How to Keep Your Tech Charged?

[unseenmage]

So, you're transported to a D&D 3.x and/or PF fantasy-verse... With everything on you at the time.

How do you keep your laptop and/or cell phone charged?

Calculator, spreadsheets, webcam, family photos, etc. Our digital devices are more than just phones.

[Temotei]

No point if there's no service. :smallamused:

[flappeercraft]

If I get to eventually get the power of a character I have, wish spamming.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Hmm. Presumably, prestidigitation can create some potential difference between two points, being so open-ended, but the energy output is uncertain. It can definitely warm one pound of material. If that pound is water-like, that means ~1900 joules per degree warmed, which could actually get a decent wattage: assuming you can warm one pound by one kelvin per round (pound*kelvin/round is a stupid unit, by the way), it's ~315 watts. Even a quarter of that would be enough to supply a laptop.

Of course, prestidigiation can also "slowly lift" one pound of stuff, which is much less than 300 watts: a 1 m/s one-pound lift would be about 4.4 watts in Earth gravity. Heating water just takes a ton of energy.


N.B. My physics knowledge is patchy and rusty and was never really good to begin with. I think I may have made a mistake concerning the work/energy difference in the lifting, but whatever.

[InvisibleBison]

Wish can create a nonmagical item of up to 25,000 gp in value. 25,000 gp is 500 pounds of gold, which is worth about $12 million dollars. Quick googling shows that in-home power generators are generally in the range of hundreds to thousands of dollars - easily below the price cap for wish.

[CIDE]

As already pointed out I'd have no point in actually keeping any of it charged. Stuff it in a bag of holding for safe keeping and have fun with magic. Without the internet, signal, etc most of those are just very expensive calculators unless you had a bunch of gaming stuff. At which point I'd ask you WTF you're doing since you're in a d&D setting. Go have fun yourself.

The only other alternative I can think of is if the electronics could also be utilized as a wizard's spellbook, scrolls, or other magic storing item as indicated in D20 Modern.

[Malroth]

I'm sure the Stainless steel Katana I have 2 feet away would be more useful than the graphics tablet i use for a mouse or the wireless keyboard i use to type. besides that i'd be there with an old beat up chair, half a glass of water and my pills which i wouldn't actually need in a world where purify food and drink was a cantrip.

[Gildedragon]

Well a lot of the functions of the cellphone kinda just don't work anymore.

So my trusty solar powered calculator will have to do.
That and having to work on my penmanship

[venturer]

You could try making a voltaic pile, using discs of zinc and copper

[Elkad]

Make a small dynamo and turn the handle.
Use a solar panel.
Build more batteries (2 dissimilar metals and an acid. You can even use seawater instead of the acid in a pinch)

[Necroticplague]

I have a hand cranked flashlight, some spare outlets, and a basic circuits kit. From this, I can cobble together a crude hand manual generator. A collar of perpetual servitude or a Huant Shirt bound to it can provide the physical force in perpetuity.

[King of Nowhere]

I hope I can make a battery with what I can buy from an alchemist. I am quite ashamed at admitting it, since I have a phd in chemistry, but I'm not sure I could make a battery; I specialized in organich chemistry, meaning all my training is pointless without a million worth in spectrometers.

Anyway, once I can make a battery, I can use my pc to run complex calculations and get paid for it. hmmm.... who would need complex calculation? I doubt I could get enough money to keep buying the alchemicals needed. I'm just better off trying to recycle my high int by becoming a wiizard.



As already pointed out I'd have no point in actually keeping any of it charged. Stuff it in a bag of holding for safe keeping and have fun with magic. Without the internet, signal, etc most of those are just very expensive calculators unless you had a bunch of gaming stuff. At which point I'd ask you WTF you're doing since you're in a d&D setting. Go have fun yourself.



Unless you are a pc and there is a benevolent DM watching on you, that kind of "fun" is most likely to see you dead. What you do with your computer, on the other hand, don't.

[Random Sanity]

As already pointed out I'd have no point in actually keeping any of it charged. Stuff it in a bag of holding for safe keeping and have fun with magic. Without the internet, signal, etc most of those are just very expensive calculators unless you had a bunch of gaming stuff. At which point I'd ask you WTF you're doing since you're in a d&D setting. Go have fun yourself.


