Free Energy From Diodes

[NerzhDishual]

@Infringer

You, of course, can put all you want on your web forum.

Some measurements:
3 diodes in series under the sun  = about 1 volt.
I was able to charge a 650 microF cap at about 0.6 volts.
I have not checked the time. A couple of minutes..

3 diodes in parallel, under the sun but later in the day :
285 millivolts (without charge).
These 3 diodes shorted with a 9.8 Kohm resistor: 55 millivolts (= with charge).

So, there is a tiny current.

I will make more experiments and more serious measurements and also some pictures
as soon as (?) the sun is back.

To me, this is not worth a solar panel!

Very Best

[Magnethos]

Hi Magnethos. :)I agree with you. #6 is the most important.
My friend Assaad and I assembled the very same circuit shown in the video you've posted. With a small antenna, we got voltage aroung 500mV. The interesting thing is: the antenna is a single wire. This circuit rectifies a single wire AC into DC.

I replaced the elevated wire by the output of an car's ignition coil Single wire. It works in the same way 

[schuler]

  Hello Experimenters 

I put the 3 component circuit from experiment 6 in series with a 1.5V battery 10 min ago. Then, I placed my antenna close to an electronic light bulb know to produce voltage in my circuit. Then, I connected a white 3mm LED in series (I placed between the battery and 1 of the germanium diodes). The result is:  I got a glowing LED!!! . It was a weak light.

Unfortunately, I forgot measuring voltage and current. I suspect that the voltage was just above the minimum for this LED that I believe it's around 2.2V. And I'm guessing the current was about 1uA.

Resume: with 2 germanium diodes 1N270, 2m long antenna, one 1.5V battery and one 3mm white LED, I've got a glowing LED!

 

[quantumtangles]

Three weeks ago, I placed a green 3v LED indicator light on my breadboard to measure the voltage.

My 'power connection' wires were only notional. They were not connected to a battery or power supply. They were just connected to the breadboard (to the +ve and -ve sides of the breadboard) to make it easier to measure any voltage emanating from the LEDs. Out of curiosity I measured the voltage between the terminals of the LED (despite no power being supplied to it) and was surprised to find a small voltage reading which I thought must probably be within the margin of error of the multimeter.

However, when I connected a second LED to the breadboard and measured the voltage again, (keeping the positive LED terminals on the same side) I noticed a small but nonetheless obvious increase in circuit voltage.

Needless to say I immediately connected as many LEDs as I could find to the breadboard (again without any power supply being provided to the circuit). I found that each LED I added increased the voltage picked up by the Multimeter by almost identical increments, and though blue LEDs seemed to caused voltage to fall, green, red and orange LEDS seemed to work quite well).

By cramming 20 LEDs onto the circuit, my first reading was 0.5 volts, however, when I moved the apparatus around the room the voltage varied from between 0.2 volts up to a rather surprising 1.2 volts. At one point I managed 1.6 volts with 25 LEDs.

I tried to add a tiny load to the circuit but no current could be measured. Not even a single milliamp. None of the LEDs ever hit the 2 volts + needed for them to illuminate (they normally operate at about 3v).

Explanation:

The voltage varied as I moved the device around the room. At first I thought the copper base of the breadboard in combination with the wire terminals of the LEDs was supplying a small voltage to the 'circuit' by induction (from the mains electricity supply). I thought this because when I turned off my 240v overhead lights, the voltage of the circuit plummeted to a nominal level. I originally suspected that each LED was forming a coil shape relative to the base of the copper surfaced breadboard, as in a solenoid with N windings.


Some days later, when I repeated the experiment, I realised that the induction explanation was wrong. The reality was that when I moved the breadboard closer to the overhead lights, the voltage increased, and when I covered the LEDs with my hand (shielding them from overhead light) the voltage plummeted to nominal levels. So they were reacting to light rather than picking anything up by induction.


In conclusion, Light Emitting Diodes, though designed to illuminate when circa 3v DC is supplied, also behave as fairly inefficient solar cells (they work backwards as well).


I iterate that I was unable to detect any current whatever, even though I added a tiny load. It is a fun experiment, easily replicated, and I hope it is of some interest to someone.

[e2matrix]

Yes this is a known effect.  LED's in strong sunlight can generate some power and have been known to baffle some people with  LED flashlights when facing the Sun in certain cases.   They were emitting light even when turned off.  Probably a cap  inside built up enough voltage to light the LED feeding the cap.