Saturday, October 18, 2014
Bosch Introduces Wireless Charging Cordless Tools
coptool.com: It is no surprise, given their track record in electronics outside the world of power tools, that the Robert Bosch company will bring serious advances from the world of consumer electronics to the world of power tools. You may remember seeing items like the PowerMat for sale a few years ago, which offered you the ability to charge your electronic devices simply by placing them on a mat rather than having to plug a charger into a specific port.
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6 comments:
I wonder what the range of the magnetic field is, and if other technologies might interfere with the field, or be damaged by it. Presumably, Bosch did their best to work out issues like that before putting it into production. I am still a little vague on how this helps with the plug issue, because it seems you will still have to plug in the charge station. I wonder what the maximum number of batteries that can be charged at a time from one station is.
This is no surprise to me at all. I first heard of wireless power in 7th grade when it was being developed in major university research labs. I don't know if anything has changed interference wise since then, but as far as I know it doesn't cause much. Additionally, this technology for wireless charging has been around for a few years, albeit for mobile devices, such as cell phones, but it isn't much of a change to charge a different device. The main difference is the size of the battery. It is only a matter of time before power outlets are a thing of the past for small electronics.
Like it says in the brief article their is no real benefit from this new wireless charging other than it 1. looking really cool and impressive, and 2. having the tool you need recharged with the battery still in place while charging. Yes, this would save minimal time of having to put the battery into the tool you want to use, however I don't think those few seconds it takes to replace a battery provide enough of an incentive to buy new wirelessly charging tools. If you're using your tools right anyways you should always have a spare battery charged when ready. Yes, wireless charging is an advancement in power tools, but it's not significant enough to really provoke consumers other than the niche of it being pretty cool.
I wonder if you could amplify the magnetic field of the charger, like significantly. The goal would be to make the entire work surface a charging station. Imagine how convenient it would be if all you had to do to charge your tool was to place it on the table that you are working on. Anywhere on the table. This is already a motion that we do when building something.
This concept could actually be enlarged to the transportation industry. I picture a world in which not only are all vehicles electric, but the roads in which these cars and trucks and motorbikes ride on are all electromagnetic fields of their own. You could charge your car as you drive it on the interstate. No more stopping for fuel, ever.
Obviously this technology is years away from being possible, and the impact it would have on electric devices in the vicinity of the field range have to be investigated. But it sounds like it'd be worth it.
This doesn't actually seem to be any more practical. While you may be able to leave the batteries on your drill, most of the other tools require you to remove the battery to charge it. On top of that, the charging relies on the users just returning the battery to the charging station. While this is definitely a cool flashy toy to show off, I just don't see it being that much more practical at this point in time when you could just take off a battery and slide it into a charger in a matter of seconds.
i heard that this was something that would be up and coming and i figured it was going be a pad or something you could throw your batteries onto to charge so you don't have to have a charger for each of your batteries but this just seems pointless. you still have to slide it into the groves, the only difference is you can leave the tool plugged in but then you can't use the tool. I had a black and decker drill with a build in battery and it was a pain because when the battery died i couldn't use the tool. then when i got a removable battery drill, when the battery dies i just take it off, charge it and put in the other battery i have. with that said, there really is no point in a magnetic field charger unless you could make the charger actually have features that help the enduser
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