The uBeam FAQ

[mikeselectricstuff]

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/09/wireless-at-distance-charging-may-be.html

It will all be about the efficiency.
The world does not need a 10% efficient charger in every home, and indeed some regulation in some countries may prevent it's sale.
I'd be impressed if they got say 20% at 30cm at any orientation.

The efficiency whilst running isn't that important as it will only be running for a small proportion of the time.
It would be easy for it to turn off when no devices are present by periodically sending a short pulse to see if anything is within range. There could also be some intelligence in the receiver units to decide if they need to supply power, so it isn't idling when devices are not drawing power.
 

[Fungus]

The efficiency whilst running isn't that important as it will only be running for a small proportion of the time.

Of course it's important.

You're throwing away 90%+ of the power every time you charge something. Are we supposed to build new power stations just so everybody can use this technology?

[PaulReynolds]

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/09/wireless-at-distance-charging-may-be.html

It will all be about the efficiency.
The world does not need a 10% efficient charger in every home, and indeed some regulation in some countries may prevent it's sale.
I'd be impressed if they got say 20% at 30cm at any orientation.

It should be all about the efficiency, but we do have an economic system that sometimes rewards inefficiency. Reading my blog post this morning, I realized that to a lay person I hadn't highlighted that efficiency concern enough, and so added a section to the end of the article. Based on what I see in the paper they have, and using 60% as the baseline Qi efficiency, I get worst case 10%, best 60% (duh), and estimate 20 to 25% efficient in most applications. This would mean around a couple billion $ in new power stations and a million $ a day burned as heat. Not that green.

[Howardlong]

How is the "beam-forming" working with the magnetic field? Sure, it's reasonably easy to null out parts, but beam-forming sounds like it's streching it to me considering the form factor. The picutires I saw seem to have two coils which could manipulate the field to some degree, but it'd be more like punching a pillow than beam-forming.

[PaulReynolds]

How is the "beam-forming" working with the magnetic field? Sure, it's reasonably easy to null out parts, but beam-forming sounds like it's streching it to me considering the form factor. The picutires I saw seem to have two coils which could manipulate the field to some degree, but it'd be more like punching a pillow than beam-forming.

"Beam forming" may be a little strong a term. Maybe "beam shaping"? "Nudging"?

[PaulReynolds]

Looks like the Santa Monica office of uBeam is being advertised as available for lease from January 2018. No idea if they've been funded or if the money is running out.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/20498218/2210-Main-St-Santa-Monica-CA/

Some thoughts in my blog.

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/09/ubeam-funded-or-on-fumes.html

[StillTrying]

I think it's Game Over for uBeamdoggle meself. 

[daqq]

So, what would be the main morale of the story?

Do not ignore the 'nitpickers'?
If you have an awesome product idea that has just a teensy-weensy flaw that you can't get around, you have a problem, not a revolutionary product?
Faith and marketing alone is not enough to get over physics, economics, math and other sciences?
Essentially calling engineers and experts the oompa loompas of visionaries does not attract the best people?
Being an asshole is not the same as good leadership?

Or maybe the sad morale (or rather immorale) of the story is different:

No matter what kind of bullshit you try to sell, given good confident presentation, enough arrogance, marketing and hype, there will be people just lining up to throw money at you.

[EEVblog]

Looks like the Santa Monica office of uBeam is being advertised as available for lease from January 2018. No idea if they've been funded or if the money is running out.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/20498218/2210-Main-St-Santa-Monica-CA/

Some thoughts in my blog.

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/09/ubeam-funded-or-on-fumes.html

Don't they have another silicon valley office? Maybe they are consolidating there?

[PaulReynolds]

I think it's Game Over for uBeamdoggle meself. 

Don't underestimate the power of belief, hope, and bamboozlement, plenty of companies keep getting funded long after you would think the plug gets pulled. Some companies are like some senior employees who seem to be able to fail upwards.

Despite what we all think here, there's still a real chance there's funding coming for them. As mentioned, it'll be clear by early next year which it is.

[PaulReynolds]

Looks like the Santa Monica office of uBeam is being advertised as available for lease from January 2018. No idea if they've been funded or if the money is running out.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/20498218/2210-Main-St-Santa-Monica-CA/

Some thoughts in my blog.

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/09/ubeam-funded-or-on-fumes.html

Don't they have another silicon valley office? Maybe they are consolidating there?

I don't believe there was an official announcement but they look to have closed that office, around a year after opening it. From what I could see publicly it was 8500 sqft and had 3 employees in it. None of the employees from that location are with the company anymore, as far as I can see on LinkedIn.

Rumours is - a few months after joining all employees there were given the choice of moving to Santa Monica or being let go, and they all chose to leave this most awesome of companies of the verge of world altering technology and vast wealth in the form of the shares they'd have if they stayed the standard 12 months.

So - no. (IMO)

[VNFTW]

There's another new kid on the block:

https://www.wi-charge.com/

It charges using focused infra-red light.



