EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.

[guruji]

Hi guys I heard that if one wind a coil to an aluminium rod with plastic mesh in between gives good results while adding more and more on same rod with same procedure.
One can do many of these near each other with diode on each.
Heard from a good source .

[in3d]

Hi lasersaber,

   Way to go on your EER research! I've been keeping an eye on this thread as well as your videos!

   Question: When you bury the magnesium ribbon/rope, is it in contact with the soil? Will it corrode? I haven't tried your method yet, so I'm curious and hope to repeat your experiment soon. I'm also a newbie with this technology and hooked for life! If corrosion is a possibility, could you put the rope in a PVC conduit and bury that? Would it change the results in volts/amps? To inhibit the corrosion, you could put sacraficial anodes in the conduit.

   It's a theory. The sacraficial anodes I have are rated at 2 years life expectancy (google zerust). You can buy a pack of 10 tabs (around 1"W x 3 or 4"L) here in the US at Fry's Electronics for around $.88. They really work!

   I've been experimenting with water batteries (copper with 1/2" zinc plated bolt) and found a way to keep the zinc from corroding while in contact with the water by using a sacraficial anode. When I do this, my amps jump up, but the volts seem to stay the same. I've had to put my research off since late October because my father had cancer and I spent a lot of time taking care of him (he passed in December) and I'm finally trying to get back to playing with these concepts!

   Again, when I used the zerust tabs on my water batteries (reduced them to the size of a D-cell sized battery), the corrosion stopped, but the water also appeared to evaporate much faster. There was a small amount of white residue left after the water evaporated. I still need to do a lot more testing on that to confirm, but controlling the corrosion was the top priority in my tests. You could try this with your rope if there's corrosion.

   My batteries put out around .9 volts and 1.2 milliamps each. With a squeeze of lemon, both increased and still no rust! I would run them in series; around 3 to power a super bright LED for 2 weeks. I had a set-up running for 3 weeks and was afraid to move it. The water had evaporated over a week into the test but it ran for 2 more weeks. Anyway, I'd like to post pics of my work to the appropriate thread, so if anyone would like to assist, let me know. I can post Youtube videos as well.

   So, the question is, do you know if there's any signs of your magnesium rope/ribbon corroding?

   Keep up your research!!!! I'm so excited to try your experiment ASAP!

Shannon

[in3d]

Hi,

   I finally had a chance to play around with lasersaber's magnesium ribbon concept last night. Last weekend, I received my (2) 75ft magnesium ribbons and finally had time to put together a quick experiment, but I adapted it to act like a water battery instead.

   I tried my conduit idea as described in the last post. I took a 1" PVC pipe at 2ft long; (2) plastic H-shaped strips at 2ft long. I took 1 of the plastic H-shaped strips and wrapped 48" to 52" of magnesium ribbon around it so that none of the loops would touch each other. I took the other H-shaped plastic strip and wrapped 48" to 52" of bare copper wire (I think 18-gauge) in the same fashion. I left around 3 to 4" loose at the end to act as the leads.

   I took both strips, slipped them into the PVC pipe with the leads sticking out one end and capped off the other end (duct taped one end). I filled the PVC with water and checked around 1 minute later with my meter.

   It showed 1.36v and > 5 milliamps (around 5.3). After around 30 minutes, I noticed the milliamps dropped to around 3.5, but the volts stayed the same. I'll try to play with it again tonight.

   I haven't had a chance to build the EER Joule Thief as described in this thread (REALLY EAGER TO), but my basic JT (which runs on 1-AA) did work with this contraption and lit a super LED for 1 second. After 1 second, the LED dimmed rapidly. So, I'll need to build a EER JT and tweak it. I did rapidly scratch the leads on the basic JT which made the super LED to light brightly I assume each time it spiked, but if I left it connected, the LED dimmed.

