The future of pick-ups?

Sort of reminds me of the old wristwatches that you charged by moving about. My dad used to have one. I guess they still have a more modern version too.

Its called an automatic movement and yes they are still very much around. And there are lots of different types of them, yes. More sought after than an average fashion-type quartz generally speaking, high end and other interesting quartzes notwithstanding.
 
Actually, we've already got a replacement for batteries, as you know, Mike :)

The MiSi amazes me. I've been involved in electronics since the 70's (well, actually, starting in the late 80's I pretty much switched to software except for designing and building tube amps). Still, I used my Mainland tenor with MiSi to check an amp a few days ago. The internal cap hadn't been charged since just before Christmas and it was still holding a charge. We didn't get that kind of "leak proof" performance from caps back in the day!

John
 
Remember the first old motorola Brick cell phones?? ha ha reminds me of that..

My first cell phone came in a "bag" with a lead-acid motorcycle battery that would power it for a few hours...or maybe an hour of talk time. Improvements in low-power electronics, signal processing, and battery technology have contributed to make "Buck Rogers" stuff commonplace.

I've got a combination defibrilator/pacemaker in my chest. It's not much larger than a matchbook and the battery is still going strong five years later... Wow!

John
 
My first cell phone came in a "bag" with a lead-acid motorcycle battery that would power it for a few hours...or maybe an hour of talk time. Improvements in low-power electronics, signal processing, and battery technology have contributed to make "Buck Rogers" stuff commonplace.

I've got a combination defibrilator/pacemaker in my chest. It's not much larger than a matchbook and the battery is still going strong five years later... Wow!

John
Aloha John,
My friend just got his pacemaker changed, it is his third and the last was about five years ago..he was in the hospital for one day and the next day he was home walking all around...I guess
now they just make small cuts and get a camera in there..so healing time is very much quicker with the smaller incisions..
 
The Seiko Watch Co put a quartz movement(?) in their watches which, was charged by a centre pivoted weight with tiny two coils on it. The generated charge was stored in a capacitor I think. I have three of these watches that do not work anymore (two from my late father), and the repair costs are steep. It is a pity, as for 10 years it ran well and kept good time. There are also torches that can be charged by shaking a weight through a coil. The circuitry gets smaller and smaller, as do the led's that have replaced the globes... While on pickups, the microphones that you can clip on are also small, but you either use phantom power or carry a small battery case on your body. If a small system could be developed onto your strumming arm charging into a capacitor, maybe that could provide the "green" phantom power instead?
 
Aloha John,
My friend just got his pacemaker changed, it is his third and the last was about five years ago..he was in the hospital for one day and the next day he was home walking all around...I guess
now they just make small cuts and get a camera in there..so healing time is very much quicker with the smaller incisions..

Yeah, I went in early in the morning for this one and was out from under anaesthesia by noon. By two o'clock I could have driven myself home but they won't let you do that. You have to stay overnight for observation, and then they strongly encourage you to have someone to drive you home.

There wasn't much pain, plus I've got a strong pain threshhold anyway. That evening while I was watching TV the darn nurse kept bugging me to take a pain pill "to manage the pain before it got too bad." I finally agreed to take one when I was getting ready to turn in but I only agreed to take it if she'd not wake me up every two hours to give me another! I just love how they come around every two hours all night long to wake you up to give you a sleeping pill. Utterly insane.

John
 
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