They'll never learn . . . - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Fryguy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2025, 11:31:19 pm
content: The solar road experts are back . This time in Switzerland . . .https://www.srf.ch/news/dialog/pilotprojekt-im-val-de-travers-erste-solaranlage-der-schweiz-auf-bahngleis-geht-in-betrieb

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 26, 2025, 07:50:57 am
content: They're putting them... between railway tracks. Possibly one of the worst places you could think to put solar panels, with constant vibration, shocks, and dust and debris. And they're planning to feed electric locomotives with power levels in the megawatt range from them.It's a tech idea so dumb it could almost have come from Elon Musk.

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 26, 2025, 08:23:43 am
content: Quotefirst some kind of municipality have to approve itthen the transport officials have to be involvedand also someone from power must have read the proposalhttps://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/25/switzerland-unveils-worlds-first-operational-solar-railway-project/Quotehttps://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/04/25/swiss-startup-inaugurates-removable-pv-plant-on-railway-tracks/https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/528429-16#overview2023 investor = USD 10k ?there is certainly something wrong here loli can guess where the panel is made 6million km away from them

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 26, 2025, 01:46:32 pm
content: On the contrary, they've learned that it makes good money. The ones who still haven't learnt are the people letting this happen with their tax money.All other parties involved make money out of it, why would they stop?

author: TomS_
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2025, 07:21:52 pm
content: Solar freaking railways

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2025, 09:48:54 pm
content: Wouldn't that increase workload and take longer where they have remove them to inspect of replace the sleepers and the rails.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2025, 10:49:12 pm
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on April 27, 2025, 09:48:54 pmYa think?

author: johnh
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2025, 07:07:19 am
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on April 27, 2025, 09:48:54 pmHow often do they replace the rails and sleepers?Here they have been replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete ones. Expected to last 50 years. but, who really know with the weird weather and dodgy manufacturers

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2025, 07:25:20 am
content: Quote from: johnh on April 28, 2025, 07:07:19 amfor some reason, certain country have been very agressive in selling their "rail construction"as it turns out few years down the road, (from news my side) train cars had to returned due to chasis cracks, rail tracks early replacements etcpoor quality parts is good excuse for the "business" to offer repairas if they are offering you a solution (for poor durability)

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2025, 07:56:04 am
content: Quote from: johnh on April 28, 2025, 07:07:19 amNot the sleepers so much as theballast, that gets refreshed much more frequently. Then there's the rails themselves. They wear, and sections have to be replaced; I wonder how these solar panels will react to having tons of sharp stones dropped on them, and the splashes from thermite welding?

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2025, 08:32:28 am
content: Quote from: johnh on April 28, 2025, 07:07:19 amThe sleepers are not replaced that often, the concrete ones are very durable. The track bed (the rocks) are replaced/added and shaken solid more often.I think the panels will break when this shaker train passes over....The track is also ground yearly. They have a special trains for this.That operation would need an extra step to wash them, otherwisemetalrust dust is everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. I know because I been on one of their grinding trains.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2025, 09:16:18 pm
content: Another Lyle Langley enterprise?

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 08:21:57 am
content: As long as they're milking taxpayers from another country, it's amusing. As soon as it'syourtax money they are grifting, it's infuriating.

author: BadeBhaiya
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 09:09:03 am
content: QuoteWell thankfully its just 100m worth of panels. When this pilot project inevitably fails they'll realise.Anyway I was wondering if there is any easy verbal way of pointing out the lack of reasoning behind putting solar panels in places where they will be prone to damage. No point in even going into the power calculation, just making people think "why aren't we putting them in open spaces or rooftops" is enough.Maybe an analogy or proposing a logical extreme?"Why not put them on bulldozer blades?""Why not put them in firing ranges?""Why not put them behind the batter in a cricket/baseball game?"Answer: "But they'll get damaged!"

