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

[in3d]

Hi guys!

   I'm back with some updates and recovering from severe allergies (spring has sprung!!), which knocked me out for a few days  :p I've posted some more videos to my 'eeresearcher' YouTube channel with more updates on the way. My 3 philodendron plant experiment (2 batteries in a 30" planter) still continues to run non-stop now for almost 2 weeks and with no sign of tarnishing on the magnesium! I'm impressed!

   I made 2 other smaller container batteries using magnesium ribbon and copper wire (I have videos to upload).

   The first test was in a plastic tupperware style container which I placed 3 copper wires and 3 magnesium ribbon clippings of different lengths (to see if there's a noticeable difference in the length), separated with dirt. I made a drainage hole to let the water seep out the bottom. When I initially hooked them up in series, I received over 5 volts and around 6+ milliamps, but then it stopped around 20 minutes into the testing. I fiddled with it a little and had to put it aside.

   The next day, I made the 2nd container, which was a small 12"x6" plastic greenhouse planter with clear lid (came with several dehydrated peat-pellets). The peat-pellets had a fiber around them once they became saturated to maintain their shape, so this made it easy to wrap magnesuim around the expanded peat-pellet pots. I then dropped the magnesium wrapped peat pellet into a dry pressed peat pot and wrapped that pot with copper. I made 3 of these and put them in the 12"x6" plastic greenhouse planter. I watered the pot, also received around the same results: 5+ volts and 6+ milliamps. Hmm ... but then I had the same issue where it stopped working. I think the moisture in the dirt was shorting it out (same as previous experiment). I left both pots, 3 cells each hooked up in series to a LED.

   So, 3 or 4 days ago, I came home from work late at night and to my suprise, they were both working!! And VERY brightly! I haven't had a chance to test readings, but they're working :-) Neither of these are running a joule thief.

   Oh, I did receive my package of 2" toroids .... they're much bigger than I expected! I haven't had a chance to wire them up yet, but I'm excited to try this weekend :-)

   From what I can see, the individual cells needs to isolated to keep the moisture in the soil between each cell from contacting each other. The coconut liner appears to be a good thing, but simple damp soil will cancel things out. It rained a couple days this week, but the 2 wet dirt batteries still worked. There must have been a short when they first didn't work, but they eventually worked a day or two later without me fiddling around :-)

   Neither of the 2 tests this past weekend involved plants in the planters.

Shannon

[jeanna]

Hi Shannon.
This is a great report.

It is wonderful that they started to work after they did not.
To me this means something is being replenished by the soil.

I see this in this way:
The first few days or hours you are getting a galvanic reaction. It is like being in a pot of water and is a regular battery, which dwindles over time. [Jim electricme had this problem with his very large array of copper pipes with zinc spikes which he kept isolated from the earth with plastic bags.
Jim added the plastic and the galvanic response worked as you would expect. There was corrosion over time.]
Then after a few days something in the soil gets lined up , maybe microbes are helping (my pet idea) or something else, but the fact that the volts n amps increases to light the led again means a lot.


This experiment of yours is showing promise of a very different type, and I am very encouraged.

What do you mean they are not running a joule thief? Just that it is straight from the ground?
Are you clarifying that you have not done this with a jt yet?

Oh this is so cool!
thank you for sharing the details of this,

btw, I love the peat pots idea.
It almost looks like a wound capacitor in my head. I wonder if that could be possible?

jeanna

[in3d]

Hi Jeanna and all,

   Sorry for the long delay, I've been so unbelievably busy over the last few weeks and haven't had time to post videos because they take so long to transfer & upload, but I've created videos as I get time. I get up early and don't get home until very late and the weekends have been full of allergies, a sprained wrist (possibly broken bone) and traveling out of town for archaeology lectures :-) I'm having fun except the wrist part. The dog which chewed up my plant 4 weeks ago, well, I went to grab his collar 2 wednesdays ago and he twisted my wrist in the process :-( I'm 95% okay, no pain, but the doc believes there's a broken bone in my wrist an MRI will possibly expose on Monday.

