Charge batteries directly from HIGH Voltage Lines! - The Bat Hook....

[Analog]

It's a terrible feeling: you're out and about, miles from home and your mobile phone runs out of power just when you need it most.
Now a military scientist have come up with a rather dangerous-sounding solution - designed for soldiers rather than civilians.

Looking like the sort of device that Batman would have attached to his belt, the gadget, known as RAPS (Remote Auxiliary Power System) is a weighted hook which can be thrown over any live power cable to tap it for electricity to charge batteries.

The bat hook called RAPS lets soldiers recharge by attaching themselves to live power cables

Designed for Special Forces in the U.S Army, the device uses a razor blade inside the hook which latches onto the power cable, splitting the insulation and connecting directly with the live wire.
The AC supply is then converted to DC by a transformer, allowing devices to be easily charged.
Mechanical designer Dave Coates said that his team had been 'very concerned about many safety factors' during the device's development.
They even conducted tests which involved putting the power cables underwater to see if rain would effect the way RAPS worked or if it compromised safety in any way,
'Research and development is an amazing field to work in and yes, it's fun,' says mechanical designer Dave Coates. 'Especially when you have a lot of people saying the task you've been given is impossible, and then you produce something like this.'
The invention, which appeared on an official US Department of Defence education video, is still in the development stage but could soon be used by soldiers out in the field, said Mr Coates.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQRAiDO7Ltc


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-cables-recharge-batteries.html#ixzz0sN72DaxX

 

[bolomite]

woot, free electricity here I come

 

[Train]

this sounds like both a good and bad idea at the same time

 

[Homerboy]

How do you get it OFF the line when you are done?

 

[spidey07]

You try it first. I'm going to stand over here...WAY over here.

 

[OutHouse]

thats some cool shit. even trained that its safe i would be nervouse as hell throwing that over a power line and have something like this happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJmt5j8o8A

 

[Gibsons]

You try it first. I'm going to stand over here...WAY over here.

I'll do it. Hold my beer.

 

[DrPizza]

What do they mean by "live power cables?"

The device might be appropriate for 120V lines, but you'd have to be insane if you think you can safely attach that to a high voltage line.

 

[Rubycon]

What do they mean by "live power cables?"

The device might be appropriate for 120V lines, but you'd have to be insane if you think you can safely attach that to a high voltage line.

This is what they mean by "use for professionals only". In that a properly trained "professional" can distinguish the difference between a split phase secondary feeder and a higher voltage primary distribution leg.

You have to love how they say desert or jungle. Since when can you find overhead secondaries (or any kind of suitable feeder) in those places?

You would be better off with a proven photovoltaic solution IMHO.

 

[l0cke]

This is what they mean by "use for professionals only". In that a properly trained "professional" can distinguish the difference between a split phase secondary feeder and a higher voltage primary distribution leg.

You have to love how they say desert or jungle. Since when can you find overhead secondaries (or any kind of suitable feeder) in those places?

You would be better off with a proven photovoltaic solution IMHO.

Well, they asked for it to be made, so they must need it somewhere :sneaky:

Probably not in a desert or jungle though.

 

[Rubycon]

Well, they asked for it to be made, so they must need it somewhere :sneaky:

Probably not in a desert or jungle though.

Yes it looks legit. The article mentions jungle/desert. Of course everyone knows these writers excel at everything.

 

[sdifox]

This is what they mean by "use for professionals only". In that a properly trained "professional" can distinguish the difference between a split phase secondary feeder and a higher voltage primary distribution leg.

You have to love how they say desert or jungle. Since when can you find overhead secondaries (or any kind of suitable feeder) in those places?

You would be better off with a proven photovoltaic solution IMHO.

handcrank is better. works in the dark too

 

[MedicBob]

I have been in several remote places...

Almost everywhere has had high voltage lines somewhat nearby.

 

[Rubycon]

handcrank is better. works in the dark too

Except the noisy gearbox gives away your location.

I have been in several remote places...

Almost everywhere has had high voltage lines somewhat nearby.

Doesn't sound very remote.

Of course the key is high voltage which suggest transmission lines. This product is not intended to be tossed over such a line. Doing so would have disastrous consequences for the tosser!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wsAd9q_4w&

Of course with high voltage transmission comes lots of EM field which can induce considerable power in nearby conductors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vIn1OTFH6g

This could be rectified and used to charge batteries too.

 

[DrPizza]

I can't imagine that you could use that with high voltage lines. Look how far the metal part by his finger is from where the high voltage line would be - I'd think that it would arc over that distance & travel down whatever conductor is inside at that high voltage. To safely insulate, you'd have to have a relatively large device, in which case, there are a lot of much better, proven, alternatives.

edit: and that arcing in the 2nd video Rubycon linked to shows why with high voltage lines, that razor is completely unnecessary.

