A rolling cylinder and piezos

[gyulasun]

@Rapadura

Your question can only be answered by practical tests.

-figure out how much voltage a piezo can give for the press of a ball of a given weight and this voltage should be fed into capacitors to store them (key factor here is the inherent efficiency of the piezo and the loss due to the forward voltage drops of the diodes bridge)
-figure out how the ball will return to the starting point, waiting for the next lift up of the 20cm height
-figure out how to lift the ball up to the 20cm height (probably you wish to use an electromagnet that is fed from the capacitors charge provided by the piezos, the electromagnet preferably made to work as a gun to fire the ball up to 20cm)
-figure out a simple circuit that senses when the electromagnet should be fired, the energy for this circuit should also come from the energy stored in the capacitors

So?

rgds,  Gyula

[Rapadura]

In the unlikely event of the piezos can generate enough electricity to lift the ball a little more than 20 centimeters (say, about 22 centimeters), the elevator used to lift the ball could simply lean to one side and dump the ball on another ramp, equal to the first ramp, which will take the ball toward a point on the side of the beginning of the first ramp, where another elevator will do the same thing. Closed loop.

[Rapadura]

If the angle is just 0.5 degree (half degree), instead of 1 degree, the ball will travel 22.9 meters.

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi Rapadura,

You may not even need to lift the ball. From the High road-Low road example it might be better to keep the ball on a constant slope. If you keep the ball in a oscillating energy well it wouldn't take as much power to push the ball in the opposite direction. A small pulse coil can keep the whole system oscillating. With no pulse coil friction from the ball and pivot will eventually wear away at any gains. The challenge then becomes generating enough energy to run the pulse coil. Attached is a picture of the basic idea.

[Rapadura]

@DreamThinkBuild

I think it's a good idea! I guess this thing can oscillate for a quite good time before completely stopping, no?

If the rolling surface is covered with piezos, the weight of ball will constantly deform the piezos, and that will create electricity...

We just need to know if, after the system stops completely, the stored electricity in a bank of capacitors is enough to push the ball until one of the two ends of the device (left end or right end), in order to make it oscillate for as long as in the first attempt.