It was back in early December when I first showed you how it is possible to get around 5V from a configuration of nine copper cells with zinc-plated rods & damp soil. At that time I was using a glue gun to make my connections and this was not an effective system.
Since then I have been on the most incredible journey of discovery (electroculture & pyramids) but as spring approaches I am conscious of my aforementioned project to create an earth battery which sits in my garden for three months powering a waterproof camera, with the goal of creating a time-lapse film to categorically prove the effectiveness of electroculture alongside a control group.
With this in mind I spent the day re-designing my earth battery yesterday.
I had intended to solder the connections this time but failed to get hold of solder resin or the appropriate material to create an abrasive surface which would hold the solder in place (as recommended by @amberyooper over on hive) and for a while I was kicking myself for forgetting his message, unable to complete the job as intended.
I was at least able to fix this broken solar panel which charges a torch (with a USB port to power other devices too).
This is my first attempt at soldering!
Bit messy but it works. Just need to close it up now and make it waterproof again.
Never one to let a mistake stop the flow I figured out another way to make my earth battery connections solid.
As you can see I am using screws this time instead of zinc-plated bolts and have drilled small holes in the top of each copper cell to complete the connection.
From a configuration of seven cells I was able to get around 5.2V. I say around because it fluctuates quite a lot from 4.4 to 5.4.
Interestingly the voltage actually jumps down when I make a loud noise or bash the table with my hand. Even my movement through the room seems to create small fluctuations.
The amperage was coming in at around 1A.
The Gopro camera I intend to use requires 5V 1A, so this fits nicely.
I noticed it was snowing outside in this moment and that one of the cats wanted to come in.
Checking the view on the other side of the house, our village currently looks like this.
When I think that it snowed in April last year I am conscious that we may have three months of this ahead of us. I've mentioned this before but when I arrived in the South of France five years ago they told me it doesn't snow here any more because of global warming. Yeah right!
Getting back to my earth battery I first connected up this little light which normally requires a 3V battery.
Turning the lights out it looks great! I could probably power a bunch of these lights in series with this set-up. Perhaps I will try that tomorrow.
For now it is a night light for the children.
Please help!
I stopped at this point because I hit a brick wall.
According to this document the four cables found inside a USB type cable can be categorised in the following way.
I have a USB port here which I stripped back revealing the copper inside the red & back, as indicated above.
Upon connecting these wires to my earth battery however I am getting no reaction.
I tried many different types of USB cable in many different ways but I could not, no matter how hard I tried, get a charging light to appear on any device.
Do any of you happen to know what I should do to resolve this problem?
I watched a few vids before bed last night and found this guy who connects a USB port to a solar panel using a "buck converter/charger".
Looking into it I see this little device basically regulates the output to be consistent and bearing in mind what I mentioned earlier about the earth battery output not being consistent my feeling is that this is the solution.
But before I go ahead and buy one I just wanted to reach out to you, hoping someone can confirm I am buying the right thing.
Please tag your electrically minded friends and let's get to the bottom of this before the end of the week so I can show you how to power all USB devices from an earth battery.
Beyond this I am going to run a small light like the one shown in my children's bedroom indefinitely, posting an update at the bottom of every future post indicating the number of days the light has been on. The only fuel I will add is water, to keep the soil moist.
I wonder if USB heaters exist???
Could be useful moving forward.
Love & Light everyone 💡
Ok. Was translating this post to an electric engineer that I work for. He has a couple of questions.
When you move your hand around it, does the volt increase or decrease?
If it is increasing you need to probably have longer tubes or raise it higher.
Also you need to isolate it. Wrap each tube a bunch with paper. Or something. Not really sure what would be the best option but the idea is isolation.
Do that first and test it with the light and check what happens when you move around it again on the multimeter.
He became very interested too. He also said, as is, its the same capacity as a mini solar panel.
Good job btw.
Here to serve with any other electrical questions aswell.
It decreases. Same thing with loud noise and general movement around the room.
Okay, this is interesting. Nice idea to stop the interference.
My final set-up will however be buried in the garden so I don't feel like this aspect is too important. I imagine it will give a steady output once it is in the earth. But let's see...
Unfortunately it turns out I was reading my multimeter wrong! Am still new to this. In fact, what I have here is 1milliamp so will need to add more cells in parallel to increase amperage.
That being said, I believe the total power output will go up once I get it into the ground where it is supposed to be. I would in fact be doing all these experiments outside if it wasn't so cold.
Many thanks for your help!
And to your friend too :)
Great progress. There are some solders that come with flux imbedded in the solder which makes things more convenient. My gut feeling is that you have some questionable connections if you have that much variation in voltage. 🖖
Thanks for the solder tip. Was not aware of this. Need to get back to the shop really and see what they have in this respect...
For the voltage variation I struggle to see how it relates to connections. I may be wrong of course but it seems to me that earth batteries simply don't have a steady output until they are in the ground. Too many variables on my kitchen table. Like I said, even noise would disturb the voltage.
By the way, I have been alerted over on hive that I am reading my multimeter wrong and in fact I am getting just one milliamp! So, I have more copper and will make more cells in parallel now to increase this.
Looking forward to getting this into the garden too, as I believe the output will increase once it is deep in the earth. Let's see...
Sometimes the best adventures & results are achieved through trial and error. 🖖
There are no 'mistakes'. Only learning experiences!
Greetings to my friend with Polish roots 😉
Greetings! Yes, I remember mentioning that to you.
Have been considering in fact the possibility that my Polish ancestors had knowledge of electroculture and free energy. Perhaps I am just remembering that which has been forgotten after a couple of generations of consumerism?