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 09:40:02 am
content: Quote from: Fryguy on April 25, 2025, 11:31:19 pmAt least theyattemptto address one problem that’s completely ignored in the solar roadways, etc: cleaning. The article says that trains will be equipped with cylindrical brushes to keep the panels clean. (I assume this means rotating brushes that convey debris to the side or something.)Quote from: AVGresponding on April 28, 2025, 07:56:04 amThey… wouldn’t? The article says that laying down the panels is automated, using a special train car. It is very reasonable to assume that if this technology did somehow work out, and thus was rolled out in volume, that both laying down and picking up of panels would be automated. So you’d just run the panel laying train ahead of theballast tamper-linertrain to pick up the panels, then run it again afterwards to put it back down. Eventually, it could probably be integrated into the tamper-liner to enable continuous servicing.All in all, this seems to me aslightlyless crackpot idea than solar roads, insofar as there is normally no weight being applied in between the rails. But I would be surprised if they can be kept clean enough, even with automatic brushing, to be worthwhile.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 10:51:42 am
content: Clean with brushes at full train speed?

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 10:55:59 am
content: Quote from: Bud on April 29, 2025, 10:51:42 amI don’t know any more than what I wrote. I have no clue whether it’s practical or not.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 05:44:02 pm
content: Quote from: AVGresponding on April 29, 2025, 08:21:57 amI live in the UK, trust me,mostof the public purse allocated for development of infrastructure is pissed away by morons being conned by corporate grifters.I'm ridiculing the "morons".X

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2025, 07:29:09 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on April 29, 2025, 10:51:42 amIn a way, not all that different from steam engines that could pick up water while running at speed to refill their tenders.They constructed track pans between the rails, and the locomotives had scoops that sucked up the water as they ran over.Worked well. Unlike the stupid arrangement we're discussing here.

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2025, 09:54:14 am
content: Quote from: Xena E on April 29, 2025, 05:44:02 pmI work in local government in the UK, so I get to see it firsthand...

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2025, 01:45:52 pm
content: Quote from: Xena E on April 29, 2025, 05:44:02 pmShouldn't we be ridiculing ourselves for allowing this to happen? We're supposed to be in democracies, last time I checked, although even that increasingly looks like a con.

author: Xena E
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2025, 11:07:17 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on April 30, 2025, 01:45:52 pmPossibly.But unless it becomes a criminal offence to be a moron, elected governments and their departments can do a lot of damage before they're replaced... usually by equally as ignorant orcorruptmorons.Scamming public money seems to be legalised theft.When I get a tax demand, I notice that the letters are now headed with the statement:"Taxes are used for services and to help people".Yeah, right.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2025, 11:36:17 pm
content: Quote from: Xena E on April 30, 2025, 11:07:17 pmOh, they are. The statement just doesn't specify which people they're helping.

author: connectTek
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2025, 08:29:40 pm
content: Starlink, reusable landing rockets , electric vehicles , PayPal.Yeh all pretty dumb ideas from Musk. (sarc)What have you contributed to the world?Please keep politics out of this forum.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2025, 09:19:08 pm
content: Quote from: connectTek on May 17, 2025, 08:29:40 pmDidn't Musk propose putting people in these:https://www.aerocom.co.uk/products/pneumatic-tube-systems/safe-link/and even more a few holes?I realise he regards people as cash cows, but that's ridiculous!

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2025, 10:39:19 am
content: In my case I was referring to his specific technical contributions, e.g. hyperloop, trying to launch a rocket without flame diverters (which everything since the V2 has used), pretty much all of the Cybertruck (the real-life form of Homer Simpson's car), etc. He's fine when he takes a general concept and hands it off to others to implement, or just takes over someone else's idea wholesale, but you never want him directly providing technical input. As a former employee said, "he's fine when there's an adult in the room to pull his hands away from the wheel before he steers into the ditch", thus "an idea so dumb it could have come from Musk".Also, "an idea so dumb it could have come from some guy I met on the bus" doesn't have the same ring.

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2025, 12:53:08 pm
content: Quote from: connectTek on May 17, 2025, 08:29:40 pmWhat does any of that have to do with politics?Pretty sure reusable launch vehicles aren't a novel idea, I am 100% sure electric vehicles have been around for a lot longer than Musk, and istr Musk getting booted from the PayPal board for misconduct. From the numbers I've seen, Starlink is a grift that only works as long as SpaceX have the billions of dollars in government grants to offset the costs somewhat.