Earth Electrical Energy Datalogging Experiments

[Pirate88179]

Smokey:

Nice work.  That is a good start.  A lot of others here will agree that once you leave that in the ground for a few days, your reading will go up.  Stubblefield said that, and myself and others have seen the same thing.  I really have no idea why.  mA's are hard to make and to measure.  See what it reads in a day or two.

Iltfdaniel:

Good post.  I have read similar info before and it is good to see.  Lord Kelvin talked about sea batteries and, funny thing was, most assumed it was galvanic but he proved it was not.  Thanks for posting this here. Did you mean my strange readings on my scope?

Bill

[jeanna]

EB1   Initial readings:::

Layout:  2ft stainless steel pipe

            3 copper sheets (half-Hexagon)

Voltage: 0.46v
Current: immeasurable
Resistance: 660 Ohm (?)

Hi Sm0ky2,

Is that galvanized steel? or perhaps plain steel?

I agree with Bill, It will be conditioned in a week to a month.

And I would add as a reminder you need wetness on the metals for surface contact.
My soil can turn to dry powder in an afternoon. And, when it does my battery drops close to 0.5volts. I usually put a cup of water on each electrode in the morning. this keeps the ground sort of moist. Because dumping water on it will right off make the volts go way down. Then I measure in the afternoon.

I know you probably never get that powder-dry of the west coast in the middle of the continent, but just in case your place is really dry this week, you can accelerate the response with water. Not wet, but moist.

good stuff... carry on,

jeanna

[sm0ky2]

Hi Sm0ky2,

Is that galvanized steel? or perhaps plain steel?

jeanna

definately not galvanized.  its the reminence of a stainless steel
2-piece shower curtain rod.  the 2 pieces slide perfect into each other, so i had cut it down to make my oversized VanDeGraff.

i ended up cutting down the (not quite) 5ft section to about 2 feet, so the lawn guy wouldnt intrude on my earth battery.
i stuck it off in the corner behind the squash.

unfortunately, that forced me to place them a lot closer together than i would have liked, in order to stay on the magnetic line. - which according to my makeshift compass, is right on the money.


ground is pretty wet right now from the rain but on a hot summer day it can get so dry it cracks.
I assure you the Kansas sun is like nothing the west coast ever sees (maybe death valley)....  we get 110F in the summer time on a good day.

i'll check it again tomorow after some of the moisture goes away.

[edit]  voltage is up to 0.53v now, after about an hour in the ground. im reading 2ma on the meter = 1.06mw
still not enough to power the LED, but i left it hooked up for the night just to see if it lights up later on.


i'll hook up a cap when i do my tests tomorow and see what kind of charge-rate i can get on this thing.

im impressed by the half a volt, i didnt expect that much to be honest. must be something to say about magnetic allignment.

i was thinking about burying a piece of plexi/persplex inbetween the electrodes to force a longer current path. this might make a good substitute for a larger spacing between them. any thoughts?

[Pirate88179]

Smokey:

I'm sorry, thought you were in western Ky.  Well, not too far anyway.  Our dip angles are close.  Did you adjust for your magnetic deviation for your area?  Back before I realized I was not exactly as lined up with true north as I thought, I just put one electrode in the ground and the other I just stabbed slightly into the earth at the other end.  I put my meter on it and stabbed around until I got the highest reading.  Now, it won't be as good as the one you get with everything deep in the ground but, if the theory is correct, you will see the best reading will be off of your magnetic north by the same number, or close to your deviation.  I am guessing your deviation will be about 2.5 degrees, or somewhere in that area.  Really not too far from magnetic north so it may not make all that much difference.  I just want the others to be aware as the deviation can really add up depending where you are.

Jeanna is right and I like her word "condition".  I always wet all of my stuff when I bury it.  My best numbers are when it is totally dry but, there is something about the moisture that helps the materials acclimatize or get conditioned to the ground faster.
You have just seen yourself that your numbers went up, they should continue to do so...to a point.

What kind of cap are you using?  I recommend a supercap of at least 10 Farad, or, whatever you can get a hold of.  My first supercap was only .47 Farad, but it allowed me to light first one led, and then three.

Good work over there.  ***EDIT***  .53 volts should be enough to light a regular led using a JT circuit that has a 2n3904 transistor.

Bill

[jeanna]

definitely not galvanized.  its the reminence of a stainless steel

OK not galvanized puts it closer on the galvanic scale, so you might get lower numbers from that than the galvanized which is zinc coated.

...
i stuck it off in the corner behind the squash.
... a lot closer together than i would have liked, in order to stay on the magnetic line.

How close?
I think 4 feet is far enough.
I changed mine from 4 feet to 20 feet this year. I am not getting any more than last year.

ground is pretty wet right now from the rain

Good. That will get it started. I suspect the soil will be better attached when it dries out.

im reading 2ma on the meter

milli?
I thought I had microamps. I need to check.

Do you have a joule thief that operates on less than 1 volt? You could be making one while you wait.

I didn't get to it today, but gadgetmall has some germanium transistors that turn on at less than 0.7v. This should help all of us that don't have enormous blocks of magnesium in the front garden.  I will be making a separate single JT just for the EB with the germanium transistor and boosted with cap and diodes.

i'll hook up a cap when i do my tests tomorow and see what kind of charge-rate i can get on this thing.

yes.

plexi/persplex, I dunno, try it. try everything.

I remember before I dismantled my EB garden I had some stubblefield generators and I hooked them in between the EB probes. I was able to boost the output by doing this.
Of course this makes sense. I was adding an inductor to a pulsing field.
I never pursued it, but I think it would be a good way to go. Maybe the pesky part about winding the stubblefield with cloth and doing the galvanic part won't be necessary, if you/we just hook it up somehow using the inductance it has.

Back then it was all just the primary too.
I think it is a good idea to revisit this especially after getting the radiant response today across that secondary.

But, I am rushing you. No Stubblefield yet. Just get the EB going well, then the inductors will naturally follow.

jeanna