Cooking With Your USB Ports

tekgoblin writes "Wow, I would never have thought to try and cook food with the power that a standard USB port provides, but someone did. A standard port provides 5V of power, give or take a little. I am not even sure what it takes to heat a small hotplate, but I am sure it is more than 5V. It looks like the guy tied together around 30 USB cables powered by his PC to power this small hotplate. But believe it or not, it seems to have cooked the meat perfectly."

Volt is not a measurement of power

[Albert Sandberg]

Watt is. The important is how much current he can get from supplied voltage. In any case why not just use the fucking stove.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear a lightbulb works just fine too.

Re:Volt is not a measurement of power

[History's Coming To]

Or even better, use a brazil nut. It was a favourite trick of ours in the Scouts - a single brazil nut contains enough oil (read calories/joules) to fry an egg and a couple of rashers of bacon.

Re:

[ehrichweiss]

That's not the only thing that causes the Brazil nuts to heat things up...

Brazil nuts are known to contain over 12,000 pico curies...

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose [wikimedia.org]

Re:

[ehrichweiss]

Thanks....forgot to follow up with that part.

Re:

[Valdrax]

How many calories does it take to extract and refine the oil into a burnable format?

Re:

[O('_')O_Bush]

The brazil nut already is in a burnable format, all you need is a match to ignite it.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/372823/burning_brazil_nut/

Re:

[Valdrax]

I did not know that. That is very cool. Thank you for sharing that.

Re:

[Restil]

An incandescent bulb will, indeed. The heat from a typical bulb is enough to match the temperature of a stove on a lower setting, so certainly enough to cook on. However, the typical bulb is 60 to 100 watts. The USB port puts out a max of 2.5 watts. That's an order of magnitude less than even a CFL bulb, and those barely even get warm.

Re:

[Beardo the Bearded]

Wait, a lightbulb emits enough heat to bake on? You could package that and sell it to kids as a child's oven.

All you require now is a name... simple-bake? Easy-bake?

Yeah, let's call it the Easy-bake oven. Let me just run a quick GS to see if anyone has thought of this before... ...

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

"provides around 5V of power"

I always knew Slashdot is full of uneducated freetards...

Re:

[Beardo the Bearded]

Thanks, AC, I was coming in here to say that, but not in so many words.

/EE

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

According to Wikipedia, 500mA per USB2.0 port.
15A * 5V = 75W

Re:

[Chris Mattern]

Not much to work with there--even the old Easy Bake Ovens used a 100 W bulb, although it probably wasn't that efficient.

Re:

[MaskedSlacker]

Umm...*sigh*

As your AC replier said with less gumption: do you even know how an incandescent bulb works? I mean, you do know that when a circuit is inefficient the wasted power is HEAT right? And, you must also know of course, that with an incandescent bulb all of the non-wasted power is...HEAT, right? What I'm trying to say is that an incandescent bulb is nearly 100% efficient (or nearly 100% inefficient, since all power is radiated as waste heat).

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Yep. But there will be no more 100w bulbs in a couple year.

Bullshit.
You've been listening to the news, but not thinking about it.
The manufacture (and import) of incandescent light bulbs has been banned in certain countries from last year, so retailers are selling off their inventory of incandescent light bulbs and switching to supplying non-incandescent light bulbs instead (CFLs, HIDs, W-Hal etc.). The reason for this is that these non-incandescents are much more efficient users of electricity for providing

Re:

[hitmark]

If it uses the recent battery charging spec, each port can allow 1.5A if there is little to no data traffic (and 1.8A if the data connectors at the female port is shorted with up to 200 ohm resistance).

Re:

[Barny]

Sir, you scare the living bajeezus out of me for knowing exactly how much juice you can drain from a USB port.

Never, and I mean NEVER come anywhere near the computer store where I work please!

Although at least you wouldn't be like the tool who run 3 unpowered USB hubs, plug in 3 ipods, a mobile phone and a USB powered toaster (who the FUCK though those were a good idea) and wondered why their computer doesn't work any more.

Re:

[hitmark]

Heh, i read wikipedia...

So your saying the hubs, ipods, phone and toaster where all plugged into the usb ports of the computer directly? As plugging them into the other stuff into the usb hub should result in nothing more then ignored devices if they asked for to much juice. At least if both the devices and the hubs where well behaved. I can't get 2.5 drive to spin up unless i plug it into the pc directly or a powered hub.

