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

[Tenbatsu]

Jeanna,

I wonder if it's possible to protect the magnesium from corrosion while maintaining your current volt/amp output. 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TY7-3YNYBM3-2&_user=10&_coverDate=03%2F15%2F2000&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=78823ea2b72c9f7ab2c919cb659cfa15

If you get a chance take a look at that link.  It seems some type of acrylic paints containing electrically conductive polypyrrole  can prevent corrosion of magnesium.  I think it would be worth a shot to see if you can get some more life out of the magnesium tape while maintaining your current output.

[jeanna]

Hi everybody,

Here is another video. It is following the development of the outside plant battery (aka earth battery  )

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

It is only 3 minutes, but not very compressed so you can see the red led. Still, I may need to make pointers so you can see the light.

---------
And on another front:
Plant battery #1 refused to turn on after a week of rest, but it turns out that the magnesium had gone even though the circuit was off!??? Can you figure that?
So, all I needed to do was add a 4 inch piece of fresh magnesium and it started up again!

There is more thinking to do on this. If it cannot be turned off, it is really interesting to think about what is happening.
Maybe lidmotor happened on a great idea to collect the output in a capacitor when it is not in "use".

jeanna

[jeanna]

Hi everybody,

I need to describe the INCREASE that I have been seeing over and over in all the EER plant batteries with the jtc.
It doesn't make normal galvanic or even earth battery common sense.
I think this is the combination of the EER, the joule thief and possibly the cap across the leads.

In all of my plant batteries, the lights get brighter until the magnesium ribbon is nearly gone or completely gone.
Then they may still run for a while, but at lower brightness.

I missed this at first because of my normal assumptions.

Here is what happened.

It started when I decided to stop 'using' the battery when I was gone for a few days.
When I returned, I had to wait a very long time for the light to even turn on .
Meanwhile, I never took the leads off the phyllis battery, so it is not really included in this test, except you will see later, that it is. (Phyllis battery has a mag firestarter and copper pipe for electrodes.)

Plant battery #1 which has a jtc with 2 secondaries and a white and red led and ran straight for 5 weeks refused to turn on.
I just left it connected and took off again for 5 more days, but all the others were still unconnected.
When I returned, plant battery #1 was still off, so I figured it was gone and got ready to dissect it.

The 2 others which are #6 and #7 and had 6ma and 8mA on their first days could not start a joule thief at all.
I was stumped.
So, I put #6 and #7 in series and that combo lit a jtc with a white led on the secondary.
I noticed that it was getting brighter over time.
Finally it was really bright, and I split it and clipped the jtc to just #7, and now it lit up just fine.
I had left the red jtc in the ground so I got out that germanium transistor jtc and hooked it up to #6.
Nothing.

But, I was busy making that video so I just left it in place... and forgot it.
At about 10 PM I noticed a faint white light coming from its led!
Then this morning the light was even brighter.
So, the #6 has totally revived!

Meanwhile, the #7 led is blindingly bright.
So, IT has totally revived.

Before I started the dissection, I looked closely at the #1 and saw that the clip on the magnesium ribbon was only touching a 1 inch piece.
I cut and added a 4 inch piece to the clip and buried the wire near the magnesium line, added a few squirts of water spray, and both lights went on. Over the afternoon they got dim then this morning, without anything being done to them, they are brighter again.

Now, about the phyllis plant battery (used to be called #5).
She just blinked from the very beginning.
In the lase few weeks, I thought the length of the 'on' blinks was longer than the length of the 'off' times.
By last week, I was sure of it.
In fact, the on time was 4 to 1, then 5 to 1, then even 9 to 1, on to off, and irregular like that, which is pretty strange.
When I got back and all the rest of the PB's were unconnected and off this phyllis was straight on and has not even flashed one time in the last 3 days!

So, there is some kind of self regulation or self pumping going on.

----
I think of being on a swing with no one to push and being too high to kick the ground.
I lean back and pull, then forward and only a tiny movement happens. Then again and a tiny bit more. And so on until I am actually swinging and can use the swing to enhance MY efforts to increase the swing.

That is what I think is happening with the joule thief circuit in this plant EER .

Where is Dennis and cosmic farmer and eeresearcher and dcc Bill, etc??
Please someone else try this.

I also think that making a ring or a spiral is very helpful, but others need to be doing this too...please!

thank you,

jeanna

[dcc]

@Jeanna , @All,

I was hospitalized with acute appendicitis last Sunday and I'm now at home recovering.  WOW, that about kicked my butt! 

Anywhoo, prior to my little setback I had been experimenting with creating "dirt batteries" using 500 ml drinking water bottles for containers.  I cut off the tops of the bottles and filled them with our East Tennessee red clay. 

For electrodes I used magnesium plates from a 15 lb ingot purchased on Ebay and graphite plates cut from larger bars also purchased on Ebay.  I placed the “dirt cells” in six pack carries for long neck beer bottles and wired them in series. 

Progress was slow because I didn’t have proper tools to machine the magnesium ingot.  I tried a cheap band saw with no success so I cut the individual plates by hand with a hack saw.  I know, but I’m semi-retired thanks to the economy so I’m trying to save money on my experiments…

I managed to create 12 cells, 2 six packs.  They put out about 18 volts, I was not able to measure the current but they light 2 sets of 6 bright white led’s from small led flight lights purchase at Home Depot brightly with no JTC’s.

Now here is the interesting part of the story. My “dirt batteries” were disconnected while I was away.  I could not resist sneaking out to the garage on Saturday to hook them back up.  When I reconnected them they lit, but dimly.  I have the lights point towards the house through the garage.  Sunday morning early I looked out and they seem brighter than when I initially reconnected them, but this is a very unscientific observation.  Perhaps Jeanna’s observations are correct.  I will keep an eye on this and keep you posted.

I’ve attached pictures of my “dirt batteries” and lights.

Plant battery update:  My “flower power” cell made with, mg ribbon and copper wire powering a standard JT started on April 5 died May 5, 30 days.  As with others, the mg ribbon broke at the soil line.  I plan on rejuvenating it with a mg plate replacing the mg ribbon.

Earth battery array update:  I had 3 long wire mg ribbon/copper wire arrays.  Two have died.  I suspect that the mg ribbon has broken as with my “flower power” experiment.

New Earth battery:  Using concepts learned from Pirate, I created a new cell using an entire 15 lb magnesium bar (20 x 4 x 3 inches and a large graphite plate ~ same surface area).  I buried the graphite (carbon)  3 feet deep true north and the mg bar about 6 inches deep spaced about 15 inches apart to take advantage of magnetic dip for my location ~65 degrees.  I used quartz pebbles, sand and clay to fill in the hole. 

The results were discouraging to say the least.  It puts out about the same power as my long wire cell.  I have the long wire cell and the mg/graphite plate cells wired in parallel powering a Kooler’s Backwards JT Circuit lighting 4 bright white 5 mm led’s.  The attached pictures show it in action.   

I thought the quartz may have improved the performance of the battery (John Hutchinson’s Crystal Battery) but now I am not so sure.  The native red clay alone with its iron oxide may have been a better option.  I now know that the arrangement was an ineffective use of electrode materials.  I plan on exhuming the graphite and magnesium for further experimentation.  I think the key as Lidmoter pointed out is to maximize electrode surface area, not just introducing a large mass. 

Keep moving forward -
Doug

[dcc]

@Jeanna, @All

Here are some more pictures showing the lights powered by my "dirt batteries" and "earth batteries"

Cheers
Doug