Using mobile phone as an internet radio

In article
,
hr(bob) wrote:

He is right, the stresses involved in the turn-on of the bulb each
time is equal to several hours of continuous running. If you cycle a
bulb on and off every few seconds, the total on time before the bulb
fails will be only a few hundered hours for a 1000 hour rated bulb,

It would be a strange way to rate the life of a lamp - on constantly,
since this pretty well never happens.

Do you find the 'flasher' lamps on your car failing more quickly than
similar lamps which don't flash?

--
*A plateau is a high form of flattery*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , William Sommerwerck
scribeth thus
"Tom Biasi" wrote in message
...
On 10/2/2012 5:21 PM, jim stone wrote:

Not being able to find a small internet radio to buy we liked,
we got a mobile phone with which we link with WiFi to a modem
router, and use it as an internet radio.

Keeping the phoned plugged into its charger all the time, we are
using it to play *all-day* background classical music through an
amplifier and speakers.

Since the phone has no "moving parts" unlike a computer, we are
wondering if this continuous playing all day of the phone is going
to shorten its working life ?

Using anything shortens its working life.

Not so. There aren't any obvious failure mechanisms in solid-state devices
(other than dopant migration in high-power output transistors).

Yes interesting that especially in high power RF transistors, 'tho I
believe in such cases its paralled emitter connections that start going
open circuit...


It's also true that most mechanical devices "like" moderate use. Letting
anything mechanical "sit" most of the time will probably cause it fail
sooner than if receives regular use.

It's now possible to build computers without moving parts (other than the
optical drives). My new computer has a solid-state "hard disk", and you
wouldn't believe how fast it boots up, or how fast programs start to run.



Indeed they do just got one, not in this machine but very fast indeed.
They still it seems fail though...

--
Tony Sayer

Tom Biasi wrote:
Not so. With mechanical devices, regular moderate use provides a longer
useful lifetime than using the device only rarely.


I don't agree but will say no more.

Laser printers. I have given away for parts several laser printers because
they sat unused 99% of the time, and started to jam when I printed the
one or two pages a month I needed them for.

Not only did the rubber wheels dry out and lose their ability to grab paper,
they flatten where they are pressed against something.

I have a perfectly good Samsung laser printer in that condition now.

My choices are to once a week clean out a jam, and clean the feed roller;
print something everyday (a waste of paper); spend $15 for a new roller
(including postage) and an hour to install it; or wait for a sale
(every 2-3 months) and buy a newer faster, higher resolution model with a
2,000 page toner cartridge included for less than the cost of a full load toner.

Geoff.



--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
"Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician."
(sent to me by a friend)

"Tom Biasi" wrote in message
...
On 10/2/2012 5:21 PM, jim stone wrote:
Not being able to find a small internet radio to buy we liked, we got
mobile
phone with which we link with wi-fi to a modem router, and use it as an
internet radio.

Keeping the phoned plugged into its charger all the time, we are using it
to
play *all-day* background classical music through an amplifier and
speakers.

Since the phone has no 'moving parts' unlike a computer, we are wondering
if
this continuous playing all day of the phone is going to shorten its
working
life ?



Using anything shortens it's working life.

I can vouch for the remark made but I can give you more details too:

I use smartphones, tablets and laptops to listen to internet radio all the
time and I've only had one device that suffered because of that. What
happened to that particular device is the WiFi quit working and it doesn't
even work after a factory reset.

But out of all the other devices I've used they haven't demonstrated any
problems at all.

Rocky

Using anything shortens its working life.

I can vouch for the remark made but I can give you more details too:

I use smartphones, tablets and laptops to listen to internet radio all the
time and I've only had one device that suffered because of that. What
happened to that particular device is the WiFi quit working and it doesn't
even work after a factory reset.

Who knows why the WiFi quit? The radio could have failed simply because the
chip went bad.

HP has had problems with the radios in some of its notebooks.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
Using anything shortens its working life.

I can vouch for the remark made but I can give you more details too:

I use smartphones, tablets and laptops to listen to internet radio all
the
time and I've only had one device that suffered because of that. What
happened to that particular device is the WiFi quit working and it
doesn't
even work after a factory reset.

Who knows why the WiFi quit? The radio could have failed simply because
the
chip went bad.

HP has had problems with the radios in some of its notebooks.

Yes, I've heard that and I've even seen one person that no longer has WiFi
on their HP notebook but they claimed it was the switch itself that quit
working so I try not to use the hardware WiFi switch on an HP notebook.

Me, I've had a power plug fail on an HP ZD7000 notebook and that was common
for that particular notebook.

I've also had a DVD fail on an HP DV8000 notebook but when the second DVD
failed too I went back to the first DVD and it has been working fine since
then. I doubt if I'll ever figure that one out unless if it was a problem
with the connector.

