The palm-sized cube you see
in the photo is a rechargeable 12V battery that weighs in at about 2 lbs.
It also can sustain a 50 amp output for 43 seconds, enough to start many
internal combustion engines. Another battery device, a flat wand 50% longer
than a sawbuck and the width of a CD case, was used at an Oshkosh fly-in
for starting aircraft engines. Including a P-51. Both batteries are developments
from Bolder Technologies, Golden, CO, and are made up of smaller cylindrical
elements that mark a major advance in sealed lead-acid battery design. The
Bolder TMF batteries use foil-thin sheets of lead separated by a 'glass
insulator. Instead of attaching a tab of foil to the end cap of the cell,
Bolder uses an entire edge of the sheet, reducing impediments to the electron
flow. A low impedance also allows the cell to operate cooler. Further advantages
of these batteries over rechargeable ni-cads include the lack of memory
effect (lead-acid batteries can be fully recharged at any point without
adverse problems), the raw materials are readily available and less expensive,
and recycling programs are already in place for lead-acid batteries. Under
development for several years, the batteries began commercial production
this year with a 9/5 Sub C cell that outputs 2V at 1Ah/1 hour and can be
recharged in 5 minutes or less. Circle 400.
W
ith digital video systems exploding across the consumer landscape
in numbers like credit card offers, it seems prudent that not everyone would
want to dedicate a PC or laptop to video playback. Phillips Electronics
recently introduced the ISP3004 Solid State Video for the viewing of MPEG
1 or 2 data from PCMCIA cards. A machine like this could be useful in applications
where video needs to be repeated many times, as in museums, sport stadiums,
vidiwalls, etc. The amount of video that can be stored on these cards depends
on the size of the card used and the MPEG bit rate of encoding. An 8 Mbit/sec.
rate provides up to 5 minutes of broadcast quality playback, and longer
play is possible, but at the sacrifice of quality. Control information can
be programmed onto the PCMCIA card along with the video and accompanying
stereo audio, or the machine can be controlled from a PC through its RS232
port. Since the ISP3004 is strictly a playback unit, Philips has also created
TriCodec, a plug-and-play card that can capture analog video and audio in
real time and digitally write them to the hard disc of a PC. Data can be
compressed to MPEG1 format, and output can be run on the PC's monitor or
through a TV. Windows 95 software is supplied for capturing, editing and
playback, along with Video-CD authoring capability. Circle
401.
Originally published in the October 1998 issue of designfax.
Please Note: some pictures or diagrams are only available through the printed media.
The palm-sized cube you see
in the photo is a rechargeable 12V battery that weighs in at about 2 lbs.
It also can sustain a 50 amp output for 43 seconds, enough to start many
internal combustion engines. Another battery device, a flat wand 50% longer
than a sawbuck and the width of a CD case, was used at an Oshkosh fly-in
for starting aircraft engines. Including a P-51. Both batteries are developments
from Bolder Technologies, Golden, CO, and are made up of smaller cylindrical
elements that mark a major advance in sealed lead-acid battery design. The
Bolder TMF batteries use foil-thin sheets of lead separated by a 'glass
insulator. Instead of attaching a tab of foil to the end cap of the cell,
Bolder uses an entire edge of the sheet, reducing impediments to the electron
flow. A low impedance also allows the cell to operate cooler. Further advantages
of these batteries over rechargeable ni-cads include the lack of memory
effect (lead-acid batteries can be fully recharged at any point without
adverse problems), the raw materials are readily available and less expensive,
and recycling programs are already in place for lead-acid batteries. Under
development for several years, the batteries began commercial production
this year with a 9/5 Sub C cell that outputs 2V at 1Ah/1 hour and can be
recharged in 5 minutes or less. Circle 400.
W
ith digital video systems exploding across the consumer landscape
in numbers like credit card offers, it seems prudent that not everyone would
want to dedicate a PC or laptop to video playback. Phillips Electronics
recently introduced the ISP3004 Solid State Video for the viewing of MPEG
1 or 2 data from PCMCIA cards. A machine like this could be useful in applications
where video needs to be repeated many times, as in museums, sport stadiums,
vidiwalls, etc. The amount of video that can be stored on these cards depends
on the size of the card used and the MPEG bit rate of encoding. An 8 Mbit/sec.
rate provides up to 5 minutes of broadcast quality playback, and longer
play is possible, but at the sacrifice of quality. Control information can
be programmed onto the PCMCIA card along with the video and accompanying
stereo audio, or the machine can be controlled from a PC through its RS232
port. Since the ISP3004 is strictly a playback unit, Philips has also created
TriCodec, a plug-and-play card that can capture analog video and audio in
real time and digitally write them to the hard disc of a PC. Data can be
compressed to MPEG1 format, and output can be run on the PC's monitor or
through a TV. Windows 95 software is supplied for capturing, editing and
playback, along with Video-CD authoring capability. Circle
401.
