Some gate facts

[shu_hunter]

For one thing, why doesn't anyone write here anymore? It's been two weeks and nobody has said anything!
I know I can't really talk because I haven't been writing anything either, but now I've got something to say, and I hope other people will too.
I've read quite a lot of posts on this forum and after watching Torment of Tantalus a few times, I think I can clear some stuff up.

SAM:"[Naquedah] absorbs energy directly. Internal functions will convert and store that energy in copacular-like reservoirs, but the inside wheel will only unlock and spin freely once there's enought reserve power."

The text in red I'm not quite sure what it says, but that's what it sounds like. I repaced "the element the gate is made up of" with Naquedah, because it's easier, and I'm going to use it again. That quote says something about the gate that's not really known on these boards, but not as important as what I'm going to quote now.

SAM:"[Naquedah] is a superconductor - it'll absorb energy in many forms - heat, nuclear, solar, static..."

Now, until I heard this, I was a pretty firm believer that the Gate couldn't dial without a DHD or an electrical power source, but this proves me wrong. My apologies to anyone who was smarter about this that I didn't believe.

Here's something else. From what I've heard, everybody believes that the gate and the DHD aren't connected by wires or anything like that. But here's something: when the DHD falls through the floor into the ocean, there's a cable of some sort leading into the hole. Oh! but Carter was trying to directly power the gate with the DHD's power source... never mind about the possibility of there being cables connecting the gate and DHD.

Anyway.. I hope this'll clear up some stuff about how the gate works and how it's powered, and to Geronimo - looks like we were both right: the gate is powered by the DHD, but it does have a battery of sorts, and it can use natural sources to power itself. But just think of how much solar energy the gate would need to absorb to support an open wormhole..!

~Shu Hunter
:upto: stargate fan{atic}

 

[PTeppic]

[SPOILER: series 4 - Watergate]

[I'll go and listen to the episode over my breakfast in a moment... ]

The word "copacular" is probably "capacitor" which would be similar homophonically and be semantically and contextually correct and reasonable.

As for the connection - in Watergate, the Russian scientist talks about "connecting" the DHD to the gate to gain supremacy for dialling in (rather than to the SGC). However, even without cables (which I am fairly sure are not a normal feature, but as you say specifically due to Sam's experiment) the "connection" could be made by simply moving the DHD into "range" of the gate - which they can presumably work out by trial and error. I am guessing it is only a few dozen yards, for security reasons when controlling an active gate.

 

[PTeppic]

Okay, just back from watching "Torment of Tantalus" (and breakfast was yummy )

I would say with 95% confidence (and only subtitles would get me the last 5%) that Sam DOES definitely say capacitor.

She is talking: about energy storage, to Jack (a soldier, who may have little engineering/electronic knowledge, but seems to know basically that they store charge), and also talking to us (as an audience). For the latter she (or, the script) can also assume the same mixed level of electronics knowledge, but more importantly (and this is the same episode where they explicitly explain atomic structure!) she does not go on to explain anything more about "capacitor" (or "copacular") which I firmly think she would have done if it were not a widely known and understood term for the audience.

The rest of the theory is sound though, but can be extended: if a correctly working gate is dialled, afterwards there is generally enough power left in the gate for a single hand-dialled wormhole [3-22: "Nemesis"].

Which sort of begs the question - and I am just thinking aloud here - although the gate itself stores a/the charge, all these various comments from Sam suggest that the charge still somehow comes FROM, or is catalysed by, the DHD. That is, perhaps the gate CAN gather sufficient power for an outgoing wormhole over a sufficiently long time, but not "quickly". The DHD does allow this rapid re-charging. But, evidence from "Prisoners" suggests that either an incoming wormhole discharges the gate, or that the gate does not gather sufficient charge. I don't imagine anyone else had tried dially out, but they still needed an alternative power source! So, I add to your theory: "the charge still somehow comes FROM, or is catalysed by, the DHD".

 

[Jedispara]

or what about this.... the gate can't fulll charge up with out a DHD or and external power source like the conductors connecting teh gate on earth... so basiccally a gate will charge most of the way on its own over time... but the DHD or external power source charges it the rest of the way so that it can dial.

 

[PTeppic]

Sounds feasible.

I don't think we have enough information from the show yet to show how long it could charge itself without the DHD/electricity.

Although Sam has said it can store/convert power-sources into usable energy, I reckon the amount of power involved is too large to be anything except a direct supply from the DHD/electricity.

Except of course, the use of the vehicles in "1969" - there can't really be that much power from a couple of trucks, even over half an hour or however long they have. A couple of large batteries would do it!

 

[Jedispara]

not true... the gate is a differenttype of batery its charge slowl builds up which means that a truck would power it... becasue it would slow charge it up to the level needed.

 

[PTeppic]

I can't remember how much Sam says about the ability to charge itself from minor, indirect energy sources such as static electricity.

Conversely, the gate in Washington in "1969" had been pretty much boxed and un-used since about 1945 (when it was fully charged and an outgoing wormhole was made) and then had about 50 years for passive charging. It may not have needed much additional juice....

 

[Jedispara]

ya, so really it only needed a bit of a kick start to get it to dial

 

[PTeppic]

Potentially... since we can sort of admit how little power is generated by a couple of trucks, and we appear to know how much power the SGC generates/uses for a full charge when IT dials each time, we must be able to imply that over 50 years the majority of charge was already built up in the gate...

 

[Jedispara]

ok, lets do a bit of math... lets say that it takes 1 million volts to dial. so lets say that over those 50 years it builds up 950,000 volts.. it would only require 50,000 from the truck... but ths would also give us a theoretical rate of charge per year... wich would be...

19000 volts per year or...

~ 52 volts per day

so presumably it would take that long to charge up... only lets say that it requires that last 5000 volts fromt the DHD....

ok?

 

[PTeppic]

[Well, it would be charge, measured in Coulombs, not volts! :evil: ]

Sounds feasible - over sufficient time a gate could naturally be ready for hand-dialling out.

Could also explain why the paltry current probably available from Kera's activaters was sufficient to dial out from Hadante.

 

[Jedispara]

sorry forgot about columbs... but that would make sence... and also those figures were purly teoretical, it might have taken less for all we know....