I have always tried your batteries IB. I have done my won too. The stove top cell is the best cell in my opinion. One of the cells I made was at 1.27 dc before it went bust. All I did was take your borax salt substitute and epsom's salt but I made a change. I add pure Carbon. I got it from the art store near me... The problem with my last one is it dried way too fast and crumbled. But it was tops in voltage.


I made another one with a sheet of aluminum foil and a graphite coated paper. I cooked up the salts & Borax in the pot and when it got molten state I added the carbon and poured it onto the aluminum. Then quickly added the graphite paper. I used to use graphite leads but they were to small of a surface area. So I changed it to old tech and colored a piece of paper cut from an envelope. It works well but it needs a slight compression to make sure it stays all together. Other then the adhesion problem it a very good cell. My weakest cell is the pure carbon cell.

 This adding of the pure carbon changed the crystals. Most became elongated and needle like but there are fatter ones as well. They grow and stop at the surfaces. Most grow on a slight angle but there are some that grow straight from surface to surface. My first carbon doped crystal cell kept growing because of the increased oxygen it was now getting. These crystal batteries take some time to start and complete the growing cycle. Water does help but they need to be in normal unloaded mode for the water to not act either in a galvanic or electrolysis way. So they need to be in a complete state of rest and have water and oxygen available for the growth cycle. The cycle must be complete if it is not the effects of water in the two reactions will destroy the structure via the metal eroding.


Now even after two days the new type of mix was still wet underneath nearest the metal. I think I know why. The water the cell uses to build is mostly highly polarized water. It is from the epsom salts and when you add a bunch of charges like we do when we cook them they give up that water. That water doesn't evaporate easily because it is still within the structure via a surface skin effect and it's polarized. This polarization is a key to non evaporating water it seems. When exposed to air the growth continues via capillary action within the crystals. They sweat the water+crystal material out via pores. This action allows building on the fly and it polarizes more water in the process via environmental content.


I am working on getting a usb Microscope so I can see this and inspect the crystals for strange events or even for continued growth. I know I can get up to 800x with the cheap scopes. So that should help with this investigation.


The old carbon crystal mix is now just fully connecting from both sides so It take quite a while to form these structures fully. This old batch is 5 days old and now with the accelerated growth from being exposed to air it is just now closing up. Nick also saw the sweating from his style of hotdog cell. It was more pronounced.

  My hot dog cell shorted out by placing the last coat of glue on it, but has now somewhat recuperated to outputting about 0.6 volts, and 50mA, again.  But, as it is still drying, I have not placed it under a load, just to take some meter readings now and then. 
I found some aluminum wire to wind on the second hot dog cell that is going to be using the semiconductor treated 3" by1/4 " copper tube (red oxide layer), and I'll also make a table salt glue mix for that.   
50mA from the original hot dog cell is not so bad, considering it uses just a regular table salt electrolyte, brass rod, and aluminum alloy wire.  I think that sealing the cell with the 5 minute E-poxy or something other than just the white glue on the outside is absolutely needed, as it just blow holes right through the glue, due to the electrolysis action from the water in the glue.  It would take about a dozen of my carbon/aluminum cells to equal the current output of one of these hot dog cells, even when just using a regular table salt electrolyte.
   
  @ Ib2:  What is the current readings on your "Blue cell" now?  I've asked this before... but had no reply

NickZ


I can't give you a current reading on the big blue cell because i'm still testing it in a vacuum sealed container while it runs a LCD clock. I'm sure its at a lower current reading but it does run the LCD clock just fine, and that is all i can give you now.




At the moment I'm spending most of my time on a cell that is giving a piezoelectric effect but instead of pulses its giving a constant output of power. The power is linear to the amount of weight put atop of the cell. It seems that the cell is affected by pressure, but not in a normal sense like a piezoelectric crystal gives a spike of current when pressure is applied this cell gives a constant amps that is proportional to the weight of a object placed on top of it. This cell is taking the mass and gravity and converting it to electricity. But I'm still testing it and will have a video up soon showing what i'm talking about.

Quote from: ibpointless2 on December 05, 2011, 11:54:10 AM
NickZ


I can't give you a current reading on the big blue cell because i'm still testing it in a vacuum sealed container while it runs a LCD clock. I'm sure its at a lower current reading but it does run the LCD clock just fine, and that is all i can give you now.




At the moment I'm spending most of my time on a cell that is giving a piezoelectric effect but instead of pulses its giving a constant output of power. The power is linear to the amount of weight put atop of the cell. It seems that the cell is affected by pressure, but not in a normal sense like a piezoelectric crystal gives a spike of current when pressure is applied this cell gives a constant amps that is proportional to the weight of a object placed on top of it. This cell is taking the mass and gravity and converting it to electricity. But I'm still testing it and will have a video up soon showing what i'm talking about.

That sounds like the cell Nick made with carbon and quartz. It showed the same signs as you are stating, I think..