wcn/3

We introduced the first wireless charging nodes (WCNs) back in 2015, creating an era of effortless and easy power maintenance. Sporting a distinctive design inspired by the electrical transmission coils of Nikola Tesla, they proved highly popular. Today, dozens of locales on the grid have at least one hangout where the distinctive chord hum can be heard.

Under the hood, these classic version 1 WCNs were much more complex than they needed to be. In order to support opting out of wireless charging, each node needed to keep a list of every human and robot in the region, their controllers (if applicable), and the opt-out flag. To track this information the WCNs regularly communicated with each other in a sort of ad hoc network, known as a mesh network, in addition to regularly polling for new potential clients. And to account for the possibility that someone might become a robot at any time, they had to constantly probe non-robot avatars in search of controllers!

Earlier this year we experimented with extending this idea further in the version 2 WCNs. Our original vision for the wireless charging network was that the charging field would never exceed the charge output of a single node, so that a busy club or nook could use peripherally-placed nodes to produce a zone with consistent strength. Implementing this proved harder than expected—each robot would be assigned a 'home' node that provided the desired charge, based on its knowledge of the locations of all the other nodes. Unfortunately, this could cause nodes to fight over robots, each convinced they were more qualified to provide the service. It was not surprising this implementation could end up using tenfold more processing time than the original.

Enter the wcn/3: a clean, simple charging apparatus that strips away all of the complexity of the charging network in favor of an easy-to-use and efficient experience. Unlike previous wireless chargers from Nanite Systems, the wcn/3's configuration file can be used to easily and quickly change illumination color, charging power, range, and frequency, as well as enabling or disabling sound effects. And if there's no one in range—well, then it does nothing at all. It's ideal for large communities, and future versions will even support our Power Distribution System, making it possible to integrate your wireless charging network directly into your own electrical power grid.

We did have to cut some corners to achieve the wcn/3's low overhead, however—the opt-out feature is no longer available. If you miss it, don't worry; Companion 8.5 will support adjusting environmental induction efficiency via the chassis specification unit. That's a lot of fancy words that mean you'll be able to reduce or completely block the effectiveness of passive chargers like the WCNs, demo stands, display cases, and more, without impacting true charging pads or power outlets. In exchange for this, you get a wireless charger that's just 4 LI—much better than the 6 LI used by the original version!

If you've already purchased the WCN, you can get the new version 3 chargers by obtaining a redelivery from the terminal at our main store. Otherwise, stop by today and this must-have will be yours for just L$400.