 

[Sahakiel]

This is what they mean by "use for professionals only". In that a properly trained "professional" can distinguish the difference between a split phase secondary feeder and a higher voltage primary distribution leg.

You have to love how they say desert or jungle. Since when can you find overhead secondaries (or any kind of suitable feeder) in those places?

You would be better off with a proven photovoltaic solution IMHO.

I can think of a few scenarios where something like this would work better than photovoltaic.

First off, solar cells provide very little power, even under a bright blue sky, unless you're using a large surface area. So while using low power devices is an option, sometimes you really do need a large current draw. You may only have a few minutes, you may have a large draw device, or you may just be trying to charge your cell phone in the middle of the night.
Besides, in a pinch, you can jury rig a real simple blast trigger using one of these with very little effort. Solar cell, not so much.

Second, panels tend to reflect sunlight. Not a good idea if you're somewhere you're not supposed to be. This is fairly inconspicuous, especially since you don't have to be out in the open to do it.

Third, just because it can work in jungle or desert doesn't mean those places are devoid of humans. More than one town or city is built within or near those types of environments. Besides, it's probably less conspicuous to tap a power line connecting a power station outside the city than to walk up to the nearest pole downtown and toss one of these devices up top.


Power lines are actually fairly safe to screw with if you have a very basic understanding of how electricity works. For the most part, all you really need to know is that holding onto one line with both hands is not a problem, but reaching over to a second will more than likely fry you. Electricity tends to follow path of least resistance (not always overall) so while you don't need to know the exact ohm value for every possible path of conduction, it's not hard to estimate which ones are a couple order of magnitude higher than your body. Accidents do happen, but it's no more likely or dangerous than handling firearms.

 

[Rubycon]

Because this device is designed to pierce the insulation it's clearly a low voltage device (< 300V). If someone lobbed that over a 13.8kV distro circuit (about 7.2kV &#934; to ground) they'd get the "new look".

When I think of remote I say remote as in 300 miles off shore. Surely there are power lines resting on the sea floor. All you need is a shark to bite them after you winch them up too!

 

[Perknose]

Except the noisy gearbox gives away your location.

Which standing out in the open and tossing this device up to the electric lines certainly wouldn't do! :awe:

 

[IronWing]

If there are low voltage distribution lines in an area, chances are that there are also outlets not too far away. Seems more reasonable for well armed soldiers to commandeer an outlet than to mess with the lines.

 

[sdifox]

Which standing out in the open and tossing this device up to the electric lines certainly wouldn't do! :awe:

Pretty sure the sudden air pressure change is going to be louder than a hand dynamo :awe: KABOOOM!

 

[Rubycon]

Man+ dynamo reminds me of this skit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bLNoMKxMk

Should be a piece of CAKE for ATOT!

 

[DrPizza]

I can think of a few scenarios where something like this would work better than photovoltaic.

First off, solar cells provide very little power, even under a bright blue sky, unless you're using a large surface area. So while using low power devices is an option, sometimes you really do need a large current draw. You may only have a few minutes, you may have a large draw device, or you may just be trying to charge your cell phone in the middle of the night.
Besides, in a pinch, you can jury rig a real simple blast trigger using one of these with very little effort. Solar cell, not so much.

Second, panels tend to reflect sunlight. Not a good idea if you're somewhere you're not supposed to be. This is fairly inconspicuous, especially since you don't have to be out in the open to do it.

Third, just because it can work in jungle or desert doesn't mean those places are devoid of humans. More than one town or city is built within or near those types of environments. Besides, it's probably less conspicuous to tap a power line connecting a power station outside the city than to walk up to the nearest pole downtown and toss one of these devices up top.


Power lines are actually fairly safe to screw with if you have a very basic understanding of how electricity works. For the most part, all you really need to know is that holding onto one line with both hands is not a problem, but reaching over to a second will more than likely fry you. Electricity tends to follow path of least resistance (not always overall) so while you don't need to know the exact ohm value for every possible path of conduction, it's not hard to estimate which ones are a couple order of magnitude higher than your body. Accidents do happen, but it's no more likely or dangerous than handling firearms.

I finally watched the whole video - this is intended for 120V lines (video shows 240V, but it's only using one phase.) Toss this over a 20k line & nice knowing you. If you can find a 120V line, you may as well just go up to the door, knock, and ask if you could plug something in.

 

[Rubycon]

Yes there are so many different ways feeders are arranged. Then again they have so called Special High Intensity Training to fix that.

 

[LTC8K6]

Why not use a ring type transformer sort of like a clamp on ammeter? Wouldn't need to pierce the insulation.

 

[Rubycon]

Why not use a ring type transformer sort of like a clamp on ammeter? Wouldn't need to pierce the insulation.

This will couple however the EMF is proportional to the current flow in the surrounded conductor AND is rather feeble in comparison to what may be necessary to quick charge a battery, for example. The d'Arsonval movement in an Amprobe may need only a few tens of microamperes to reach full right hand deflection.