Power Saving Downloader Device
 

I was recently downloading something from the internet and I kept my computer running through the night so that I can complete the download. Like me, I think a lot of you guys download stuff regularly and most of the time your computer is running just for that download. So, I was thinking of some small device that has a few gigs(1 or 2) of storage and that can just run a downloader software. You could set up the downloads through your computer and then turn your computer off and start the download. Then when the download is complete, transfer the file(s) from the device to your computer. The main feature of such a device would be power saving. It can have some common ports(serial, usb, ethernet etc.) to connect to the internet. I think such a device can be built very cheaply like these popular MP3 players. And it can help save a lot of power. Power bills could be reduced and the costs recovered in a few months. So, what you guys think of this? May be it's a silly idea but that's what I think.;)


EDIT: It's my 400th post! \o/

Very interesting idea, but having a computer on all night probably wouldn't effect your power bill much.

Yea, I think the cost of everything would be too much to make it practical. I'd just suggest turning off your monitor and disabling your sound device / anything else that you don't need on when you're not there.

I don't think so. If the device is produced in bulk, it can be as cheap as an MP3 player.
Your harddisks, motherboard, processor etc. would still be running and consuming power. I think the power saving would be atleast 1:10 or even more.

I think it's a nice idea; however, I don't know how feasible it is as a commercial idea. If I really want a download to finish, I'll leave my computer on for a night. If it's not critical, I'll resume it the next morning. Usually leaving my desktop on at night means it's compiling lots of stuff (hurrah for running Gentoo), and the power savings would be nil anyways. Just my way of doing things though...

It's an interesting idea. But if I am downloading something,
I'm usually let my computer stay on a night.

I figure that the cost of a computer to run it for a full day is about $1.50 CDN or $1.20 US based on our power rates in Nova Scotia. So if this is eomthing you do on a regular basis you can make a savings of about $30 every month or two... I don't know about you guys but I consider this a substantial savings, especially throughout the entire year.

If you use a laptop however your device tends to be much lower power anyway, you probably wouldn't save more than a few cents.

You may want to look into the NSLU2. It's a device for sharing USB drives over a network, but because it uses Linux, you can flash the firmware and put on a more flexible distribution.

I use my modified NSLU2 for exactly the purpose you describe. It downloads large applications and saves them to a USB drive. It uses very little power, and is silent apart from the clicking of the USB hard drive. One could reduce power consumption and noise emissions further by using a thumb drive instead. In such a case, the system would be utterly silent and draw only the barest minimum of power, at the disadvantage of less storage space.

It's relatively cheap. £60 in the UK, $85 in the US. Not as cheap as a old PC off eBay, but it takes up less room, less power and makes less of a noise, so for the extra premium it's not bad. It's processor rates at around 133MHz (though if you don't mind messing with the hardware and voiding your warrenty, you can remove a limiter and push it up to 266MHz without incident), it has 32MB of RAM, two USB ports and one ethernet port. From experience, it runs Bittorrent and wget just fine.

Here's how you find out. Design your device. Don't pay yourself for the design, just work on spec. Bop down to Radio Shack and buy the components and put them together. Get it working. You'll find plenty of changes to make, no doubt. Once you have a breadboard working (which will be pretty much a rat's nest), design the prototype. Lay out the boards, design the case and all the internal structure, the cables, placement of devices (including the power source) for non-interference (electrical and physical). Refine all the drawings so that they are of professional quality (can be used by vendors, production, and test people). Locate a source (vendor or manufacturer) for each component, buy about 10 sets, and get quotes for the quantities you anticipate you'll produce in your first run. Devise and document manufacturing procedures that are efficient. Determine a realistic schedule for producing the first run and cost the resources (parts; production, test, and inspection people; administrative people; facility costs and other overhead, cost of sales, cost of inventory). Factor in whatever amount of additional monies you consider realistic for recovering from mistakes, late deliveries, re-engineering, stuff like that. Along the way, as the costs of a unit begin to surface with some solidity, make some tests using your device and an ordinary device. Calculate your savings and relate it to the period of time each customer will need to accumulate them in order to pay off the device. You're allowed to decide that if it's cute enough, people will buy if whether it's effective or not.

@Arevos: Wow! That's really cool. It'd look into it.

@Dawei: I just had the idea. I don't intend to realize it as I don't have any technical experience, commercial motivation or business sense to do it. Still, I'd like to see such a device. And Arevos just showed me the direction in case I want to have one.