Adventurers need to unwind too.

[tomandtish]

As already pointed out I'd have no point in actually keeping any of it charged. Stuff it in a bag of holding for safe keeping and have fun with magic. Without the internet, signal, etc most of those are just very expensive calculators unless you had a bunch of gaming stuff. At which point I'd ask you WTF you're doing since you're in a d&D setting. Go have fun yourself.

The only other alternative I can think of is if the electronics could also be utilized as a wizard's spellbook, scrolls, or other magic storing item as indicated in D20 Modern.

I could see a lot of potential use for the camera/video functions, so keeping the phone charged might be useful.

Need a mage to teleport us back to place X? No need to rely on a verbal description. Here's a picture or two.

Here's a video of one king's message to another. No worry about paper. You have the actual words. Yes, I know mages can handle this stuff, but nothing in the OP said WE get any abilities, so make the most of what we have.

Could you use an actual audio recording of a voice to trigger a spell/item? Worth researching.

And if nothing else, when/IF you get back here, you're gonna want those pictures!

(Here's us running from the dragon. Here's us running from the beholder. Here's us running from a ticked off goblin).

[Elkad]

If you have more than one, it's a communications network over ad-hoc wifi. Including the risky act of leaving one behind as a spy camera. Or hanging it around your familiar's neck.
Yes, it's short-range.

Camera means you can copy books nearly instantly.

It's also a compass, barometer, thermometer, accelerometer, hall-effect sensor, low-light vision device, flashlight, motion-detecting alarm, sound recorder, alarm clock, blank book of nearly-unlimited pages for writing or drawing, and a million other things.
The entirety of english wikipedia fits on a cheap SD card, and there is no reason you can't have dozens of SD cards with many thousands of books.

You'd want to harden the device as soon as possible. Enchant it, glassteel it, etc.



Assuming I'm dressed, I'd have my phone (yes, with wikipedia on the SD card - it's a couple years out of date, but I don't care if current events aren't up to snuff), 2 small masterwork knives, and a 9mm Hi-power with 46 rounds, plus random other pocket fodder - pens, a screwdriver, useless wallet, keys, thumbdrives, etc. The light in the thumb drive will serve as a passable voltage and polarity tester for whatever battery I make, just judging by brightness.

It gets far better from there, with access to my car or my house. I'd have damn near everything, including firepower. The bug-out-bag in my car is well-stocked, other than water (just a couple quarts), including a rifle and ammo, hatchet, machete, steel-shod hickory staff, binoculars, spare phone battery, and rechargeable lights (same voltage as my phone - and I have the adapter to charge my phone with them), plus a small solar panel. Oh, and some high-quality useless green paper, and a half-pound of 90% silver in small denominations.

Then I start stripping out other things. Network cable & equipment, more electronics (laptop, chromebook, tablet, another phone), tools (mechanical and electronic), better wet/cold weather gear, boots, more gloves, etc.

Given my car and 20 minutes, I'd have the battery, alternator and chargers (including an AC inverter). Now I can charge anything, indefinitely, with some work, or run for days on the car battery alone. Of course that tips me over a weight limit, which means dragging it behind me on a stupid folding hand truck.

[Goaty14]

Assuming voltage isn't a problem, why can't I just cast Thunderhead (SpC) on my other end of the charger?

[Necroticplague]

Assuming voltage isn't a problem, why can't I just cast Thunderhead (SpC) on my other end of the charger?

1.There's no guarantee that magical electricity works on the same principle as mundane electricity, so it's questionable whether something like this can work.
2. Voltage is a problem: too much, and you'll start frying things.
3. Thunderhead is just little spikes of electricity every so often, which isn't very good for charging (where you want a continuous flow)

[rel]

craft check, gp and time.

[EldritchWeaver]

2. Voltage is a problem: too much, and you'll start frying things.

How do you know, how much voltage and amperes you need in the first place?

[Coidzor]

In PF, this spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/recharge/) exists, but is kind of completely rubbish.

So you'd need to be a high enough level spellcaster to research a higher level version that wasn't ****. The available means for divining how many charges a given device or type of battery can hold are also rubbish or simply non-existent.

[Necroticplague]

How do you know, how much voltage and amperes you need in the first place?