   Anyway, with my odd luck and hectic schedule, I've had GREAT success with my Magnesium/Copper batteries!!!

   Yes, Jeanna, my results so far are with no JT involved. I finally received my (4) 2" toroids and the are SO BIG! I ordered (4) 1" this week and think they look more like what lasersabre is using. I plan to wire up a 2" one this weekend.

   I've created numerous varieties of the Mag/Cop cells in different sized pots and each time, I get great results. Because of the short time each time, I haven't really hooked them to my meter, but I've anticipated they work 90% the time I build them.

   I came up with a cool idea on Sunday.

PARTS LIST:
* 5-pack of plastic freezer cups w/sealable lid; around 5 to 8 oz deep
* (4) 3/4" copper couplers from the hardware store
* (4) 6" strips of insulated telephone wire (stripped at both ends)
* ( 3/4" plastic caps from the hardware store, which are used to put under the legs of a table to keep it from scratching the floor
* Aluminum foil tape

   I took the cups, filled them 1/4 with dirt. I took each 3/4" copper coupler and taped one one of the copper telephone wire to the inside of the coupler. I taped near the middle inside to make sure the wire touched a clean part of the copper.

   The plastic caps are to cap and seal the insides of the copper coupler.

   So, first, I took 4 of the plastic caps (1 per copper coupler), drilled a small hole in the center so the telephone wire could be fed through. I foil taped the cap to the copper coupler, but tried not to get too much foil on the outside of the coupler. The more copper exposed, the better.

   I sealed the other end of the couplers with the remaining 4 plastic caps using foil tape. So, now, I had 4 plastic sealed copper couplers with a long wire coming out of the end. These, I put in the middle of the cups filled with 1/4 of dirt.

   Next, I took a left-over/scrap cardboard paper towel tube (can replace with toilet paper tube ... Good to RECYCLE, right??)

   I cut the tube in 5 pieces around 2.5" in length each. I cut a small slit in the top and bottom. I then wrapped magnesium ribbon around the tube (on the outside), anchoring the ribbon in the slit at one end of the tube. I wrapped it around 8 to 10 times around the tube, anchored in the slit at the top and left around 4" of slack. I cut the ribbon after around 4" of slack.

   So, we already have the copper tube in the cup, I put the magnesium wrapped cardboard tube in the cup, which makes the copper coupler sit in the middle of the hollow part of the cardboard tube. You get the picture? The cardboard tube will biodegrade, but the magnesium will remain in place once we fill the cup with soil.

   So, fill the spaces with soil, to the top. You will have a final cup where you have a long copper wire and long magnesium ribbon sticking out of the dirt in the cup.

   Next, the lid. Take the plastic lid, drill a hole in the center (maybe a 1/4" drill bit is best). fish the telephone wire (which is insulated) and magnesium ribbon through the 1/4" hole and seal the plastic cup.

   You now have a dirt magnesium and copper cell. With mine, the lid had a deep depression which I could put in a sink and run the water on it for a minute. Or drop the cup in a pot of water and let it sit for a couple minutes.

   I did this for 4 cups and after saturating the dirt with water, I hooked an LED between 2 cells and VIOLA!! I used a 1.7v red LED, but it as VERRRRRY BRIGHT!!

   I'll be making a video of this process, but I bet I can use a smaller cup and get the same results.

   For this project, the cups can be stacked. If you drill holes in the top & bottom, stack them and then make it so when you water one and the water drips out the bottom, it will feed the next.

   Or, in each pot, you can pepper the top with holes, sprinkle seads in the cup and grow flower pots with a battery cell inside. Pretty neat!

   I'm impressed with the success I'm having :-) But, the fear I have is the flamability of the magnesium. I think it's best to mix your soil with a majority of sand incase the magnesium catches fire for some reason. Better safe than sorry, right? What are your thoughts? Anyone??