Re:

[Barny]

Are you using a single USB cable to run it or one of those split ones that lets it draw from 2 ports?

Because no matter which, plugging both connections or a single connection into an un-powered hub means your trying to suck 2-3A from a 1.5A source, a source that as you know has over-current protection ;)

If a single lead connector works on a PC but not the hub, likely the PCs motherboard is a little more tolerant of devices over-drawing (I know Gigabyte are now doing some motherboards that can pump quite a f

Re:

[hitmark]

Single cable, never even bothered trying with a Y-cable as that will by definition not work if the hub is un-powered.

And yes, it could be a case of the motherboard being a bit more tolerant. Hard to say without attaching a multimeter and perhaps running a protocol sniffer while attaching the drive to the hub, and then comparing that to attaching it to a motherboard port.

Still, the drive in question specifically came with a non-Y cable. So it should not require a tolerant port, unless QA at the company sucks

Re:

[adolf]

Wrong assumptions.

An unpowered hub is not just a ball of wirenuts -- there's logic in there that needs power, too.

So, imagine it if you will:

Assume that the drive wants 500mA to spin up, and works fine when plugged into a PC, or into a powered hub.

Now, put a non-powered hub in series with it. Assume that the powered hub itself wants 100mA just for itself.

And, voila! 600mA worth of current draw, from a port specified to only supply 500mA.

Now, since in practice USB is all over the map with regards to availa

Re:

[hitmark]

Points well made, and something i should have thought of myself. Not sure why it slipped my mind.

Re:

[Barny]

500mA was USB1.1

But of course the rule still applies, a hub is likely pre-programmed to split the juice evenly rather than use something likely more expensive and do it properly (dynamic allocation).

Bravo to Mr Adolf, good find sir :)

Re:

[Barny]

Most drives will eat a little more at spin-up, hence why I said it will need a bit more than the usual.

Also, you might want to check the power consumption of 3.5" drives (real ones, not the "green drives" or such), a lot of them will suck almost 2A of juice off the 12v rail at spin-up, meaning close to 24W of power just to get the ball rolling, drops to about 300mA after a second of course, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they need that much to work at all.

Re:

[Dthief]

1.5 * 1.6 = 2.4 dufus

Re:

[cheater512]

Nope. Only 100mA unless you handshake with the computer to request more which he probably didnt do.

Re:

[arth1]

Each powered USB hub supplies a maximum of 0.5 A. Using two or four USB cables against the same hub won't increase that.
The voltage in USB is a constant +5V.

So from each powered hub, you can get 0.5 A * 5 V = 2.5 W. Eight of those gives you 20 W, which should be enough to crisp bacon if you make the frying area small enough.

But hooking up multiple USB cables to each hub serves little purpose (well, you lower the overall resistance a tiny bit, and I guess HiFi freaks would say that it makes the bacon more

Re:

[mehrotra.akash]

isnt the current limited to 100mA per port if the device doesnt identify itself?

Re:

[Vectormatic]

per USB spec yes, but there are plenty of hubs/ports which supply the full 500mA regardless

honestly though, this hack is pointless, you might as well get a cheap ass 350w computer PSU, hook up the 12v to a hotplate and hotwire the thing, much easier

Re:

[kbielefe]

You're right. That's much less pointless than just plugging the hotplate into the outlet the PSU is plugged into.

Re:

[JWSmythe]

    Why go through the conversion losses at all? Just plug a hotplate into the wall.

  Every conversion has losses. That's why the power supply has heat sinks inside, and usually a fan. It's also why wall warts get warm.

Re:

[hitmark]

With the recent interest in using USB as a universal charger port, there is also a added spec for 2.0 and later that allows upto 1.5A if there is little to no traffic on the port in question.

Re:

[pem]

It's not the "plug" that says that; it's the device.

The device is allowed to draw up to 100 mA, then must negotiate for more.

Re:

[FlyByPC]

You could, of course, build such a USB "device" into the cable, if you're just interested in getting higher 5VDC current out. A small MCU in the cable does the negotiation for you, and a few ms later, instant current...

Re:

[arth1]

In this case, the plug is the device. The sole function of the "device", i.e. a chip embedded in the plug, is to tell the USB controller "Hi, I'm a USB 2.0 device with ID XXXX, and I am a high power device, i.e. need as many units as you can give".

