B_rad,


these are great results! 


Glad to see that the self charging happens for you too. I remember you showed us how you encase the cells, I think it was a video? Do you still have that link to that video?


Also what part of the world are you at? I get around 1.3 to 1.4 volts where i am at with my encased cells and was wonder if location affected the voltage.


As soon as i get all my supplies i will be making bigger cells that will be encased and join together to charge a super capacitor and that super cap will power thing from LED's to cell phones, etc. The United states postal service has really slowed down my progress, I'm still waiting for my package to arrive that I ordered  almost a month ago.

Hi All,
in 2005 when Walter Hofmann experimented with his saltwater AG cells,
see:
http://www.overunity.com/78/some-new-photos-of-walt/15/

that consisted out of first Durafix- Zamak alloy 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZAMAK
a Zinc copper Aluminium alloy

and graphite and saltwater.

he did send me a few samples and I also worked with this.

We found out, that using electrolysing a Zamak alloy rod, it got a very
hard black colored oxid layer.
Then putting this Zamak rod into a graphite cylindrical rod where a hole
was drilled into it and was filled with table-salt-water and graphite powder,
gave quite nice long lasting cells, that put out around 0.7 to 1.2 Volts,
depending on the used graphite and salt.
The interesting part was, that these cells converted the Zamak rod only very slowly
into some kind of transparent crystal, probably some kind of zincchlorid or something
like this like you can see on this old page:
http://www.overunity.com/78/some-new-photos-of-walt/15/

So the conditioning of the Zamak alloy rod with a black oxid layer
really helped to protect the alloy rod for some longer time,
but as this was still a wet galvanic cell, the alloy rod was still
converted to this kind of transparent crystal structure probably of
a zinc-alu-chlorid or something simular.

But it latest very long and had an shortcircuit output of
around 1 to 2 mA also after a few weeks, so 3 or 4 cells in series
were still able to put out some light on a white LED.

So what I wanted to say about it, that oxidizing the electrodes
makes sense and encasts them in a hard layer sometimes
as in the Zamak case.

It would be interesting to see, how much current such a
Zamak alloy cell would deliver with the heated dry electrolytes
with the Epsom salt and Borax, Alum etc.. what IBPointless2 and John Bedini has been using
to make their cells...
So maybe you can try Zamak alloy and oxidize it in an electrolizer bath.
You can get it easily by buying Durafix rods which can be used to
solder and repair aluminium metal cases..
like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALUMINUM-REPAIRS-DURAFIX-ALUMALOY-your-choice-1-4-about-10-rods-GREAT-/280764502450

To get the black layer you can just put them in saltwater or better tapwater with vinegar and attach the positive pole
on them and the negative pole to a stainless-steel rod or graphite rod and let it run for a few
moments, so the oxid will build on these Durafix rods.

Regards, Stefan.

 I already posted my results from my cells powering a shake up light led head from the flashlight. I does this very well. Most of my cells will run on it to make full brightness but it does work with and without the super cap on the led head.  The super cap has 5.5v marked on it and looks like a two button cell. I have ran the led head for hours and hours (16 at most) and after a slight recharge(rest time) it runs the same way just about every time.


But most of the cells I made were incorrectly made. With only a graphite lead and aluminum foil tray. They had eaten themselves up basically but the aluminum trays were not treated before making the cells. I think if I had treated the foil trays they would have held up. The galvanic response was pretty bad. So I am left with my best cell (Glass, very wet) with no signs of galvanic anywhere in the unit that I can tell. Ant the sodium carbonate cell.. The latter being 1.25 volts and holding in standing condition. When used the voltage drops pretty bad to about .7 or .8 volts but seems to hold up there.


My trials with treating the aluminum works with anything you can think of. I think it is how the oxide forms that is of interest and it seems to form a diode like crystalline structure, which should increase your power issue. Well I will know more after my experiments continue. I'm thinking the oxide layer must become a dopant in the carbon to increase crystalline growth of the oxide layer... You could always put an air hole and squeeze the whole mess very tightly with a cleverly designed endcap and let it dry by heating the unit up. Crystal growth should create more pressure and compress the center electrode as well. The endcap is the hardest problem but with clever design we could make a bolt on compression type endcap. When I get a chance I'll draw it up. Holidays are big around my parts. Family everywhere lol...

Quote from: ibpointless2 on November 21, 2011, 06:23:23 PM
B_rad,


these are great results! 


Glad to see that the self charging happens for you too. I remember you showed us how you encase the cells, I think it was a video? Do you still have that link to that video?


Also what part of the world are you at? I get around 1.3 to 1.4 volts where i am at with my encased cells and was wonder if location affected the voltage.


As soon as i get all my supplies i will be making bigger cells that will be encased and join together to charge a super capacitor and that super cap will power thing from LED's to cell phones, etc. The United states postal service has really slowed down my progress, I'm still waiting for my package to arrive that I ordered  almost a month ago.

Here is the link for the instructions I did for encasing the glue cells.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEJOe-rkpi8

The thing that is interesting about this method is that if you have not allowed the cells to dry and cast too early, you will have bubbles form in the plastic and this is from gassing, a clear indication that galvanic action is still in play.  When dry, you do not see the bubbles from gassing.

For the “stove top” cell, I got some of those glass holders for the tea candles.  Heat the mix with electrodes in place in the area designated for the candle.  If the temperature is too high, you can break the glass, so be cautious if you attempt this.  When cool, mix the liquid plastic and pour over the top to seal.

Another observation which may not be relevant, is when adding the catalyst to the resin, the mix will become very warm.  Do not know if this helps, hurts, or is not a factor.

Ib: I am in the South East U.S. in Alabama.  Elevation is approximately 700’ above sea level, in a valley between two mountains.

I understand about the USPS.  I had to start keeping notes as I would get things in the mail and had forgotten why they were ordered.  When you get an idea, you want to start it right away and waiting for materials can certainly try a person’s patience.

Brad S

  I don't know if anyone has had any luck charging capacitors from these cells, but yesterday I placed a big cap onto my cement cell bank and later tested it with my AV plug, the led lit super bright but only for a second or two.
  Anyway, if anyone knows what is the best electrolytic cap (not the boast caps or super caps), to use in conjunction with these or any cells, please let us know. Hopefully some that has been tried and shown to work, for more than a little while.
I find that AA batteries will also get charged this way, but only to the same low mA levels as the cells output, so that does not help much.  I do think that placing either caps or batteries in line can help, at least in theory.
   
   Harti:  thanks for the info, maybe one of the guys that have the Epsom, substitute  salt, and other things for the mix will want to try your suggestion.  I'm trying to stay away from the salts, and water, if possible, as I can get a few mA, and over one volt with my dry aluminum/carbon-quartz cells, that don't need any water, or salt, doping, semiconductor, etz...
  I do hope that we can produce a higher output using the semiconductor idea, but I still have my doubts, as it's possible that it will only work at higher levels if they are being watered regularly.  Time will tell...