this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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Device uses movement of ions to generate airflow without any moving parts like in iPads and MacBook Air.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

That's correct.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't an ionic air moving system like this put out a big ass EM field?

Im a fabricator who don't fuck with the lecky, but maybe someone more educated than me can explain why this doesn't wipe your memory every time the cooling kicks on

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The "fan" sits inside a faraday cage.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I'm more excited about those Frore MEMS airjet chips.

That's actually in at least one consumer product right now.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Counterpoint: stop trying to make laptops thinner and implement realistic and functional air cooling

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Well there's no shortage of those, and they're unusually cheaper too (unless they're specced out). I prefer a thin silent one myself, so I welcome this innovation.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Passive cooling is generally better for reliability if you can make it work, since all active airflow systems will degrade as dust and hair works into the airflow paths.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago

Plus, the two can be used in combination. Improved passive cooling systems will make active cooling better by reducing the need to run the active system all the time, or at least run it at reduced rates, which will make the whole system last longer and reduce maintenance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

But this system still makes airflow right? Just without moving parts.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Make the chassis out of aluminium so the whole bastard is a heatsink.

[–] mindbleach 1 points 22 hours ago

The GRiD Compass, "the first laptop," was made of magnesium.

When they brought one into space it had to be retrofitted with an external fan, because heat doesn't rise in zero-G.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Slaps roof of laptop This bastard can cook so many egg omelettes

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Two eggs and one sausage

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Apple has been doing that for years

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

My laptop and older phone has this and it really does help with the added surface area.

The only issue is if you go full throttle, the section right above the CPU can fry your hand lol.

Although I only ever reached that temp doing stupid crap like hashing.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 days ago

Or we innovate 🤷

It isn't a given that every device needs a fan anymore. For example non intel MacBook air.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I want to put one in a Valve Steamdeck.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nintendo Switch would be more compelling.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It would be a good use case; however, you can only do so much with a cut down version of a SOC that was originally made in 2015. It may be work for very little gains.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Speaking from experience here, and limited information from the company, this looks like a polished version of a high-voltage grid accelerator.

https://ventiva.com/how-it-works/

What can be an expected concern is that besides ionizing air and imparting motion to neutral air molecules as the ionized ones rush from one plate to the other, that same effect can and will charge dust particles. That "collector plate" will need to be easily accessible.

Sound familiar?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

They do have a solution for the ozone and dust problems. See this video at about the 9 minute mark:

https://youtu.be/fyai_kUYhLs?t=539

tl;dw: they're using a cataylist to convert the ozone. There's a lack of specifics on the dust issue, but they apparently have thought about it and have something there.

One other issue is that the static pressure is abysmal. You can work around that, but it's not a drop in thing.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So my take away from all of this is that this is a laptop that can propel itself around in space. Pretty neat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sadly, there would be no reaction mass.

All that would happen is the lcd panel would boil and crack, and the processor would overheat soon after because nothing is carrying away the heat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Nah, it can use all the dust and bits of carpet fluff. It's magical stuff carpet fluff, it's always a different color to any color you actually have as a carpet.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Ionic acceleration of air needs high voltages and the air gets ionized (the reason people recommend against vacuuming a PC). I'm surprised that it works at all in close proximity to sensible tech.

Edit: right, low static pressure, meaning: lower voltages. But still not low.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago (4 children)

They use a grounded faraday cage around it. Video on it where he touched on that https://youtu.be/fyai_kUYhLs

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

the reason people recommend against vacuuming a PC

A regular vacuum isn't doing anything with ions or high voltages. Moving air can generate potentially harmful static electricity, but usually the reason people recommend against vacuuming a PC is because if you spin the fans doing that, the motors inside turn into generators and drive current back into your PC parts that could damage them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Moving air can generate potentially harmful static

Well, and what do you think creates that static electricity? Ionization.

Feeding back electricity, that's why motors usually have a diode or something.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The difference between a vacuum and this fanless cooling device is that a vacuum happens to generate a small amount of static, and usually has grounding wires in the hose to prevent it shocking things, while this fanless device is intentionally ionizing as much air as possible to get it to move.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Exactly, that's why i'm wondering how it is save.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think Dave2D made a video about those. He was cautiously optimistic.

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