This lets the powered device use more than 100 mA, up to the max of 500 mA per powered hub if nothing else is on the same powered hub.

And yes, these USB chargers or desktop toys show up if you do an "lsusb" (or Device Manager in Windows). But all that's special

Re:

[marcansoft]

None of those "plugs" actually say that, and none of them actually meet the USB spec. They just happen to work... most of the time.

Re:

[hitmark]

Err, no. If the hub is powered, it should be capable of delivering .5A to each port.

If not, then the dual plug cables we see for some external drives would be useless.

Re:

[Russ1642]

You have to climb a flight of stairs to get to the kitchen.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Watt is. The important is how much current he can get from supplied voltage. In any case why not just use the fucking stove.

HA! Bitter much?

I'm sure he was not looking for the simplest way to cook, but just for something new and fun. Looks like he got both. I say mad props to him.

Re:

[Mr2cents]

I'm all in favor of public hangings for adults who can't get their units straight. It would have saved at least one innocent space probe.

If you're wondering whether I'm sarcastic: I'm not sure...

Re:

[hjf]

USB supplies 100mA 5V, and after negotiation from the USB device and host, and if the host has available power, it can send up to 500mA (in some hosts, like Gigabyte 3x boards this is over 1A). This depends on the controller and drivers - some controllers just send 500mA if available, while others are more zealous and will cut the power if it's over 100mA.

Assuming it's all standard, this guy is getting 30 ports x 100mA => 3A. 3A x 5V = 15W. or if the host is supplying 500mA per port, 75W. I'd like to kno

Re:

[ngg]

(Physicist here) That's correct, though in practice most powered hubs will let you take 500 mA per port without negotiation, and the newer ones that support the USB 2.0 charging spec will let you take even more (~1.8A if you touch the data lines just right). The voltage is also allowed to sag, IIRC, 5% and still be in spec, so assume 4.75 V. That gives a power of 4.75 V * 1.8 A = 8.5 W per port. Times 30, and you could have around 250 W of cooking power. Some of the cheaper hubs (which don't follow the

Re:Volt is not a measurement of power

[mayberry42]

...In any case why not just use the fucking stove.

Because some people enjoy the challenge of creating something fun, new, original and, yes, pointless.

Re:

[Animaether]

Because some people enjoy the challenge of creating something fun, new, original and, yes, pointless.

...I'm sure it was fun and pointless, but as fo for the new and original...

http://www.stylehive.com/bookmark/thinkgeek-usb-mug-warmer-hub-59352 [stylehive.com]

That's like saying 5 blades is "new, original" compared to 4 blades.

Re:

[IICV]

But this isn't pointless-cool, this is pointless-stupid. It would be cool if, say, he'd run power from, say, the PSU's 12v rail - you could actually hook that up, and maybe do a neat little case mod to expose the plug to the outside world. 30 USB ports, though? Where are you going to get 30 USB ports from? And plugging them all in has got to be a pain in the ass.

Re:

[GF678]

Because some people enjoy the challenge of creating something fun, new, original and, yes, pointless.

I think there are enough opportunities out there for people to enjoy the challenge of creating something fun, new, original and USEFUL. We have tons of pointless crap done every day that gets attention. I like reading about useful developments more, if they came from a challenge.

Re:

[sirlatrom]

Because the fucking stove is for fucking?

Re:

[arielCo]

In any case why not just use the fucking stove.

Better yet, use the regular one [xkcd.com].

Re:why not just use the fucking stove

[bsharma]

That is what I feel every time someone talks about climbing Everest. Why not develop a high altitude Everest class helicopter. Then someone can even setup a penthouse on Everest and arrange tourists to visit ( like the Russians are doing with that "Most Expensive Motel" AKA International Space Station)

Re:

[hitmark]

Iirc, there is not enough air density that high up for a copter to work.

Re:

[CarpetShark]

"In any case why not just use the fucking stove."

The fucking stove is for fucking, not cooking. Eww.

Re:

[Ceriel Nosforit]

In any case why not just use the fucking stove.

You must be new here.

Re:

[b4upoo]

In a well insulated, very small, oven with a very,very long cooking time it is possible to cook almost anything.

