Artic Knight:

Very good explanation of the capacitor I believe.  So, if I read you correctly, the pulsed dc and/or any ac component will not drive the led as well as with the cap which "smooths out" the pulses and feeds back straight dc.  This makes a lot of sense to what I am seeing here.  I do believe you are correct that a cap. will max out on the input voltage, I have read this in my electronics books.  My question is this about caps which I can not seem to find anywhere.  What do they do to the amps/milliamps?  If you put in 2 mA over time is that what you get out?  Or, do they "build up" somehow?  It seems to me they should be constant like the volts but I believe I am getting more power out of the cap than what was put in.  I can not read the markings on this small cap, but you see it in the picture.  I have another larger on that says it is " 200 volt 820 uf"  It is almost the size of a "D" cell battery.  I want to hook this one up to see what happens.  Maybe it won't do anything other than store more juice to burn the led even longer once removed from the system.  Your ideas on the earth are right in step with what I believe.  I wish I had the balls to be out there in an electrical storm with my meter but, something (survival instinct?) tells me it is not a good idea to mess with well grounded conductors in those types of conditions...ha ha.  Did you tell your wife that you are trying to help the world by participating in projects like this?  Well, my ex-wife didn't care anything about stuff like that.  You need to keep her happy.

Jeanna:

I read fully the second link when it was posted earlier and I will now read the first one.  Thanks. I am also learning Google Sketch up so that I can post a diagram of my series attempts so maybe some of the electronics people can point me in the right direction. Did the pictures I posted help you to see what I am doing any better?  I don't have much time these days for experiments and the weather is cold but, I will make some time and brave the weather here at Ice Station Zebra for the good of the project.  Just wish my leds would get here already.

Bill

Jeanna:

My led will light off of one AA battery.  I tried it that way to make sure it was working correctly and that I had the polarity right.  It was not as bright as it is on my cell outside, even before I added the capacitor.  Hope this helps.

Bill

Bill

does this

Quoteand I want to get like 3.6 volts or so out of it in series.

mean that your carbon magnesium is giving you 1.8volts? I missed that because I missed a bunch of pages while I was trying to get up to speed on that pyramid page. !

I want some of that stuff if it is.
I remember your waiting for the carbon rod (I took a welding class last month and I can probably get some from the teacher) but I don't remember the magnesium. It looks like a brick. I am sorry if you covered this already. Where does one get that or what is it called?

jeanna

Bill

Quote
My led will light off of one AA battery.

How amazing. I wonder how radio shak did that.

cool.

jeanna

bill and jenna,

the only thing i can figure is that the voltage is higher than the amp meter reads and same for the amperage, however its pulsed, that explains why the capaciter can keep it steady (constant discharge until empty).  capaciters are good for when the voltage or current is not even, like ac or from a hand crank generator like bills savaged flashlight (i have one too) in bills case the flash light would recieve pulsed dc current spuratically and needed to be stored (arm would get tired fast trying to shake that fast enough to keep constant light!)  so really it just smothes things out. but it has its limits. as jenna said it will reach a majority charge and then basically stop accepting any charg at all. but be careful, if the pulse exceeds the capacitors ability to accept and stor a charge it will blow the cap, like a fire cracker! seriously!  its fun but can be expensive entertainment! LOL

about those 8 foot rods, i want to use them but im not starting with them, once they are in the ground i can only imagine they are impossible to pull out  would be bad for experimenting unless we had a generally good idea how we wanted them but i bet they will double our amps! maybe more considering they will be deeper and there might be some multiplier effect.... who knows? after all the top soil is very different from the next layer.. i think its 100's of feed down to next layer tho... god i wish i paid attention in geography now

heres a little chemistry lesson. 
the more water that is between the electrodes the more resistance we will have for our battery because all the electricity potential in the battery area will want to produce hydrogen and oxygen by splitting the water and it takes energy to do that so resistance. if it rains we are probobly screwed.  but on a side note, i obtained a radical increase in electricity out put by "charging" my quartz cell batteries.

salt water + sand = .04 volt
salt water + sand + charge from car battery = .75 volt

remember the current is reversed when charging so if you try this put the positive battery head to the negative earth battery head.  this might give you a great "jump start" to your battery bill

i seen the video on that dude with the leds in the bathroom, i cant imagine what would be giving him all that current unless his appliances are leaking! or maybe he had a thunderstorm near by? dunno, but one amp is to say the least going to be hard for us. and making any useful current out of 2 volt one amp is going to be tougher.  my ionic breeze takes 6 watts an hour and its the least hungry device i think i have!  and using more of these cells will eventually become more pain than gain. after all how many people wants to walk through a yard of metal spikes? we have to limit the use of them. and find a way to generate some good current.... or tricks around it. i still want to see what my half brained half crippled tesla wireless amp is going to do. probobly nothing usefull.. but what else am i going to do with all this wire?  

if i can light some florecents from it i would be... well crazy happy!  but hey maybe we can get this amped or something so we can make free non solar yard lights for a 3 watt halogen bulb? that would be really cool too! i wonder if they come in 3 watts? hey bill feel like another experiment?