I propose the addition to be able to use solar power for several electric devices, through the addition of a new electronics mod (akin to the extra batteries one) and a new type of UPS, the UPS Jack and Solar UPS.
The jack would be able to be found similarly to the extra batteries mod, in electronics stores, and would remove the device’s ability to accept batteries. Instead, you would be able to “reload” the device from any UPS in your possession, including the new player crafted Solar UPS.
Constructed at medium high electronics and fabrication from a UPS, several solar cells or a solar panel, a storage battery, wire, and duct tape or superglue to hold it together, the Solar UPS gathers light very much the same way as a funnel with rainwater, place it outside where it can gather sunlight, and it will slowly charge the storage battery. Once it has energy stored, the device can be activated and used to “reload” an item modified with a UPS jack, allowing the player to conserve batteries for more important uses, like acid bombs to throw at moose.
I like the idea but the UPS works by just ‘running’ anything off the UPS’s power supply while it’s active, so in theory the UPS would have a power supply that can change if the item is in sunlight, and when activated provides power to anything that requires UPS input.
Having it just ‘charge’ a device off the UPS would make it a bit OP, it’d be nice not having to carry around a damn UPS to run a plasma rifle, but it’s kinda the balancing factor.
You’d just need an adapter. Craft some new item from a solar cell and some other electronics junk.
If solar power starts doing more than just powering electric motors then it might be worth tweaking and revamping solar power so that it has more drawbacks than it currently does. But I don’t see why it couldn’t be used in a similar way to how funnels work. (A)ctivate a solar charger, place it outside, put a chargable object under it, and it will slowly recharge while the sun is out.
Sounds like a very good idea. Making improvements to Cata’s battery system is one of those big issues that has been talked about a lot, but nobody has really wanted to face because it’s kind of a mess Hopefully at some point soon it will get addressed, until then I’ve been making vehicle-part, storage-battery-and-solar-panel-using variants of everything I can think of
Speaking of alternate power - wind WHEN?
That would be quite nice to put an air turbine generator on your car and drive around generating electricity. Of course, not enough to have a perpetuum mobile, but however useful.
As if I didn’t know.
But, hey, I have a dream and I’m going to implement it earlier or later. Hopefully earlier. At least if I decide to spend a day or two digging in the game files.
Thought we were finally going to be able to draw electricity from our car’s storage battery.
Get empty UPS, stick UPS jack into car battery, charge it for like a minute, viola batteries.
Obviously overpowered, but hey, so are windows.
If making a electric funnel instead will make it less game-breaking, than sure WHY NOT.
And wind energy? How do we even know if it’s windy or not. Are you going to make a anemometer item?
The wind is blowing at 40kmh! Your reinforced top hat is blown off! “I do declare!”.
Your lips are chaffed! (a) apply chap-stick. You feel slightly sexy.
At least your car generated 100 watts of energy. Yay.
[quote=“Rask, post:14, topic:3642”]Thought we were finally going to be able to draw electricity from our car’s storage battery.
Get empty UPS, stick UPS jack into car battery, charge it for like a minute, viola batteries.
Obviously overpowered, but hey, so are windows.
If making a electric funnel instead will make it less game-breaking, than sure WHY NOT.
And wind energy? How do we even know if it’s windy or not. Are you going to make a anemometer item?
The wind is blowing at 40kmh! Your reinforced top hat is blown off! “I do declare!”.
Your lips are chaffed! (a) apply chap-stick. You feel slightly sexy.
At least your car generated 100 watts of energy. Yay.[/quote]
Windchill would be something that’d play a bit of a major effect on temperature though… Here in Ohio winters are (usually) fairly tame, hovering around 10 degrees fahrenheit but with the windchill it’ll regularly get below -10 fahrenheit for a few days every year.
Ugh, the temperature is starting to drop here in Wisconsin (regularly below freezing in the morning, soon enough it’ll be really cold), don’t remind me of the wind.
Yea I should have assumed you’re aware an alternator would be more efficient, and just wanted to do something funny. I don’t see a problem with it.
BTW, the way electricity generation works in vehicles is it goes, “generate X power”, and searches for a part that can store electricity, then increments it by X power, unless that fills it up, in which case it tops it off and keeps searching for a place to stash the remainder.
Recharging a UPS in a car wouldn’t be terribly problematic, could make a charging station component with the CARGO tag, and if it has not-totally-charged UPSs (NOT advanced, those wouldn’t recharge), it would drain some amount of power per turn and put it in the UPSs.
The problem that comes up otherwise (if there’s no UPS involved) is that it amounts to a battery vending machine.
At the same time should probably remove the ability to 'U’nload a UPS.
Here we go: https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/3863
Hopefully at some point soon it will get addressed, until then I’ve been making vehicle-part, storage-battery-and-solar-panel-using variants of everything I can think of 
