Simple Working Overunity Device!

[omnispace]

Sorry I don't have pics yet, but you can build it yourself and see!

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Requried Materials:
   2 Cardboard Tubes (from the insides of paper towel rolls)
   1 Roll (200 ft or more) of 22 Gauge Hookup Wire
   1 Wire Stripper
   1 Roll of Aluminum Foil
   1 Roll of Electrical Tape
   1 LED, any color
   1 Oscilloscope
   1 Function Generator (or a 555 timer)
   Connecting Cables (I used alligator-clip cables, with just a wire going into the function generator because I was too lazy to get the correct cables)
   
1. Roll up a cylinder of aluminum foil that is slightly smaller than the tube, and place one of these inside each cardboard tube. Use as much foil as will fit inside the tube.

2. Wire a coil of wire around each of the tubes. These coils should be as identical as possible. Secure the wire on both ends with electrical tape. Leave a few inches of wire going off each end of the coil, and strip the insulation off of the last half-inch.

3. Place the coils side by side, right next to each other.

4. Connect the positive (+) side of the function generator to one side of one of the coils. DO NOT CONNECT THE NEGATIVE (-) SIDE TO ANYTHING. If there is a negative lead, try to keep it as far away from the coils as possible. Better yet, disconnect it completely.

5. Set the function generator as follows: low voltage amplitude (like 1 volt max), square wave, a frequency around 1.7 MHz, and minimum duty cycle (you may have to set it to maximum duty cycle, then invert it). On some function generators you may have to increase the duty cycle a little to get to the higher frequencies.

6. Connect the scope probe to the coil that the function generator is connected to, but to the opposite end. Leave the scope's ground probe disconnected. You will have to adjust the oscilloscope until you see the waveform show up on the screen. It should look like a sine wave. But we are sending in square wave pulses, right? This is the effect of near-resonance.

7. Adjust the frequency and duty cycle until the sine wave reaches a maximum amplitude. If you need to, increase the duty cycle a little more so that you can reach higher frequencies. Just find the "sweet spot" where you get the maximum output.

8. Increase the input voltage amplitude until the output is at the maximum that your function generator can run at. WARNING! Do not increase the voltage too much or you will ruin your function generator! I would stop when you see around 30 V output.

9. Connect an LED to both ends of the other coil. It doesn't matter which end gets + or -, since we will be feeding it an AC signal. If you want to, connect the other scope probe or a voltmeter (set to AC volts) across this coil. WARNING: Never connect two scope ground connectors to two different places in the circuit!

You should see perhaps 1V AC across the second coil.

10. If it isn't working already, try pressing your hands flat against the surfaces of the cois. This will help boost the capacitance in the circuit, and drive the resonant frequency down a little further.

That's it! You are providing real energy to an LED to make it light up! Where is this energy coming from, you ask? From the function generator? I don't think so! Remember, we left the negative connection of the functiong generator disconnected. The primary circuit is an open circuit, there is no complete path for electrons to flow through! That means, input current is zero, so input power is zero. Output power is something more than zero!

-omnispace

[hansvonlieven]

G'day Omnispace,

Have you tried using instead of the coils a 1:1 isolation transformer? If yes, what were the results?

Hans von Lieven

[exnihiloest]

...
The primary circuit is an open circuit, there is no complete path for electrons to flow through! That means, input current is zero, so input power is zero. Output power is something more than zero!

-omnispace

The circuits act as radio antennas in near field. It is easy for any ham radio operator to power such a circuit from a distant one. Generally a transmitting radio antenna is not a looped circuit and nevertheless current is consumed through the space impedance, or capacitively or inductively with other circuits in near field.
You can't say the input power is zero without careful measurements using particular HF means, especially when square signals are used, such as a selective HF power meter (to measure power at each harmonic component) and selective VSWR meter.
Can you provide details on the measurement protocol ?

[omnispace]

Ah ok.  So I just made a radio transmitter?  I was looking at it from a circuits standpoint, KCL seems to imply there can't be any current without a return path.

I don't have any fancy measuring equipment, but I did hook up a DC ammeter to the primary circuit, and measured a current in the microamp range.  This increased to about 25 uA whenever I touched the coils to make the LED lit up.  So, I can't really claim overunity for this device yet.  Thanks for clarifying, and sorry for the mistake.  I just got a little excited when I saw an LED turn on without having a closed circuit.


@ Hans:  I don't have an isolation transformer available at the moment.

[Koen1]

Sorry but I'm not following... may be missing something here...

you're pumping 30V pulses into a coil at freqs over 1.7MHz,
and getting out 1V AC at what freq?
In any case, it sounds like you're getting 1V that pulses the LED... If you would connect 2 LEDs, one p-n and the other n-p, to the same
wire terminals of the secondary, you would rectify the AC and the LEDs would blink in turn, wouldn't they?
But still, if we're measuring 1V AC and that is powering the LEDs,
would you not be much better off pumping your 30V pulses directly into the LED?

Seems to me you're still using quite a lot of power to get out very little...