O'Neill's power source in "Fifth Race"- an improvised ZPM?

[Mister Oragahn]

There's a problem here, simply due to power requirements.

We know that staff power cells are supposed to last for long, very long.
But just how much energy can be maxed out of those things, really?

[fred19]

You are (all of you) missing the point. Of course it wasn't a ZPM per se. It didn't use vacuum energy, and it wasn't designed for sustained operation. BUT it was, without a doubt, a ZPM substitute which was capable of briefly opening a wormhole to another galaxy. The Atlantis expedition in Season 1 struggled like hell to contact Earth and was overjoyed when McKay managed to open a wormhole for 1.4 seconds so that they could broadcast an emergency message. O'Neill's power source sustained a wormhole to another galaxy for several minutes, which was enough to send a man through. For use in emergencies it would have been ideal.

I get what you are saying and I it's a good point, the Atlantis team could have taken one with them just in case, then they would have a deffinate way of comunicating with the SGC. but I think that since it overloads after each use and need repairing it's not that much use, and since the original was probably left in the alternate universe, it would be hard to replicate. Nowdays they don't really need it though do they? Atlantis has a ZPM and there's 2 on or around earth so it'd be a bit superfluous now I guess.

[Vala_M]

You are (all of you) missing the point. Of course it wasn't a ZPM per se. It didn't use vacuum energy, and it wasn't designed for sustained operation. BUT it was, without a doubt, a ZPM substitute which was capable of briefly opening a wormhole to another galaxy. The Atlantis expedition in Season 1 struggled like hell to contact Earth and was overjoyed when McKay managed to open a wormhole for 1.4 seconds so that they could broadcast an emergency message. O'Neill's power source sustained a wormhole to another galaxy for several minutes, which was enough to send a man through. For use in emergencies it would have been ideal.

Actually, it was 1.3 seconds, not 1.4 seconds.

Vala,

[Mister Oragahn]

Trouble is, we know it requires a lot of power and, energy when considering energy when looking at how long the wormhole remained connected.

So, exactly, what did Jack build? A quickly man made device that would tap energy from vacuum, with a staff power cell to provide the basic energy to start the device, coupled to the SGC's own power expense?

Let's remember that several Mark-I naqahdah generators couldn't be enough to dial to to the MW from Pegasus. A Mk-II wouldn't either.
A Mk-I is able to release a 20 KT explosion upon overload.