[Lab] Homemade Capacitor

[Emily Daniels]

That would be awesome! I'll write up a post and pictures of my work so far,
maybe other people can build from it. I'd like to test how much voltage can
pass through it without breaking- I'll bring the cells to the next Mod Lab
for people to play with!
Emily

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Paul & Andrea Mumby
<themumbys at gmail.com>wrote:

> I have been wanting to design an easily buildable Stirling Engine for some
> time now. Using solar heated water tubing as a heat source and heatsinks for
> cooling that could be deployed anywhere without complicated fabrication
> abilities (such as required to make photovoltaic cells). If you can perfect
> a rehargeable battery from household items it could work as a means to store
> the generated power from the stirling engine.
>
> Depending on purpose and area of deployment the stirling engine is
> interesting because it can convert virtually any thermal differential into
> energy. So in absense of space or sufficient solar energy, regulat wood
> burning fires could power it just as well. Or any other heat source... hell
> you might even be able to somehow harness body heat to power it, but i
> suspect the differentiagl eouldnt be enough for a less sophisticated (and
> therefor likely less efficient) engine design.
>
> - paul
>
> Sent from my Android tablet.
> On Oct 28, 2011 12:10 PM, "Emily Daniels" <emily.daniels at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> @Andrew- way ahead of that. Already grew and tested piezo crystals at home
>> from cream of tarter and washing soda. The problem with Rochelle salt is it
>> is fragile and can crack and fragment easily under pressure. In my salt
>> mixture I combined Rochelle salt with Epsom salt (Magnesium Sulfate) and
>> heated it to liquid then poured it into the candy molds. In seawater
>> Magnesium acts as a sound absorber- meaning it can carry vibrations over a
>> distance. The piezo crystals suspended in the Magnesium seems to allow a
>> reverberation to happen, despite it's nearly solid state. Both salts are
>> highly hydroscopic and suck in moisture from the air, allowing some movement
>> of ions in the mixture. I channel the electricity generated through a copper
>> and an aluminum wire spiralled for maximum surface area and inserted an inch
>> apart in the solidified solution. The copper wire acts as the anode and the
>> aluminum is the cathode.
>>
>> @Darcy I saw your homemade hand crank- really neat! In this experiment I
>> was trying to challenge myself by creating an energy source from common
>> household items so that a person with limited access to electronic
>> components could make it without relying on refurbished piezo buzzers and
>> the like. Seems I have a way to go..
>>
>> Emily
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 11:36 AM, Andrew Plumb <andrew at plumb.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Colin's "Homebrew Piezo" blog post may be a good place to start:
>>>
>>> http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/03/collins-lab-homebrew-piezo.html
>>>
>>> Andrew.
>>>
>>> On 2011-10-28, at 11:29 AM, Emily Daniels wrote:
>>>
>>> > Hi Folks,
>>> >
>>> > I've been working on a design that I thought would be a different type
>>> of battery but it seems to discharge too quickly for that, but so far it can
>>> take a charge of 6V DC in 30 sec from a 9V battery and discharge about 3V
>>> when a load is applied (in my test case a 3V LED) in about a minute. It has
>>> a resting charge of .6V DC and 1V AC per cell. I have 4 of them wired
>>> together for the above load tests. It's a type of dry electrolytic cell made
>>> of a non-toxic salt mixture in a hard sugar candy shell with piezoelectric
>>> Rochelle salts (yes you could eat it but I don't think you'd want to) and
>>> I'm wondering if anyone has any experience generating electricity from heat
>>> or vibrations of Rochelle salts or quartz that they could help me with. I
>>> already tested the cells on top of a subwoofer and by heating them with a
>>> hairdryer, which both times there was a .1V fluctuation, but not a build up
>>> of charge, and I cracked a cell. Thanks!
>>> >
>>> > Emily
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Emily Daniels | emilydaniels.com | @emdaniels | awesomefoundation.org
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > Lab mailing list
>>> > Lab at artengine.ca
>>> > http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> "The future is already here.  It's just not very evenly distributed" --
>>> William Gibson
>>>
>>> Me: http://clothbot.com/wiki/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Emily Daniels | emilydaniels.com | @emdaniels | awesomefoundation.org
>>
>>
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>>


-- 
Emily Daniels | emilydaniels.com | @emdaniels | awesomefoundation.org
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