to extract, refine and work with the materials for the extra components?
D) Doesn't the battery have to charge? Doesn't that offset the 0W BS anyway?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Apple, your patents are now beyond a joke, this is an unbelievably big pile of steaming crap. I hope Apple rots in hell and the current patent system with it.

 

[shqtth]

A car does this.
You turn the key, that send power to the spark plugs, that ignites the gas, that turns the motor, that runs the alternator that charges the battery.

The batter does not consume power unless the car is turned on. And gas is not burned unless the engine is on. So this is not a new concept.


Actually if the power supply is connected the the wall, it is still consuming power, even if its a little amount for standby power. THe transformer is not disconnected from AC, unless the power switch is turned off (on the back of the power supply). This is why they recommend disconncting ac/dc power supplies/adapters from the wall when they are not being used by a device.


an SCR transistor acts like a brige, allowing power to pass threw when voltage is passed to its gate. http://www.tpub.com/neets/book7/26c.htm
And it is turned off when current threw the SCR is broken(not present).
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_7/5.html

So having something consume no power until its turned on is nothing new.
Power can be saved in a battery and applies to the gate, as long as the battery shared the same ground. But AC would be more tricky. For AC they use a relay

 

[fixxxer113]

Apple needs to file a patent for "Using things to do stuff" and be done with it... Or even better, a patent for "Life, the universe and everything". We'll call it i42 😛

 

[chaos133]

My UPS already does this, when I turn off my PC the other devices that ain't connected to the battery will also turn off.

 

[vaughn2k]

[citation][nom]bwcbwc[/nom]Good question: Maybe it doesn't allow any power to the plugged in device, but the processor circuitry within the PSU will still be leeching power. Either that or the article doesn't capture what is really going on here.[/citation]
Light bulb! I will patent an invention where parasitic power is required to turn on a device. This way, Apple cannot switch on the device until he pays me for royalty for every device Apple has turned on....

 

[steelbox]

[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]I accidentally read a Zero Point Module for some reason.[/citation]
Does it come with a free Zelenka?

 

[eyemaster]

So, the additional power needed to charge that battery will be less than what is currently used when a PC is powered off? I doubt it.

 

[secretxax]

ROFL! XD

 

[ProDigit10]

in other words, every time you use it you lose power to charging the battery, and powering the charge system!
And if the battery is dead, you need to throw away the power brick?

 

[Guest]

No they want to file this patnt to sue everyone who has a power strip with a switch on it!

Also the system seems oddly similar oh wait its already in all laptops. Guess now that they have lost Jobbs they need other people to loose jobs (heh heh)

 

[mrqpod]

[citation][nom]zak_mckraken[/nom]The article reads : The control circuitry is powered by a battery, which is charged during regular power flow.So, instead of a regular PSU that draws about 0.5 watts when the computer is off, you'll have a self-charging battery that will draw 0 watt, but will need to be replaced after one year of usage. Green power?[/citation]

oh and if that battery runs out, its an apple dead in the water.

 

[rosen380]

Just like when your car battery dies-- you have the car towed to the dump and buy a new one. Wait-- there are workarounds for the rare occasion that these batteries die?

 

[secretxax]

Apple's just bullsh@tt@ng... Is this because they're trying to catch up to Google and their amount of patents? Seems so...

LOL!

 

[Guest]

Just like my IBM XT!

 

[valu3hunt3r]

[citation][nom]ngoy[/nom]Try to find a new clock/config IC for a old Sun box.Soon, not only will you have to replace your battery in your iDevice, but also your PSU when your time runs out.[/citation]

I had the same thoughts, not only will you have to cough up extra later to replace the battery (vote me down all you want but there will be a 50% MINIMUM Apple label tax on said battery - use of a non Apple branded 3rd party battery = bye bye warranty) but the extra I/C chip could have a timing mechanism that after x years (warranty + 1 month) it'll simply stop working (planned/built in obsolescence).

Anything but good for us consumers and/or environmentalists (I'm neither iSheep nor environmentalist but what are the odds other companies will consider licensing this junk, making a little extra $ on the side by having people replace PSUs more often than needed is the last thing we need =X ) wasting more resources to produce replacement units while making you cough up even more money for either a new PSU OR for a little extra you can get the next iShinyExpensiveMustHaveToy ($1K vs $400 for a new PSU as a rough example; for comparison it would be the equivalent of spending $200 for a replacement laptop LCD screen + labor if you get a techie to do the work vs $5/600 for a new more powerful laptop).

[citation][nom]zorky9[/nom]How about not building them at all? That'll be greener. How much "less power" are we talking about as compared to the raw materials, energy consumed, overhead, Foxconn suicides, etc. it'll take to manufacture these magical PSUs?[/citation]

Bingo we have a winner, the Return Over Investment will be so poor that it would be actually going backwards on the overall power savings (because it will cost more power to make them than they will save over the products life cycle).

In short - as wasteful as Apple is expensive.

 

[mihaimm]

[citation][nom]Anonymous[/nom]So let me get this right, current PSUs use less than ONE WATT of power when the computer is turned off with many using HALF OF ONE WATT or less.[/citation]So... let's estimate the number of computers worldwide to 1bn (very conservative). Let's assume an average of 1W per PSU (remember, there are more old computers out there than new ones). That gives you 1000 million Watts world wide. 1000MW. The largest solar power plant in the world produces almost a quarter of that.

The idea is not bad assuming you can create circuitry that uses 0.1W to completely cut of the power you would end up with 100MW instead of 1000MW. Cut it to 0 (don't know how you'd do that...) and you end up saving the world a bit.