Toothbrush chargers- How do they work?

[Carreauchompeur]

I've just replaced my old electric toothbrush which wasn't in the rudest of health with a new Oral-B sonic jobby.

Question is, not about the clever sonic technology, but the charger...

As far as I can see the toothbrush has a completely enclosed plastic socket, and the charger's entirely enclosed plastic plug fits in it.

'Ow does the Electrickery make its move then!?

[steveo29]

wireless charging, something like it created an electrical field and the brush sits in it.

[Stu R]

By induction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging

[jollygreen]

I've often wondered this.

Thanks Stu.

[pja]

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

[cobra kid]

The same way some of the Scandinavian countries charge their electric cars. They park the front ends over special panels in the roadside.

[jollygreen]

I seem to remember reading a novel which had tiny remote-control recon "drones" about the size of a fly which could recharge by parking beside a speaker or any magnetic device.

[BigBen]

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

[Carreauchompeur]

Thanks for that. Very interesting technology and I can sleep easy now

[pja]

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Sorry Ben

[BigBen]

pja said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Sorry Ben

I don't care, it might not have been me. It is a promising technology that has not taken off yet, simple reason being it is a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient than inserting a plug !

[Orb the Impaler]

jollygreen said:

I've often wondered this.

Thanks Stu.

+1

[Pigeon]

BigBen said:

pja said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Sorry Ben

I don't care, it might not have been me. It is a promising technology that has not taken off yet, simple reason being it is a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient than inserting a plug !

It's a bloody pointless gimmick is what it is, simple reason being that it is significantly more expensive and a lot less efficient than a plug. It is useful for applications like powering implants but for any domestic appliance it's just a waste of money, parts and energy which achieves no useful result.

[dilbert]

Pigeon said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Sorry Ben

I don't care, it might not have been me. It is a promising technology that has not taken off yet, simple reason being it is a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient than inserting a plug !

It's a bloody pointless gimmick is what it is, simple reason being that it is significantly more expensive and a lot less efficient than a plug. It is useful for applications like powering implants but for any domestic appliance it's just a waste of money, parts and energy which achieves no useful result.

Yeah but you have to admit, that for something like a toothbrush, it's not a bad idea.

I mean the bottom of my brush has a hole in it which fits over a stub on the charger, to keep the coils aligned. Obviously I regularly clean out that hole. (and sadly the only thing that will get in it to clean it properly is a cotton bud, or the old relegated manual toothbrush)

The thing is though when you're brushing your teeth, the skanky toothpaste, and other bathroom crud gets into that hole. Were it a plain electrical connector, it wouldn't last more than a month.

Anyhow, the last one I had the o-ring in the neck failed, and I didn't notice, so the water got into the sealed body, and the motor went rusty. First I knew was when it stopped working. It didn't do too badly though, I got at least ten years service out of it!!!

TBH I think if those brushes weren't hermetic, they just wouldn't be reliable.

I know you can get hermetic electrical connectors, but I'd wager that they would be as expensive as the (quite elegant) solution of the coils. Certainly whenever I've specified hermetic micro d connectors for rf modules, they're very expensive indeed.

There is no way that you could have a mains plug directly on an electric toothbrush. Perhaps you could have a small petrol engine!!! It's got to be SELV. The low voltage contacts for something like the brush in a wet environment would have to be at least gold plated, and even then, there is no certainty of a good connection.

On the tailgate of my old car there was a contact plate for the numberplate lights, the foglights, and perhaps the wiper. That was equally crap. Again it's a wet environment. After a year the plungers wore the plating away, then the base conductor just corroded, and you had to use wire wool on the contacts, as often as you washed the car.

Contacts in wet/damp environments are a total nightmare. It's not a gimmmick IMO, although I don't know that I'd go as far as to call it a "Technology".

Time travel, genetics, semiconductors..... That's technology.

Edited by dilbert on Thursday 2nd October 04:40

[RDM]

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.
Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Big players = INTEL are into this stuff now.

[BigBen]

Pigeon said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

BigBen said:

pja said:

There was a thread on this a while back
& some no all on here recons it will be the next big thing with mobile phones

Might well be, although the company that was trying to introduce this (Splashpower) has gone bust as far as I know. Shame as it was a good technology that just needed one of the big players to adopt.

Ben (who may have been the no all [sic] last time)

Sorry Ben

I don't care, it might not have been me. It is a promising technology that has not taken off yet, simple reason being it is a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient than inserting a plug !

It's a bloody pointless gimmick is what it is, simple reason being that it is significantly more expensive and a lot less efficient than a plug. It is useful for applications like powering implants but for any domestic appliance it's just a waste of money, parts and energy which achieves no useful result.

Agree it would be a lot less efficient but since when did that stop something becoming a consumer success.

Disagree on the useful result, it would be rather nice if you could get home and put your iPod + phones etc on an area of worktop / sideboard and they would just charge up ready to be used the next time you needed them. Therefore the result is impoved convenience.

Ben

[Mars]

Two halves of a transformer in separate packages. Technology as old as the discovery of electricity being used in an intelligent manner.

[Parrot of Doom]

Its just induction. The technology has been in your homes for years, in the form of transformers.

[BigBen]

Parrot of Doom said:

Its just induction. The technology has been in your homes for years, in the form of transformers.

What those toy cars that can turn into robots ?

[furtive]

Aren't they technically robots that can turn into cars?