1. For devices with adapters (like my Iphone) the adapter will tell you both the range of the acceptable inputs for the adapter (my iphone adapter says Input: 100-240V-50/60Hz 0.15A), as well as the output of the adapter, which is the normal acceptable input of the device (again for my Iphone, it has Output: 5V 1A written on it)
2. For devices without adapters, then you know the voltage it uses based on what it plugs into. If it plugs into USB port, it accepts 5 volts; If it plugs into a wall, it takes 120 volts.

[EldritchWeaver]

1. For devices with adapters (like my Iphone) the adapter will tell you both the range of the acceptable inputs for the adapter (my iphone adapter says Input: 100-240V-50/60Hz 0.15A), as well as the output of the adapter, which is the normal acceptable input of the device (again for my Iphone, it has Output: 5V 1A written on it)
2. For devices without adapters, then you know the voltage it uses based on what it plugs into. If it plugs into USB port, it accepts 5 volts; If it plugs into a wall, it takes 120 volts.

In Europe, the voltage is 230. Which effectively means, that you either have to happen a note on the device or to remember various possibilities. How do know if you have neither? Is it possible at all?

[ExLibrisMortis]

In Europe, the voltage is 230. Which effectively means, that you either have to happen a note on the device or to remember various possibilities. How do know if you have neither? Is it possible at all?
It's 220-240 in most places, but it should be easy to remember what your local voltage is. Unless you bought a device on holiday in a country you do not know with a transformer without specifications?

[Necroticplague]

In Europe, the voltage is 230. Which effectively means, that you either have to happen a note on the device or to remember various possibilities. How do know if you have neither? Is it possible at all?
What do you mean 'if you have neither'? If it doesn't use a standard voltage, it'll have an adapter (essentially,a tiny transformer) with labels on it.
If it does use a standard voltage, than you only need to remember the standard. For most people, only two standards are relevant: whatever their outlets are, and USB, since basically everything runs off one of the two. Both are facts one should know.

[EldritchWeaver]

What do you mean 'if you have neither'?

The OP stated you get transported to a D&D world without any electricity. Which raised the question how one can charge the device. Some people assumed that you know which voltage a device needs, but this isn't necessarily true. Or how a volt might be defined can differ.

So if you have to start from the beginning, how do you prevent it frying?

[Crake]

No point if there's no service. :smallamused:

Let's be honest, if you've been magically transported into a dnd world, then you're literally just a plane shift away from going back to earth. Using a wish to create an interdimensional service tower that can hook into earth's internet isn't unfeasable.

[Necroticplague]

Some people assumed that you know which voltage a device needs, but this isn't necessarily true.
Why wouldn't it be true? It's either given, or one of two values (which one of the two it is being obvious). And for most pocket-devices, assuming 5v is a pretty good bet (since it seems everything's shifting towards being USB-compatible).

Or how a volt might be defined can differ.
....Again, you're not making much sense. A 'volt' isn't an arbitrary measurement. It's however much potential difference creates one amp current over a one amp resistor.

So if you have to start from the beginning, how do you prevent it frying?
Define 'from the beginning'. My own previously listed plan to make a generator out of a hand-cranked flashlight/radio would be unlikely to produce voltages large enough for frying anything to be a problem. Based on similar batteried devices, I expect output in the 3-5 volt range, low enough that my devices should be safe.

[flappeercraft]

Let's be honest, if you've been magically transported into a dnd world, then you're literally just a plane shift away from going back to earth. Using a wish to create an interdimensional service tower that can hook into earth's internet isn't unfeasable.

At that point you don't even need that, why have the internet when you can be Pun Pun

[Vizzerdrix]

Why bother keeping it charged? Im just gonna crack them open and use their insides to help tame the first rust monster I find, or see if I cant get to sigil and sell them.

[Coidzor]

At that point you don't even need that, why have the internet when you can be Pun Pun

Because what good is being capable of punching people through the internet if you never exercise that capability? :smallamused:

[RedMage125]

1) Wish for a functioning multimeter with infinite battery life.
2) Build a generator with waterwheels, magnets and copper wire.
3) Use the meter to fine-tune it to the requisite 110 VAC
4) Build an outlet, connect to the generator.
5) Charge my stuff.

I'm an electrician