Quote from: Jimboot on July 10, 2008, 09:34:59 AM
Which brings me to my next question. Is there any PC/Mac peripheral which will act as a multimeter and record readings etc? Or PC Oscilloscope or something?

Sounds like you're looking for a Datalogger aka Datarecorder.
I have a nice one, not expensive either, hooks up to your usb port, comes with software such as
digital oscilloscope etc, and has 4 channels to record. It can only record voltages though,
but with the voltage over time reading you can still get quite good info.
There are better ones around that are a bit more expensive but can give more detailed readings.
The one I have is made by Velleman instruments and it called the PCS10 4-channel datalogger.
Cost me something like 50 Euros or less.

Quote from: Koen1 on July 10, 2008, 08:59:38 AM
I dont see the 3,75 volts, I see him just barely reaching 300 milliVolts...
And I see him using a fairly long antenna wire...
Surely everybody knows we can use a long wire antenna or metal plate
antennas to "collect" charge? The higher you hang them, the better...
But I never see the guy mention amperage even once, so for all his talk
about collecting free volts, it could be he gets a voltage on his capacitor
but that he's still getting near zero actual power...
Not very impressive at all, imho.

This guy reckons he charges a mobile phone with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPE6OG7Mp0

1st vid showing volts vs amps

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x63ay9

BTW I tried the suggestion of using an air gap and got up 0.5 volts. I'm wondering whether that could simply be an antenna effect close to the array. I have to be no more that 10mm away from the top mag to get a reading. MY highest reading was achieved with about 3mm clearance and I got higher readings if the metal of the clip was wet.

 Jimboot
I was disappointed with your video. Can you show more of how your battery is constructed? To measure volts just put one lead on the positive terminal and the other on the negative terminal, To measure amps, just change the meter to amps (leads in same place). That will give you open circuit voltage and short circuit current which is the maximum voltage and maximum current. With a load resistance, each will be less by an amount depending on the load. Note, some meters require moving the leads to different plugs for amps and volts, so you may need to do that. By terminal, I mean where your meter leads connect to thee battery (which in one case is through the plastic on the lead probe).

Sorry Xee!

I've recorded about 30mins worth so far. One of my cams was on the fritz so I have been delayed in getting the other vids up.

THere is not much to see with the setup really Just the diagram that I posted earlier, but I will get the rest up. Also I got 0.8volt with an air gap today with an electrician watching what I was doing and he thought it was "very weird" and "did not make sense" He had a go at measuring himself and got similar results.