New use for laser power packs- maybe

[JAFARR]

I have been wondering if it was possible to use laser power packs to provide power for other uses. If they could release energy slowly, they could be used as high capacity batteries. In my job, I am begining to see some of the new lithium ion style batteries for battery powered tools. They are supposed to provide a more constant output over the life of the charge so your tool runs at full power all the time. AD2300 had lasers that used disposable batteries. They were rated as to the output in watts or kwatts (been so long I don't remember the details), but for CT it just says 100 shots. How long would a laser pistol power pack last as a power supply for say air conditioning a survival shelter?

PS Now I am wondering if this should go in the "Imperial Research Station" forum instead of here? If so would someone with that authority do so please.

 

[Gadrin]

Well, this is where GURPS is handy because you can disassemble their weapons and find out how much.

I think the GTL10 or TTL 12 Laser Rifle is about 250kJ or kW. So take how many shots in the backpack and you can figure out how much it holds total. Then figure on the power usage of an air conditioner (probably google for it) and you can see how long it could run, given someone with the skill of electronics.

IIRC a Laser backpack with 100 shots = 100x250 = 25,000 kW = 25 million watts (sorry it's been a while for me). Then figure out the power usage -- per second -- of an air conditioner and then you can figure out how long it'll last.

You also might want to look at Striker or Fire Fusion & Steel and see if they specify the power usage for their version of the weapons.

 

[JAFARR]

Well a 110VAC window unit will be in the range of 5k to 10k BTUs. I think a 1/2 HP motor draws 500 to 600 watts. Seems to me that a battery that stores 100 shots would power portable shelter for some time if there is a way to draw it off slowly.

Reminds me of an old Sifi short story about a lost robot. It wound up at a junk yard and asked the owner if it could make it's own disruptor (or whatever it was called) because it was supposed to being disrupting and couldn't do that without a disruptor. To get it out of his hair, the man said yes.

After a while, the robot reported that it was ready to disrupt. When the man said OK, the robot proceeded to disrupt about a 1/4 of his junk yard in one shot. Then the man went ballistic and screamed that the robot to forget about disrupting. The man grabbed a sledge hammer and proceeded to dismantle the disruptor. About the time he finished the robot's caretaker showed up to collect it. After looking at what had been disrupted, and asking the owner what had happened, he rushed to the pile of scrap and began to look through the remains. He picks up a piece, tests it with something from his pocket, then runs to the robot. After talking to the robot, he runs back to the man and asks what he said to the robot.

Turns out that the robot was a fairly dumb robot that got lost from a factory. Because it was not expected to be out in public, it's memory was not protected. It had received a comand to forget so it forgot. The device it had built had evaporated 1/4 of the junk yard using a D cell battery that was still fully charged, but the sledge hammer destroyed the device and the order to forget had wiped all knowledge of how it was done.

 

[Gnusam Netor]

IIRC a Laser backpack with 100 shots = 100x250 = 25,000 kW = 25 million watts (sorry it's been a while for me). Then figure out the power usage -- per second -- of an air conditioner and then you can figure out how long it'll last.

25 MWatts for one second equals an energy release of 25Mjoule.

Say 2,5kW is a small airconditioner

2,5 exp7 J / 2,5 exp3 W = 10000 seconds of operation, ~15 minutes.

ps. I just realised that "Joule per Watt" is a fancy way of saying "second".

 

[Gadrin]

yeah, it's one of those things when you need to be precise it's handy, but ultimately a waste of time.

some people like the details and doing the math.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

You should be able to pulse the output from the power pack into a slow-output capacitor, it seems to me. Something like a step-down transformer for time in stead of voltage.

 

[golentan]

The story was from I Robot by Isaac Aasimov. And the disruptor blew the top off a mountain with an apparent power source of a moldy AA battery. Greatest potential weapon ever, and they never could replicate it. Great story.

 

[JAFARR]

OK, I know it was many years ago that I read it. Suprised I got as much of it right as I did.


So it wouldn't power the emergency shelter very long, but if you wanted to recharge say the equlivent of a Dewalt 18 VDC handheld power tool it might last a lot longer.

 

[MikeNGina]

Well a 110VAC window unit will be in the range of 5k to 10k BTUs. I think a 1/2 HP motor draws 500 to 600 watts. Seems to me that a battery that stores 100 shots would power portable shelter for some time if there is a way to draw it off slowly.

Couldn't a character hook the magazine to the portable shelters power source and just recharge it that way? As a handy battery charger of sorts? At least a character with engineer electronics skill, Physical Sciences electronics skill or Jack of all trades maybe.

 

[Patron Zero]

Series Capacitor

Perhaps I'm interpreting such different than most but I see a weapon based power cell as more a series of bundled quick discharge capacitors than the traditional 'battery' that one might find in a flashlight or other power tool application.

Not claiming any expertise in electrical engineering or related systems but again I see a likely difference in the amperage ratings for the devices mentioned above.

I do know one doesn't hook up say a marine battery to an automobile unless certain modifications are made to the vehicle's electrical systems to avoid damage. The same can be said of voltage in regards to a recreational vehicle just plugging into an unmodified 110 volt power receptacle.

 

[MikeNGina]

Perhaps I'm interpreting such different than most but I see a weapon based power cell as more a series of bundled quick discharge capacitors than the traditional 'battery' that one might find in a flashlight or other power tool application.

Not claiming any expertise in electrical engineering or related systems but again I see a likely difference in the amperage ratings for the devices mentioned above.

I do know one doesn't hook up say a marine battery to an automobile unless certain modifications are made to the vehicle's electrical systems to avoid damage. The same can be said of voltage in regards to a recreational vehicle just plugging into an unmodified 110 volt power receptacle.

I agree, which is why I mentioned the electrical engineering skills. High enough skill level and proper tools I believe it could be done somehow.... If you wanted the characters to live anyway.

 

[Johnny_BoomBoom]

Perhaps I'm interpreting such different than most but I see a weapon based power cell as more a series of bundled quick discharge capacitors than the traditional 'battery' that one might find in a flashlight or other power tool application.

Not claiming any expertise in electrical engineering or related systems but again I see a likely difference in the amperage ratings for the devices mentioned above.

I do know one doesn't hook up say a marine battery to an automobile unless certain modifications are made to the vehicle's electrical systems to avoid damage. The same can be said of voltage in regards to a recreational vehicle just plugging into an unmodified 110 volt power receptacle.

Think you might be right on the power cell 'style'......lasers work by almost triggering a flash gun with such intensity....that the material is so exicted that to come down to it's stable state it releases huge amount of energy in the form of very monochromatic light!

http://www.howstuffworks.com/laser.htm

 

[whtknght]

I have been wondering if it was possible to use laser power packs to provide power for other uses. If they could release energy slowly, they could be used as high capacity batteries. In my job, I am begining to see some of the new lithium ion style batteries for battery powered tools. They are supposed to provide a more constant output over the life of the charge so your tool runs at full power all the time. AD2300 had lasers that used disposable batteries. They were rated as to the output in watts or kwatts (been so long I don't remember the details), but for CT it just says 100 shots. How long would a laser pistol power pack last as a power supply for say air conditioning a survival shelter?

PS Now I am wondering if this should go in the "Imperial Research Station" forum instead of here? If so would someone with that authority do so please.

If my memory serves me right, CT had Laser welder/cutters in a JTAS or FASA publication that used laser rifle power packs

 

[DeusX]

If my memory serves me right, CT had Laser welder/cutters in a JTAS or FASA publication that used laser rifle power packs

Best of JTAS vol 4 page 35.

DX