Re:

[Kagetsuki]

Assuming standard USB ports: 5V * (500mA * 30 cables) = 5V * 15000mA = 5V * 15A = 75W. 75W could very easily heat up nichrome or similar materials enough to cook meat (ever used a hot wire cutter? the ones for Styrofoam run on single 1.5V cells! nichrome!).

Re:

[MichaelSmith]

Wot?

Re:

[tverbeek]

Does he have an electrical outlet at his desk? I hear they make cooking devices that use those.

There's nothing wrong with a pointless but look-what-I-did hardware hack. So there's no need to rationalize it.

Re:

[Surt]

Quantum watts, then?

Volts are not a measure of power

[Scareduck]

Volts measure electromotive force, not power. Watts measure power. I would think nerds would know this.

Re:

[Sponge Bath]

I wonder how many parsecs it takes to cook a whole turkey with this.

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

I wonder how many parsecs it takes to cook a whole turkey with this.

Only point five past lightspeed.

Re:

[FlyByPC]

Twelve, at least if you're making the Kessel run...

Re:

[marcansoft]

If you short the port, the internal circuitry turns off the power.

Unless you're using a powered no-name chinese hub (or many brand name ones that are just rebranded chinese hubs). In that case, the chance of the hub having current limiting capability is virtually 0. Results vary from the adapter handling it, through it crapping out, physically melting or catching on fire, to it shorting out to mains and taking your motherboard with it.

Be very afraid of powered chinese hubs. I've yet to find one that even h

Best Slashdot story evar!

[newdsfornerds]

Where's my USB toaster?!?!

Re:

[baegucb]

except that was a well known hoax http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/pc-toaster-bay-dupes-bloggers-20080827/ [geek.com]

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the ALL TIME stupidest use for a computer i have ever seen and the most useless Slashdot article as well

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

This is the ALL TIME stupidest use for a computer i have ever seen and the most useless Slashdot article as well

Definitely some kind of record.

Re:WTF?

[SpeZek]

You must be new here.

Re:

[Ogi_UnixNut]

Indeed! Especially as this is a dupe. I remember seeing this on Slashdot a couple of years ago. It seemed a stupid idea then, and guess what, it seems to be a stupid idea now.

I don't feel like this has much hack value really. Stringing $number of USB ports in parallel isn't particularly hard, it's not a particularly elegant solution (which is one of the things I put down as being key to calling something a "hack"), and it doesn't solve a problem in an smart way. I don't know if it was fun to do (because th

Re:

[Ogi_UnixNut]

Wire it up to a 5V line on the PSU? (or 12V line, if device supports it, but assuming it's USB-like, than 5V is enough).

It will heat a hell of a lot faster than this, and be easier to make, while being easier to move around (you can even add a custom port just for your PC-kettle).

Re:

[Phoobarnvaz]

This is the ALL TIME stupidest use for a computer i have ever seen and the most useless Slashdot article as well

With the time it took him to cook the meal...how many porn segments did he watch?

what next?

[slick7]

The secret ingredient on Iron Chef...Kobe Beef and 5 USB ports.

5 volts of power?

[Sam H]

I heard USB power was actually OVER 9000!!!

In the words of Dr Ian Malcom

[netsavior]

"your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

well done OP, a superb fail

[wjh31]

not only has the gizmodo article disappeared at time of post, but there is no link to the original blog post (http://xe.bz/aho/24/) which is date-stamped for 2006. This is 4 years old!

why?

[roman_mir]

one word to describe this story from me: why?

Re:

[tverbeek]

two words: why not?

Re:

[roman_mir]

why not? Because it is really stupid? Because preparing food this way is stupid? Because it's stupid in a number of ways? Because there is nothing interesting in it?

I'd be more amused by seeing some sort of a smart stove device, maybe solar powered or some way that actually is useful, this was useless and stupid.

Re:

[zippthorne]

Yeah, but it would've been a lot cooler to make a USB controlled hotplate. Then you could combine that with a temperature probe and maybe write some MATLAB scripts to cook a perfect burger every time.

You're not going to ever get cookingly useful power from a USB port: either there's a plug nearby, in which case you don't need a fantastic array of USB ports, or there's no power nearby, in which case you're talking about using a laptop, or array of laptops, and using up their precious battery capacities for

Re:

[zippthorne]

I dunno, it not only doesn't have any utility, but it was kind of stupid, too. It's the kind of electronics project an art student would get involved in:

It's got all the signs of the magical thinking that leads to the belief that a chain of megaphones could shatter windows miles away.

