Ibpointless2 Crystal Cells

[PhiChaser]

I went through some of my older cells today and threw away some that were 'dead'. Of the ones that still gave me significant voltage, most had sub salt in them. Most also had corroded aluminum because of this as well. A couple didn't (at least nothing visible on the thin aluminum strips I used without disassembly). Perhaps there is a magic ratio where the Al doesn't corrode? This deserves further study (IMO)... After using two bottles of the Morton's (potassium chloride/fumeric acid) I never did replenish my supply, instead I pursued the 'qualities' of epsom salt (mostly because it is way cheaper)... So...
Another couple hours and I will take a look at the latest 'charge' test cell (mentioned earlier) containing a bit of the 'ol 12 mule team... Will just add to this post later.

Happy experimenting,
PC

ADDENDUM: Well it seems that Borax does quite a bit for amperage. One of the recently disconnected cells was reading at a fairly solid 0.85mA. I can almost smile at that! That is good amperage for these cells, most of them are FAR below that, in the uA range. Voltages aren't too bad either, I've abused one quite a bit testing it and it keeps popping back up to over 1.8v (when hooked up continuously to the VOM). I think I will give that one a rest overnight. This other one with the the higher amperage might have to sit on a ammeter overnight to see if there is any current left tomorrow. Might as well, those analog meters can go for years without batteries (heh heh, j/k)... Almost feels like I'm making some kind of progress... Hopefully tomorrow I will see similar measurements again. I have a third cell (more borax recipe) connected to a 6v battery; There are two remaining that are from the same batch (of 3). STILL LATER: Ugh, quality milliamps are so hard to come by... Still promising direction of research though... Falling below half a milliamp...

[PhiChaser]

My newest cells (using borax as an additive) seem to be holding their voltage overnight a lot better than those without which is cool. The charged up ones help up well anyways, the others (uncharged) didn't have any readings that jumped out at me, will see in a few days. These couple batches were more for a bit of proof that I had a new direction to follow than anything else. One sec, I'm gonna go check the two charged cells with an ammeter...
Well, it's a start... Less than last night but still better than what I've been looking at for weeks with the epsom tests. I guess I can put those tests to bed for a bit now that I have something new to work on again...
Today I'm going to see how much borax and epsom I can hold together with a minimal amout of Durham's. Let me say this about Borax: it likes to hold on to water a LOT, so I'm still finding out what amout to water to use. Too much water and a mix will take days to set up IF it sets up at all... On with the show!

Happy experimenting all, have a great weekend!

PC

[triffid]

Some important details on the metals we could use for electrodes.
Gold is a favored electrode material for low-aging resonators; its adhesion to quartz is strong enough to maintain contact even at strong mechanical shocks, but weak enough to not support significant strain gradients (unlike chromium, aluminium, and nickel). Gold also does not form oxides; it adsorbs organic contaminants from the air, but these are easy to remove. However, gold alone can undergo delamination; a layer of chromium is therefore sometimes used for improved binding strength. Silver and aluminium are often used as electrodes; however both form oxide layers with time that increases the crystal mass and lowers frequency. Silver can be passivated by exposition to iodine  vapors, forming a layer of silver iodide. Aluminium oxidizes readily but slowly, until about 5 nm thickness is reached; increased temperature during artificial aging does not significantly increase the oxide forming speed; a thick oxide layer can be formed during manufacture by anodizing.[39]Exposition of silver-plated crystal to iodine vapors can be also used in amateur conditions for lowering the crystal frequency slightly; the frequency can be also increased by scratching off parts of the electrodes, but that carries risk of damage to the crystal and loss of Q.




this info comes from  [size=78%]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator[/size]

[jbignes5]

I strongly suggest now to use conductive grease to protect the high charge metals, magnesium, aluminum and the likes. It seems that dielectric grease also works like we use in computers on the cpu's. But if you use the dielectric grease you need to interface with a crystalline based product like quartz. Crushed quartz in fine power works well. What I did was roll the electrode in the quartz powder and add a paper or paper towel separator. This process will open up the power and let you get full amps from any hydrate you are using. It might be advantageous to roll the quartz layer in another grease application and add a layer of hydrate powder like silicate to keep the water at the quartz interface. Then apply the paper towel around that. The rest is normal procedure of water and salts then the copper cylindrical pickup after as the case.


It seems cylindrical units will always outperform flat electrodes. So our choices from there are limited to circular geometry.

[PhiChaser]

Well the kids are off at a birthday party so I get to have a little free time today. One of the cells I created three days ago (charged) is still returning to about 1.8v. I have been messing around with it for quite a while today and it is still going strong!
I will attempt to create a few new cells today using borax again. A mix I did two days ago is still a gooey mess so I still need to 'dial in' the proper amout of H2O:Borax (among other things).
They use borax to make flubber if that tells you anything... Heh heh.

Happy experimenting,

PC