Other than that, I've seen a lot of videos on youtube with problematic HPs
where if it isn't the WiFi that goes out it is the video. Case in point:

HP 's Worst Laptop Ever - Pavilion ZD8000 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stqQtQePcM&hd=1

Oddly enough I skipped getting the HP ZD8000 because I went from an HP
ZD7000 to the HP DV8000 where the ZD8000 looks more like the ZD7000 than the
DV8000.

FYI the only device I had that lost the WiFi was a Pharos Traveler 137 that
I got real cheap when a place was getting rid of them so I wasn't too upset
when the WiFi quit on that.
http://www.pharosgps.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=001_PTL137_8.00

But the video on certain Dell Laptops? Don't get me started.

Rocky

On 10/03/2012 05:12 AM, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
hr(bob) wrote:

He is right, the stresses involved in the turn-on of the bulb each
time is equal to several hours of continuous running. If you cycle a
bulb on and off every few seconds, the total on time before the bulb
fails will be only a few hundered hours for a 1000 hour rated bulb,

It would be a strange way to rate the life of a lamp - on constantly,
since this pretty well never happens.

Do you find the 'flasher' lamps on your car failing more quickly than
similar lamps which don't flash?


I don't know of any data that supports this common idea, but I'd be
interested in reading about it if anybody's actually done the experiment
carefully. Electromigration is a smaller effect in an AC bulb, since
the leading order effect cancels.

I suspect that the notion that cycling is hard on bulbs comes from the
way that the bulb often fails at turn-on, when the thinnest hot spot
vapourizes before the rest of the filament has a chance to come up to
temperature and reduce the inrush current.

The tungsten in the lamp is run within a few hundred kelvins of its
melting point, so it's always in the fully annealed state, which ought
to mean that there are no metal fatigue mechanisms operating, just
material migration due to sublimation.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

In article ,
Phil Hobbs wrote:
It would be a strange way to rate the life of a lamp - on constantly,
since this pretty well never happens.

Do you find the 'flasher' lamps on your car failing more quickly than
similar lamps which don't flash?


I don't know of any data that supports this common idea, but I'd be
interested in reading about it if anybody's actually done the experiment
carefully. Electromigration is a smaller effect in an AC bulb, since
the leading order effect cancels.

I suspect that the notion that cycling is hard on bulbs comes from the
way that the bulb often fails at turn-on, when the thinnest hot spot
vapourizes before the rest of the filament has a chance to come up to
temperature and reduce the inrush current.

Quite. Like you, I've never seen any data. But suspect 'normal' use of a
GLS lamp, ie on and off perhaps 4 times a day, may shorten its life by a
few hours. But the actual quality of manufacture makes far more
difference, with some of the shed own brands being the worst. I have GU10
units in the bathroom - not on for long periods and look pretty - so was
willing to put up with the energy consumption. There are six, and the
lamps which came with the fittings all failed very quickly. The
replacements, bought from TLC, have been fine.

The tungsten in the lamp is run within a few hundred kelvins of its
melting point, so it's always in the fully annealed state, which ought
to mean that there are no metal fatigue mechanisms operating, just
material migration due to sublimation.

How the lamp is mounted also makes a difference with 45 degrees seeming to
be the worst - and such fittings often having 'decorative' lamps which
have a shorter life than GLS. Vibration also seems a killer.

--
*I must always remember that I'm unique, just like everyone else. *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 2 Oct 2012 19:14:45 -0700 (PDT), "hr(bob) "
wrote:

If you cycle a
bulb on and off every few seconds, the total on time before the bulb
fails will be only a few hundered hours for a 1000 hour rated bulb,

Every wonder where the 1000 hrs came from?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
If you stress a 1000 hr incandescent bulb, the lifetime will be even
less.

It also applies to CFL bulbs:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/6122459/Lifespan-of-energy-saving-bulbs-reduced-by-repeated-switching.html
The lifespan of energy-saving light bulbs can be reduced
by up to 85 per cent if they are switched off and on too often...

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Wed, 3 Oct 2012 08:38:54 +0100, "Paul D Smith"
wrote:

"jim stone" wrote in message
...
Not being able to find a small internet radio to buy we liked, we got
mobile phone with which we link with wi-fi to a modem router, and use it
as an internet radio.

Keeping the phoned plugged into its charger all the time, we are using it
to play *all-day* background classical music through an amplifier and
speakers.

Since the phone has no 'moving parts' unlike a computer, we are wondering
if this continuous playing all day of the phone is going to shorten its
working life ?

You'll have dropped it well before it wears out :-).

You'll wear out the batteries before you drop it and you'll want the new
iThingy before the batteries die. Full employment for the phone company.

BTW, a cheap PC
speaker set might be handy if you want a little more volume. And you can
probably find a decent streaming client if you have your music sitting on a
PC somewhere.