   I'll can post pictures if you'd like :-) Let me know. So, I was able to bottle this in PVC and it can be stored indoors outside of the freezing weather. I still wonder about corrosion. I haven't worked with magnesium before. So, I left the water in the PVC and will check this weekend for signs of corrosion. If there's corrosion, I'll try the sacraficial anodes. They seem to work under water.

   I have other ideas to perfect the cell, but I feel this was a successful experiment :-) Hope this helps y'all!

Shannon

[jeanna]

Hi in3d,
welcome to this thread of avid eer experimenters.
You can't even wait to get outside...this is very avid!!

I know what you mean about corrosion being important to stop.
The very interesting thing is that where the same 2 electrodes corrode in a day if used inside with some kind of electrolyte added this does not seem to happen outside or at least in the soil.

I would like someone with mg ribbon (=you or lasersaber) to make a run in 2 big flower pots inside and see what happens. I think there should be some good plants in those pots too.
philodendron is a good cheap houseplant that you can get almost anywhere.

Experiment scheme:
Buy 2 plants and 2 big pots or just the 2 bags of sterilized soil and cut the tops of the bags to let the wire snake around in the soil and not touch itself etc. then add the plant to each bag and water it once a week. Use one bag for copper wire and the other for mg wire.
Do not add any lemon or salt, just water and the plant. (rocks to keep your cat out of it.)
The extent to which the currents are present is a baseline for what happens outside with these same materials.
So, it is really a necessary control experiment anyway, and the best part is you don't need to wait for warm weather!! 

sounds like fun to me.
and again... welcome,

jeanna

I haven't had a chance to build the EER Joule Thief as described in this thread (REALLY EAGER TO), but my basic JT (which runs on 1-AA) did work with this contraption and lit a super LED for 1 second. After 1 second, the LED dimmed rapidly. So, I'll need to build a EER JT and tweak it.

I wonder if you take the base resistor way down what will happen.
Going on for one second then off sounds like a worn out battery for sure, but maybe lowering the base resistor can help here too. I have not tried this yet.

[in3d]

Hi Jenna,

   Wow, I can see where you're going with the plant method. I'll begin this weekend playing with your concept (2 plants). I'm actually here in the southern-central US and yesterday, we suffered the worst snow storm in 32 years! My yard received 6 inches of snow, but other places within 30 miles received over 10 inches! It's proving to be very difficult to play with EER outdoors these days, which is why I decided to bottle the experiments and play indoors. I can try the plant method, but I don't have many good windows in the house. I'll need to set up an indoor day-light flourescent for the plants.

   I can understand your explanation for corrosion and the same 2 electrodes. I now have (2) 2ft magnesium ribbon and copper water batteries. The first one I made on Feb 10, the 2nd 2 nights ago. Both produced around the same volts and milliamps, but what I discovered was that the magnesium produces a white milky residue in the water after a day or two. I discovered the same effect after using the Zerust corrosion tabs in my other water batteries (the milky residue). So, I assume Zerust uses magnesium in their product. Also, the entire water evaporates within a day. I pulled the magnesium out of the 2ft PVC pipe today and can see it's discolored from being in contact with the water. The copper looks fine. So, I'm eager to try your approach.

   So, if adding the magnesium to the soil, I wonder if it will also cause the moisture in the soil to evaporate as well. You may have to water the plant more often.

   LOL, maybe if the potted plant method works, the collected energy from the EER into a EER JT can go into an EER powered compact daylight flourescent bulb?? It'd almost be perpetual motion if only we could produce rain from the water evaporating from the soil.

POTTED PLANT STEPS:
============================

(1) Obtain 2 sphagnum moss baskets (google this; probably easier to lay out the magnesium and copper in a coil), but the basket can go in a separate hard-lined container.
(2) Line 1 basket inside with copper; the other with magnesium ribbon; use muddy soil balls to get the copper or magnesium to stick to the wall, then backfill with drier soil.
(3) Fill the remainder of the pot with soil and then add the plant.

   The sphagnum moss basket may make it easier to weave in the wire & ribbon.


Shannon