EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.

[jeanna]

@dcc,
Flowepower, what another great name for this... and a windmill, no less.

---------
@All,

I finally got my magnesium block to work.

It took making a jtc with
a memory cap at the leads, 
1k at the base, and a
14 turns, 50v secondary when used with a 1.2v AAA, and a
RED led on the 14 turns secondary wire.

I realized the other day that using the secondary wire is not only more flexible because you can regulate the volts output by changing the number of turns, but the requirement is much less, so it only needs to be able to start the transistor. period.
After that it does not "suck the joules" from the earth battery, if you will.

After that, a good jtc with secondary is all that is needed.

So, it flashes a tiny red light about 2x per second.

Maybe now, the self currents from the plant's ionic movements will help it to grow to a steady red light.

At the energetic forum someone gave lidmotor a link to some research being done at Harvard making almost this very thing.
EXCEPT
They are putting salt into the battery unit. 
that will hurt the earth, while this will not.
I hope some of the Harvard researchers can see this and try it, since it is in the direction of permaculture not soil death.

jeanna

[jeanna]

Here is another quick piece about Plant battery #1, which is the one in the video.

It has 5 feet of each mag ribbon and 18awg copper wire wound in a spiral and separated by a piece of unprinted newspaper with a plant in the soil  inside of all that, and more soil outside of that to the pot edge.

It went out a few times in the time it has been working. Each time, I did very little more than add water or microbes or dolomite. Once I changed from a germanium jtc with the light at the transistor to one with 2 lights on the secondary. The last time I changed one of the leds to a red one.
And it keeps on going.

On day #15, (Apr 8 )  it went out and I touched it and a 5 inch piece of mg ribbon came off in my hands and I stuck it back in the soil to have a think, and the lights went on bright. ... a 5 inch piece of ribbon?---

That made me think about those old timers stories again.
I wonder if my planter has a current in the soil that now follows a certain path which was originally defined by the magnesium ribbon, but continues even though the ribbon is in bad shape?

Today I tested this thought again, because today the white light went out, which means the amps are below um 4mA or so.
I cut a fresh piece of Mg ribbon about 3-4 inches long and stuck it under the clip and into the soil at the place where the mg comes out of the soil.
then I sprayed the soil with some water as usual.

The light got really bright = brighter than it has been in a few days.

-----
This is very promising.
I do NOT want to disturb anything and my plan is to continue to add a little magnesium ribbon at the soil edge for as long as it continues to work (or next year whichever comes first... )
Then I will take it apart and look at the details... entrails.

Is anybody else watching the circuit getting less and less powerful?
If so, please try this and post your results.
Just cut a 5 inch piece and stick it into the ground and add it to the clip that is holding the original magnesium in place, and do not disturb the rest of it if possible.

Then please post what happens.

thank you,

jeanna

[jeanna]

Here is some more in the same vein as the last post.
Plant Battery #4 went together on Apr 10th. It was never very strong, but it worked, and I used a red led on the secondary for the light.
On day #10 which was Apr 20, the red led started to pulse. It went out, then a moment later it went on pretty bright and stayed on for 20 seconds then went out again. I fiddled a little but really, I just wanted to see what is going on without changing anything.
So, today day #12 with the light still pulsing about like before, I took out the soil on the side with the magnesium ribbon.
There seems to be only a couple of 2 inch pieces left?

OK that is right. The action of the battery ate the ribbon.
But why was it even pulsing?
The piece at the top where it connects to the clip is about 2 inches long.

I promise you that 2 inches is NOT enough magnesium ribbon to keep this going.

So, the best candidate for the explanation is that the river of ions is continuing to flow in the soil even in the absence of any ribbon.
Once it is directed, it continues.
Next time, I think I better weigh the dolomite I put in there.

I guess a good test to negatively test this river idea right now, would be to return the soil (river randomized)  and add the 2 inch piece under the clip and see if it starts the flash sequence again.

Instead, I am going to let the soil get very dry and fish out all the bits of mag ribbon I can find to weigh them to see how much got used to run a joule thief for 12 days.

-----------How does this sound?--------------------

Maybe I am making a magnesium-copper battery with dolomite as the permanent electrode, but the dolomite must first be "trained" with the presence of the ribbon. When the ribbon has dissolved, the magnesium in the dolomite is enough to continue the current production and the 'battery' only needs a short piece of mg ribbon as connection point.

any more ideas??
??

thank you,

jeanna

[jeanna]

Here is a short video showing the crink on the red led side and the normal shaped leaves on the white led side:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CktAanNTENo

thanks for watching.

jeanna

[jeanna]

Hi everybody,
Tonight I made this replication of lidmotor's bobin bedini which can run from a very low amp battery source.
And it works!
So, it is plant battery number 6 which has only 5 leaves of a philo plant and 30 inches of magnesium ribbon and 20 inches of copper wire. That is it!
If this follows the pattern from the past, this will run for 5 days then as the magnesium ribbon begins to weaken, it will slow down. Then, I can restore the full amperage by adding only a small piece of fresh magnesium. 4 to 5 inches usually works and adds another week of life to the battery.

YEAY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfIOE5YXQRs

jeanna