Product Features

*  Automatic – the transmitter finds the devices and powers them without intervention
* Safe – complies with international standards and regulations
* Power delivery over distance – room, hall, or long-distance, per application
* Wide field of view – single transmitter can cover a room of 250 square feet
* High power – unlike “power harvesting” solutions, a Wi-Charge transmitter can deliver watts of electrical power
* Power is constant over distance – no power dissipation and 100% link efficiency
* Multiple devices can be charged simultaneously
* Scalable – additional transmitters can be placed to increase coverage, power and number of receivers
* Smart power delivery according to receiving-device parameters
* EMI-free

Looks like some sort if infra-red laser beam. If they can keep it from melting your phone and/or blinding everybody in the room then it sounds like it could possibly work. Meredith should be afraid.

(assuming they can persuade all the phone makers to sign up)

The next 2 leaps in battery technology will put an end to all this crap.  Once your cell phone charge will last 4-5 days under constant use, or for a month at a time under light use, who is going to bother with wireless charging.
And believe me, much bigger $$$ is involved in making Lithium Nitrogen and Lithium Oxygen batteries a reality...

Lithium nitrogen?  That seems...energetically unfavorable.  (Same with any other nitrogen chemistry that has N2 as a reactant)

[PaulReynolds]

Confirmed, uBeam leased the space for a second office in the bay area in Q1 2016 at the latest, at 1741 Technology Drive, San Jose, CA. 8425 sqft. You can see it in the last page here:

http://www.colliersparrish.com/newsletters/sjc.all.news.Q1-16.pdf

This notes the space (Suite 260) as available from Feb 2017, likely at the end of 1 year.  As far as I know the staff were all gone from it a month or two prior. It's listed as a sublease, and was last updated about a month ago. If that's uBeam's lease they are trying to sublease, that's 9 months of probably $4 to $5 per sqft per month, so $40k per month, so $360k, to have an empty office, if that's the case.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/20199794/1741-Technology-Dr-San-Jose-CA/

The last photo here shows the three members of staff that must have rattled around in that office. I don't think any of them are left.

https://medium.com/@meredithperry/former-hp-and-tektronix-engineering-executive-larry-pendergrass-joins-ubeam-b08597f45a24

[PaulReynolds]

Don't they have another silicon valley office? Maybe they are consolidating there?

I'm going to revisit  my statement that they won't be consolidating in San Jose. I said that thinking they had already subleased that office. If, however, they are stuck in a lease there and are failing to sublease it at ~$40k a month, and the lease in Santa Monica is coming up for renewal, it may make sense to move north. In which case they'd be reopening the office less than a year after closing it (which was less than a year after opening it) and laying off all the staff. Should this be the plan, I wouldn't be surprised if the employees in SM are given a "move or you're out of a job" choice.

[StillTrying]

There doesn't seem to have been much development over the last 3 months.
Does that prototype look like it's $20m worth.

https://twitter.com/KatieS/status/917505034857992193

[djos]

There doesn't seem to have been much development over the last 3 months.
Does that prototype look like it's $20m worth.

https://twitter.com/KatieS/status/917505034857992193

I guess that's what happens when you think that Physics dont apply to your product.

[StillTrying]

They're leaving it a bit late to get these things on the shelves by Xmas, - again. 

Mechanical Engineer
Engineering Assistant
Principal System Architect, Engineering
Hardware/Software Lead Design Engineer
Senior/Principal Engineer, Acoustics
Magician/Illusionist

https://ubeam-inc.workable.com/

[Fungus]

Magician/Illusionist

Uhuh.

(I could actually do that one... and might apply for it if I lived over there  )

[PaulReynolds]

The Mechanical Engineer and Engineering Dogsbody have disappeared from the recruiting website, maybe they hired someone? Looking at LinkedIn there's no newbies, but a couple more people left in the last few weeks - a mechanical engineer and a project manager. Oh, and somehow they've given prospective employees my number to call...

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/10/brief-ubeam-update.html

[EEVblog]

Principal System Architect, Engineering
Hardware/Software Lead Design Engineer
Senior/Principal Engineer, Acoustics

https://ubeam-inc.workable.com/

When you have those head lead positions available after 5 years, 30 million bucks in R&D, and countless people saying your tech won't be practical (and have the calcs to prove it) and you have no real results to defend your claims with, you are beyond screwed.
Is it even possible for investors to pull the plug and get back whatever little money is left?

[EEVblog]

 

https://twitter.com/kflay/status/917879232801280000

[Kean]

That's so funny Paul that you're getting calls from potential new hires.  Sounds almost like internal sabotage... but most likely just incompetence.

And the video in that tweet is just so sad!  (in a "WTF were they thinking" way)

[EEVblog]

We should set up a pool for the Top 10 list of who and what Meredith is going to blame when this wrong thing finally implodes.
Because sure as hell it won't be the impracticality of the idea.

[Cerebus]

We should set up a pool for the Top 10 list of who and what Meredith is going to blame when this wrong thing finally implodes.
Because sure as hell it won't be the impracticality of the idea.

Oh it'll be us. By 'us' I mean that group that Meredith will describe as something like 'Engineering patriarchs who refuse to see beyond their own dogma and insist that things are impossible without trying to do them'.

[Richard Crowley]

Oh it'll be us. By 'us' I mean that group that Meredith will describe as something like 'Engineering patriarchs who refuse to see beyond their own dogma and insist that things are impossible without trying to do them'.

Right.  Because by the very force of our collective will, WE can actually affect the laws of natural physics so that they don't work for Meredith.  I had no idea "we" were that powerful!