Nathan Stubblefield Earth battery/Self Generating Induction Coil Replications

[Pirate88179]

Wow, I went out on an assignment and came back and look at all the posts.  I will answer some now and work backwards and post other answers later.

@mramos:

I have a video of the led burning at night on youtube.  It is somewhere way back in this thread (the link) or later, I will post another link to it, or you can search youtube for 0WildBill0 and or earth battery experiments. Sorry I don't have the link handy at the moment.  You can dead short the cap.  No charge on it.  Then hook it and the led onto the cell and the led lights and the cap also charges.  Leave it hooked to the cell for about 1/2 hour + or - and then, take the circuit inside (disconnected from the cell) and it has burned bright for the better part of 30 MINUTES, and gets pretty dim by 45 MINUTES and will light for over one hour but not very much light at all. (Sorry for the emphisis but I am proud of this, ha ha)  What really amazes me is that it lights the led AND charges the cap at the same time.  I can also run 2 leds off of the cap when inside the house and disconnected from the cell. Not near as bright as one though.  That is why I want to get more caps just like this one, if I can find any.  Let me know if you can't find the video and I will look it up and post another link.  I am glad that we have EE guys like you here as my knowledge of electronics is getting much better, but still limited. (Very limited)  Thanks.

@ Hans:

I tried that same set up a while back and here is the thing.  Even if I go from + on the left cell to - on the right, I can measure voltage there, between the two cells.  Not as high as the polar alignment but the electrodes appear to think they are a cell and just not alligned as good.  So, when I did that, I got a dead short (or I believe I did) between the left cell + and the right cell -, the same with the right cell + and the left cell -.  Does this make any sense?  Both cells are polar alligned.  What I have not tried was to place them all on the exact same meridian as opposed to left and right. (but still polar alligned)  What I am afraid this might do would be, we would have a + to the very north and then a  - south say 5 foot away (on the alignment) and then another + and then another -.  This would appear to go against keeping the plus material to the north and so on.  I have not tried it but can.  Did I explain this in any understandable way at all? Thanks for the updated sketch.

@ Joe:

The carbon + goes to the cap + and the mag. - goes to the cap. minus.  I guess this is parallel isn't it?  That exposed + wire makes it look more confusing than it is but if I soldered it to the + leg of the led I could not charge with and without the led on.  I could just put in a switch but I didn't want to add anything that might increase resistance at this point.

I went to three stores today and ALL were sold out on the magnesium firestarter blocks!!  The word must be getting out. Ha ha.

Bill

[Pirate88179]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq9ZKDKDclY

@mramos:

Above should be a link that works to the video.  I made this a while ago and am getting more volts now.  1.8 vdc is the highest by me so far without charging the cell with anything. I was only getting 1.59 vdc when I made the video. So, the led is brighter now than in the video is what I am trying to say.  At the end of the video, there is a nightshot of it.

Bill

[jeanna]

So Bill,

I soldered a plain green led - no resistor- to my double cap and it is NOW under the tree in a parallel arrangement between graphite pencil and mag block. I took a reading which is showing 1.6V _ this is very high for me as you know, but this tree is about 5 ft from my power meter and line to house (just beyond the mag block in the same S position).
I am letting it sit for 20 more minutes. I have not yet seen the light on, but the meter says it is going

Did you EVER hook this up for a shorter time?

BTW my super caps are.045F which is a whole lot less than yours even in series. (which I read yesterday is like parallel with resistors).

[Pirate88179]

@ Joe:

Sorry for the multiple posts but I have found that if I only place 1 photo in a post and not much else, it appears to work.  This is a shot of the other side of my little circuit.  Here you can see the little post for the minus side of the capacitor where I hook an alligator clip from the magnesium block. The blue wire also is soldered to the minus side of the diode. (led)  The rest is as I explained with the red wire connecting to the plus side of the led and also to the jumper wire from the carbon rod.  This should make it more clear to see both sides.  Sorry.

Bill

[jeanna]

OK I just got nothing again. I put it out as just described. It was hooked up for 25 minutes. I never saw the light and now that it is disconnected, I get a reading of 0.040v across the leads.

So Mramos and Jeanna both get zero and Bill and Joe get a light.

Bill, have you been able to get the light on with another cap yet?

Joe, what is your arrangement that got you a light. what kind of cap were you using? a resistor? Was that on the tree?

jeanna