Selfcharging cap circuit from Larskro fake or real ?

[TinselKoala]

Hi TK
how fast does your motor reduce in RPM ,when you switch to LOOP OFF mode ?

Slowly enough so that one might be fooled into thinking it is actually running rather than coasting.

Does your Tantalum cap also rise its voltage when you heat it with a hairdryer ? If not just use 10 pieces 100 nF ceramic blocking caps in parallel.

Regards, Stefan.

I don't know but I'll try it and find out. Certainly, small batteries do rise in voltage when heated up and this voltage rise actually represents usable energy, as I've shown with the DALM Joule Thief.

I have a bunch of small BaTiO monolithic capacitors in glass envelopes, they look a little like diodes. But they are mostly very low values. I may be able to do the heating experiment with them anyway. I seriously doubt that this would produce usable power, though.

One could try comparing the power output (not just voltage) of a standard thermocouple junction, and the magic capacitor, heated at the same time by the same source. I would imagine that the TC junction would be more powerful.... which is probably why we don't just use capacitors instead of TC junctions for temperature measurements.

Can Larskro run his tiny motor using a TC junction and a flame for the power source?

I've cleaned up the MiniPulse motor and prepared it for a demonstration video in full "Larskro" mode. I'll be making the video today, after I mow the grass.

I can show the cap voltage on my 10F supercap building up, but only in "loop off" position, and the motor is of course coasting at that time, as is Larskro's.  This is just a dielectric recovery effect though; it happens even if I hold the rotor motionless with my fingers.

Regardless of whether or not the Magic Cap is providing power to the circuit (why isn't it being sucked up by the bigger cap?) the schematic posted by Larskro has no means for running the motor when battery is disconnected and "loop OFF" switch position is selected, because the Reed Switch is disconnected in that mode.

My tiny waterfaucet generator should be here in a day or so, but the MiniPulse motor parts are working really well. It runs, or at least turns under power, down to below 0.1 volt input using the reed switch from the little reed relay. Given 1.0 V, it really goes, and with 2.7 volts it is screaming, over 11000 RPM. I put another layer of thick heatshrink tubing over the magnet armature to help prevent it from flying apart.

After adding the tiny 33pF 500V  capacitor across the reed contacts I have had no more difficulties with the reed. I've run the thing for many minutes now, at high RPMs and low, and the reed is working well. I do have a few spares, but it will be interesting to see how long this one lasts.

[TinselKoala]

Here's a little progress report.

I received my order of 4 of the faucet LED generator things. But I wasn't able to get the generator out intact. This model is so well potted and the wires are so very fine that I broke coil wires and there is no hope of repairing these tiny wires. But I did manage to get the generator housing/bobbins/magnet/shaft assembly out without damage other than to the coil wiring. So I stripped off all that little wire and now I have the bare generator capsule, waiting to be rewound.

Its shaft has no bearings, of course, and it comes to a stop pretty fast when spun by fingers.

The faucet things look pretty neat on the faucet, changing from blue to green to red depending on the water temperature. This might actually be useful, since one of the disabled housemates has lost the ability to feel temperature in his hands. Might prevent him from scalding himself someday. The thing is noisy though, the generator spiral-flow thing makes an audible whine.

[d3x0r]

Here's a little progress report.

I received my order of 4 of the faucet LED generator things. But I wasn't able to get the generator out intact. This model is so well potted and the wires are so very fine that I broke coil wires and there is no hope of repairing these tiny wires. But I did manage to get the generator housing/bobbins/magnet/shaft assembly out without damage other than to the coil wiring. So I stripped off all that little wire and now I have the bare generator capsule, waiting to be rewound.

Its shaft has no bearings, of course, and it comes to a stop pretty fast when spun by fingers.

The faucet things look pretty neat on the faucet, changing from blue to green to red depending on the water temperature. This might actually be useful, since one of the disabled housemates has lost the ability to feel temperature in his hands. Might prevent him from scalding himself someday. The thing is noisy though, the generator spiral-flow thing makes an audible whine.

Mine is pretty quiet; the circuit board was like sealed to the end with acryilc in mine... like the whole bottom end of the coil/board is in acyrlic (there's a few bubbles I could see)


Part of the reviews on the home depot site was 'only lasted like 8 months'  ... without bearings it's gonna wear out the plastic and get noisy; but it's cheaper with fewer parts

[Thaelin]

  Some pages back there was  a pic of the Cap with legs
on both sides and it was thought that it was a battery.
Well, FWIW, I have the remnants of a shake light and it
has the same looking cap in it.  It is a .22 F cap and not
a battery in my instance. Not building this but fun to read.

[Pirate88179]

  Some pages back there was  a pic of the Cap with legs
on both sides and it was thought that it was a battery.
Well, FWIW, I have the remnants of a shake light and it
has the same looking cap in it.  It is a .22 F cap and not
a battery in my instance. Not building this but fun to read.

Thaelin:

Nice to see you again.  Yes, that is a supercap.  I got my first one by taking apart one of those shake-lights and I used that cap and lit an led using my very first (crude) earth battery.  That little cap acts just like a battery, which is why I have run many things from ones like that, as well as larger capacitance variations up to 650 farad.

Bill