Here on slashdot, we applaud people hacking stuff to scratch an itch, no matter how stupid the itch itself is. I just can't see the itch behind this project.

Re:

[roman_mir]

I was very sincere, but have you ever heard of a 'rhetorical question' before? That's right, not every 'why' means the same thing.

Mine 'why' was in the 'why oh why' category, I don't need an explanation on why people hack, but this was not useful even in a 'curiosity strikes' sort of way.

haha, "techgoblin" submitter.

[Kaz Kylheku]

Was too busy texting his buddies when his highschool teacher was explaining Ohm's law, etc.

"This device can perform faster ...

[Kaz Kylheku]

if you buy a new motherboard. Because you fried it with your cooking stunt. [OK] [Cancel]''

Ladies and gentlemen...

[choongiri]

For the comfort and safety of all passengers, if you are unsure as to whether or not a specific device or periferal is approved for use during the flight, please check with your flight attendant before using it.

5V of power

[Anonymous Coward]

Volts are not a measurement of power, I am amazed at the number of people who don't understand this.

What kind of a world do we live in...

[Twinbee]

So we have an article on Slashdot about someone used 30 USB ports to cook some bacon?

Wow. Have we stooped to a new low?

What does this article tell me? I'll tell you what it tells me; USB is woefully underpowered. I won't stop campaigning until it takes only one USB port to do the same. If I want to have a bacon sandwich from my laptop without moving from the comfort of my easy chair, then it would take an electrocution from the flying spaghetti monster to stop me.

Works for telco landlines, too

[e9th]

For those who still have landline phones, Mike Sandman, purveyor of genuinely indispensable old-school telephony gear, has some telco line powered goodies. [sandman.com]

Don't even try to order any of them, though.

I knew slashdot was slow....

[ninjackn]

but I didn't expect a story from over 4 years ago. For those of you who can read japanese the original blog post is here [xe.bz].

If you feel like doing this...

[FauxReal]

Don't forget your Thanko 80 port USB hub [akihabaranews.com].

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

Actually USB ports can provide up to 500mA. So yeah assuming that was the case, 2.5W / usb port. So the guy built himself a 75W heating plate.

It would have been easier to tap off one the power supply lines. But then, I suppose, he wouldn't have ended up on Slashdot.

Re:

[mikehoskins]

Without even looking into this, I can guarantee that the 75W hotplate is -
    a.) cheaper
    b.) safer to your computer
    c.) more efficient from plug to heat

Re:

[tverbeek]

Firewire would have worked, but there's the risk of charring, and it tends to set off the building's sprinkler system.

Re:Overly elaborate setup

[ari_j]

Many people desperately want to do the "hard hacks" that would earn them geek cred. They want to be the guy who builds a 5,000rpm pneumatic Lego engine or who converts a Roomba into an automatic dog-walker. The problem is that most of them are stupid and uncreative, so you end up with "hacks" like cooking bacon with power from USB ports.

Re:

[GiveBenADollar]

Cooking bacon with USB is equally as hard/creative as a Roomba dog walker. In fact it's only a couple steps below perpetual motion or "I solved unified field theory" again. If you want something impressive it has to both require time and skill, while at the same time providing pretty pictures that let us drool about. The Moller flying car for example. Otherwise you might as well create USB powered desktop cold fusion with a boring glass of water that may release a buble every few minutes. -Sorry, NyQuil ind

Re:

[pregister]

Did you know: "gullable" isn't in the dictionary.

One to grow on.

Hover shoes!

[reg106]

No. Everything on youtube is true. Especially hover shoes [youtube.com].

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Back in my day during college when we need to warm up the dorm room, we just threw another ray trace at the Pentium. We also had to walk uphill both ways to reach the keyboards though.

Re:

[llamapater]

your dorm was a mobius strip too?

Re:

[Amorymeltzer]

It's definitely been done. It's hot but small, so it lends itself to frying an egg or something, but definitely doable. On the other hand, I saw a George Foreman turned into a webserver once.

Re:

[tinkerghost]

If you look at the picture, you can see 6 PCI cards in the box with cables coming off of them. So 6X4=24 + 6 on the MB would be 30. Not a huge leap to accept that there might actually be that many ports on a PC build specifically for this stunt.