quentron.com

[Groundloop]

@GL,

Yes I was addressing you for the previous post.  I like the theory.

Stprue,

I have read, and been told, that it is impossible to build a solar panel that can convert IR light to energy directly.

So I did ask myself, why is it possible to make a opto-coupler that uses a IR LED to control an enlarged
base area of a transistor. Surly, the IR LED is is providing enough energy (voltage and current) to the
transistor base to switch on the transistor. This led me to solder the 100 IR LED panel and test the panel
is a dark room with a IR light. My test did show me that it is possible to convert IR light to energy. Now the rest
is just a engineering problem. How do we make a large panel with IR sensitive elements that covers the
correct wavelength (IR light from ambient). One way to do it is building a substrate like Philip will do.

GL.

[conradelektro]

Stprue,

I have read, and been told, that it is impossible to build a solar panel that can convert IR light to energy directly.

So I did ask myself, why is it possible to make a opto-coupler that uses a IR LED to control an enlarged
base area of a transistor. Surly, the IR LED is is providing enough energy (voltage and current) to the
transistor base to switch on the transistor. This led me to solder the 100 IR LED panel and test the panel
is a dark room with a IR light. My test did show me that it is possible to convert IR light to energy. Now the rest
is just a engineering problem. How do we make a large panel with IR sensitive elements that covers the
correct wavelength (IR light from ambient). One way to do it is building a substrate like Philip will do.

GL.

There is a way to harvest IR and all other light frequencies, but it is not ready yet:

http://spie.org/x51851.xml

Greetings, Conrad

Citation from the article:

Antenna-coupled diode solar cells, also called rectenna solar cells, work on an entirely different principle, much like a crystal radio receiver but for light. Incoming solar radiation (electromagnetic waves) is received by sub-micron-size antennas, which convert it to ultra-high-frequency alternating current (AC). This current passes through a nanometer-scale, ultra-high-frequency diode, which converts the AC to direct current (DC) and provides usable power (see Figure 1). A solar cell would incorporate a large array of millions of these elements in tandem deposited onto a glass or plastic substrate. Fabrication costs can be low, with devices processed cheaply in a roll-to-roll process.

Developing an efficient rectenna solar-cell technology is a major undertaking. A key challenge, providing a diode that can convert the petahertz frequencies of visible light to DC and couple efficiently to antennas, cannot be met by conventional technologies. We presented a new device that may provide the solution, the geometric diode. Specifically, we demonstrated a geometric diode that works in converting IR light.

[Philip Hardcastle]

I posted this on the quentron website under the $10 experiment page.


ISOTHERMAL OVENS
There is a point that needs to be discussed as some people with a poor understanding of physics (joshs at the moletrap) seem to think that there is a flaw to the experiment, simply put they argue that if the isothermal environment (the oven) in which the pentode valve is immersed requires a kW to obtain 500C then the uW of output from the device under test does not demonstrate a violation of the 2LOT. This is of course not so and it demonstrates a lack of his knowledge of physics, I shall patiently try to explain yet again why, maybe by posting it here he can stop his name calling rants and listen.


The statement by Kelvin was about a device being in a single reservoir of heat, now how we come to have that single reservoir of heat at 500C when ambient is 20C clearly requires the use of a heater and heaters need power, but if we imagine the experiment was done at noon on the surface of Mercury the ambient temperature would be high enough to cause the pentode to produce an output, and we would have the load at the same temperature, so joshs would be happy, or we would hope so.


However when we talk of using a laboratory oven or bespoke hot environment he objects as he talks of the kW required to heat the oven but if we simply ignore the oven power requirement or say it is just to give us a Mercury environment, then we can see that the pentode is still in an isothermal single heat reservoir, and so if it produces an output it violates the 2LOT.


One other reason he has expressed, when pressed about his logic, is that there is a 500C temperature difference from the Pentode in the oven to the load and multimeter that are at room temperature. He thinks somehow that this is a delta T of 500C that can be plugged in to the Carnot equation, the simple fact is that the Pentode is terminated in the isothermal oven to a hot termination block and so there is no temperature gradient across the Pentode or to its output pins, the temperature gradient of course exists from the hot terminal block inside the oven to the cold terminal block outside, but so what? we all know that if you use identical wires that go from a cold terminal block then into a hot oven where they are terminated at a hot terminal block, and then shorted by a wire of any material there will be no emf created. This is after all simple thermocouple theory, and even if we had a 10C temperature difference across the hot block terminals common thermocouples have only uV per degree outputs, so a 10C difference across the terminals at the hot block could only account for a fraction of a mV, now as we get almost a Volt from the device under test it should be obvious that it is not as a consequence of any delta T and thermocouple effect.


I hope the above helps joshs and others with their basic understanding of the physics, I must admit that I find it hard to explain to joshs such simple concepts for I cannot fathom how he fails to grasp such a simple concept as thermocouple theory. I will report back if he still does not understand and try to explain this in a simper way or perhaps with a few simple diagrams.

[Philip Hardcastle]

Hi All,

As the launch of Quenco is now fast approaching I have taken down the sebithenco and $10 experiment.


I have replaced it with a note that we will invite some people to witness the Quenco in operation at Palo Alto.


There will be no further posting here or on the Quentron website until March 10.


Take care

[MileHigh]

Philip:

There will be no further posting here or on the Quentron website until March 10.

As expected, you are not going to make your new new ... new new deadline for the end of February 2013.  It's amazing how you deal with people that are supposed to provide you with goods or services and they simply never deliver the goods for you.  Presumably they are professional people (if they actually exist) that would either refuse to take on a task if it is not realistic and they can't deliver, or, they would take on a task and deliver.  They might be late perhaps once, but they certainly would not be late 20 times in a row.

Like I said to you in my posting that you never replied to, even though you tried to engage with me for starters, you are NOT REAL.  Every fiber of my being is telling me that there are some serious serious problems with you.  Your roller-coaster web site is just one of the big clues.

We know ahead of time already Phil.  "People are going to let you down" on March 10th, or perhaps you will have problems again sourcing materials.  At the end of December you told us it was just the delayed delivery of some materials that were delaying you, but you never had any follow-up comments about that issue to the best of my recollection.

How long with this merry-go-round continue?  Who knows the answer to that question but what a bizarre spectacle this whole thing is.

MileHigh