   I'll report on my 30" planter in the next posting! It's now 4 weeks and it's running non-stop! Well, I did have to adjust the LED once, but it's still running very bright!

   So, no, my planters so far are not running joule thiefs! I think that's very impressive!!! But the JT will enhance the output! I'm eager to FINALLY try this.

   Sorry for the long lesson ... thanks for listening, guys!

Shannon

[in3d]

Hi guys,

   Of course on the last post, in the parts list, you'll need magnesium ribbon.

   Okay, for my 30" planter project you can see on http://www.youtube.com/eeresearcher ... the 2nd planter I built (1st one destroyed by the dog) is still running strong now 4 weeks this Sunday. I dug up some of the soil to check the magnesium and there does appear to be some magnesium oxide (white) on the ribbon, but it's hard to determine if I'm also seeing tarnishing (black). The magnesium has small bubbles on it, so I think that's it's protective mechanism.

   Last week, the air-exposed magnesium above the soil snapped where the aligator clip was attached, but the magnesium around it was still perfectly in-tact with nearly no oxidation. There are small bubbles on the magnesium in a few places, but I reconnected the aligator clip and the LED powered back up to full intensity. It's been running full-bright since then. I checked the clip last night and the magnesium has shown a small reduction of anode material at the connection point.

   So...., my thoughts ... I wonder if I can solder a copper wire onto the magnesium ribbon (it's not a flame to ignite, so solder may work). I'd ofcourse, take a small amount of magnesium to see if I can solder copper onto it. If so, I'd then vacuum seal the air-exposed magnesium with heat-shrink tubing and use the copper to connect to ... or copper may not work since it's copper ... hmm. I thought of solding an insulated bare-ended paperclip to it. Just thinking outloud.

   The point is to make the magnesium/copper last a long time without corrosion occuring. I read on the Internet that the air/moisture exposed magnesium will bubble as I've witnessed. The soil does appear to be protecting the ribbon.

   Now for the copper wire in the soil. It has started turning green, which I believe is not good. So, it will need to be refurbished at some point. However, the LED is still VERY BRIGHT 4 weeks into the test.

   I wish I had meter readings for you.

   Does anybody know of a multimeter for a PC which can do round-the-clock voltage readings???

   The mini 3-cell greenhouse project is still running and I'm still getting wierd results. It's the YouTube video running the blue LED. The LED powers up to full intensity at night and dimms out in the morning throughout . I think the dew at night is rejuvenating the soil in the shallow planter. It's like a night light effect which I think is so cool!!!

   On the LED leads, there's minimal rusting occuring where the aligator clips connect to the LED. The aligator clips aren't rusting, but just the connection points.

   I've made other earth cells, but these 3 I've mentioned are awesome. I'm actually creating quite a collection of cells and leave them hooked up to run as long as possible.

   On the 30" planter, I did need to water it one morning and witnessed the LED grow brighter in real-time. So, the LED hooked to the wires could be a good indicator of when your plants need water??? Neat :-)

   Isn't this exciting? I'm having a blast. Oops, careful of that when around magnesium ribbon :-)

Shannon

[jeanna]

 
I love it
A Water me light!

I too am concerned about the flammability of mg.
I wonder if there is a fertilizer umm granules that contains mg in it since the plants may not be able to keep up.

While 13 bucks is not a lot for a 25 gram ribbon if as a battery, it lasts for weeks, it may not be being replenished by the plants. It is still looking a little like decomposition.

Anyway, I will try this tomorrow.
I got the ribbon today and I will get some 'mushroom compost' in a bucket or 2 with a copper wire and a philodendron plant, and see how long the joule thief can run.

It will be really cool, and I will take pictures of it and make a movie if it works well. This is fun!

--------
My mg ribbon package warned to keep it away from water. Does anybody know what the water reaction is?

About copper wire in the soil. That is very interesting. From high school memory, copper oxidation is stronger than plain copper so as long as it continues to conduct, I would say keep it. I
t probably means the mg is decomposing and the ions are becoming copper oxide green.

jeanna