Not sure if we've had this discussion before, but as I was reading Immortal Coil by Jeffrey Lang in preparation for the upcoming Persistence of Memory by David Mack, it struck me that I had not come across any mention either in the books or in the onscreen canon of how Data gets his energy. Sure, he can eat organic food, but he doesn't do so unless there's a social necessity. And we haven't seen or heard of him being plugged to a wall socket or have wireless energy beamed to him. So where does Data get his energy?
It's not too much of a stretch to assume Data has some-sort-of reactor in him, maybe a cold Fusion one. It's also possible he does run on "batteries" but the type of battery/powercell that phasers work on. Consider that phasers have the energy to cause beams or explosions that can utterly destroy things. It's suggested at one point and overloaded phaser has to potential to take out a deck of the ship, we've seen them destroy and heat rocks, and vaporize creatures in seconds (in of itself requiring enormous levels of energy.) So it's not too much of a stretch to think data has these power cells in him and they're able to run him quite well. Any "recharging" needed could be done by "food" he ingests, mechanical recharging as he moves, or the absorption of energy as he exposed to things like light and forms of radiation.
Wouldn't mechanical recharging make him a perpetual-motion machine? It was mentioned that he does recharge by moving, in "Birthright" IIRC, but that would just increase the efficiency of his power usage. His primary power source wasn't discussed in the canon. I thought maybe he was wirelessly connected to the ship's power grid, and had batteries for use off ship, or away from any external power grid. I wonder how long that could last, though. How long was he stranded on that medieval planet in "Thine Own Self"?
Perpetual motion isn't possible. Any "recharging" he gets from moving would have to augment some other power source. Unless it IS possible to have "perpetual motion" in the future through subspace fields or whatever.
In Insurrection, Data says "My power cells continually recharge themselves"; that would seem to be the full extent of dialogue on the issue anywhere. Perhaps he's simply plugged into a wireless power network whenever aboard a starship or walking on the streets of a Federation settlement? Timo Saloniemi
He says "cells", so it's safe to assume that he has more than one. What if he is powered by one while the other is programmed to go into charge mode? It's possible if you think of it that way.
All good points made by everyone. Perhaps the issue could be officially settled by addressing it in an upcoming novel. Perhaps the upcoming Mack trilogy does address it. We shall have to wait and see.
I would seem quite like Soong to have Data be able to recharchge from various sources. I can see him drawing energy from various energy, subspace and "whatever" fields surrounding him. He should be able to convert foot to energy (even if not techically nessecary, why waste the potential energy?), and since we have seen his head-interface be pretty versatile..I suspect you could charge him that way if nessecary. But may be he runs on energizer batteries? "Your android with regular batteries....and here with energizer..he runs, and runs, and runs, and runs, and runs....." ;-)) ROFL
I think giving Data some type of recharging/regenerating requirement could have made for some good storylines. After all, humanoids can't go forever, we have to eat and sleep. So having Data need to recharge himself every so often would have been logical. Kind of like Odo needing to regenerate periodically.
We haven't seen a mechanism or device that would keep PADDs or tricorders or phasers charged (and while the first two might consume so little power that they recharge from user movements or minuscule heat gradients in the environment, the latter are high output power devices). Perhaps such a mechanism is invisible? The idea of Data hooking up to it like any other toaster would appear natural enough. Building a recharging mechanism into his cabin chair or Ops chair would also appear logical, but it wouldn't meet the criterion of him recharging "continually". If he recharged while aboard the ship (sitting, walking) but not while he performed away missions, this might still qualify as "continual" for the purposes of a discussion with a kid, as in ST:INS. Timo Saloniemi
It's obvious. He charges via USB whenever he syncs with iTunes. ..that, or Geordi pulls a cord on his back every morning.
Data obviously recharges himself from the latent UST present whenever Beverly and Jean-Luc are within ten kilometers of each other.
Is that how they both survived hundreds of years in the ground as decapitated heads after a time-travel mishap?
Data apparently gets his energy from the environment somehow, as Odo does. Also, TOS' Nomad claimed to possess 'perpetual energy,' or words to that effect. Which means that Nomad was able to draw more than enough energy from his environment for his day-to-day activities. That, or Nomad had in store an infinite amount of energy, which doesn't seem plausible at all. There are plenty of energy beings, for example, which inhabit deep space. Such as the Calamarain. How do they take in energy? It seems as though they take it in from their surroundings.
^ Possibly. I find it odd that it wasn't mentioned onscreen. I finished The Persistence of Memory... Spoiler: TPoM ...and in it the android Soong speaks of a more powerful energy source built into his body, though he doesn't say what type of source. Since Data now has Soong's body, he now has this more powerful energy source.