Sorry for the late update, cutting the cathodes didn't worked as smooth as I expected.
Seems the tools I have are not made for cutting 1 mm metal sheets, I've broke 3 cutting disks in the process:
Cutting the copper sheet was okay but the magnesium sheet is much harder to cut.
But with all the damage I succeeded in the end:
I just want to add a few advices related to safety because in the experiments we do safety always comes first.
When cutting a magnesium sheet:
Prepare a way to control and collect the magnesium powder generated in the process; magnesium powder is a fire hazard because it can spontaneously ignite (more details here); put a big sheet of paper under it while cutting and after the operation carefully throw the magnesium powder outside your house;
Do not let the magnesium sheet temperature go to high, this metal can ignite at higher temperatures; cut as long as you can still keep the hand on the magnesium sheet during the cutting process; when you feel it's too hot take a pause and let it cool down; do not use water to make it cool down faster, water and magnesium at high temperature can also make it ignite;
After finishing the operation wash your hands and face with a lot of hot water and soap to remove the magnesium powder from your skin.
When cutting copper sheet use the same safety measures, the only difference is the copper powder is not a fire hazard.
Remember, experiments are very important but your safety comes first !
Today I bended the cathodes, I've made measurements and made the final cuts so they can fit inside the cells:
The small copper foil you see on all the cells is there to ensure good electrical connection to the cathodes.
And this is how the finished cells look like:
Each cell will have a different configuration to see which one is the most efficient.
In the image above I added the configuration for each one including the composition of the PEG solution I intend to use for them.
When I'll find time I'll prepare the PEG solution for them.
About the carbon beads, I don't know how much I should use for one cell, Joel didn't specified. I'll go with one part and I'll see what happens.
Important Note: Before filling them with the PEG solution I must check that there is no electrical connection between anodes and cathodes. The reason: the carbon felt can have very thin (almost invisible) filaments getting out of the felt and touching the cathodes, I saw a few of that kind of filaments when I was looking carefully. Just a single carbon filament like that could make a electrical connection between anode and cathode and could ruin that cell, it wouldn't work anymore.
I'll come with updates when I have sufficient time to prepare the solution for each cell, I don't want to do it in hurry as that is an important step and could influence the efficiency of the cells.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
Posting updates, sorry for the delay. I needed to gather data and organize it for this report.
4 of 5 cells are ready, the ones I filled with PEG and copper oxide.
Two photos taken during the preparation of the solution:
On the left side is the PEG powder, on the upper side is the hot water and on the right side is the mix: 4 parts of PEG and one part of copper oxide.
The result have a deep black color.
And here are the cells filled with the solution:
You can notice in the two cells on the left side (carbon felt + aluminum foil and carbon felt + copper sheet) the solution is starting to form like solid disks around their central carbon felt anodes. This is not happening in the two cells on the right side (carbon felt + magnesium sheet and aluminum foil + aluminum foil).
I have no explanation why this is happening only in those two cells. The only difference between all the first 3 cells is they cathodes made from different metals.
Just took this photo now so you can see the two cells manifesting this phenomenon:
Based on my experience with the previous two cells I know their nominal voltages will decrease in time as the cells become dry (all the water will be evaporated) and the mix will crystalize. So the moment of truth will be within one-two weeks.
I took the initial nominal voltages for each cell just for later reference.
Cell with carbon felt and aluminum foil:
Cell with carbon felt and magnesium sheet:
Cell with carbon felt and copper sheet:
Cell with aluminum foil and aluminum foil:
At this point the most promising cell seems to be the one with carbon felt and magnesium sheet.
This is a photo took today after almost 48 hours:
About the cell with aluminum foil and aluminum foil, it has a fisure in the enclosure and its solution is leaking. I didn't knew about it, probably I've cut the plastic while I prepared the enclosure. I consider it failed, I'll need to build another one. That should have a much smaller distance between its anode and cathode, that should (maybe) increase its voltage.
But the most important part about this cell is: it demonstrates it's possible to work with anode and cathode made from the same material so definitively we're not talking about an usual galvanic process in this kind of cells and there is the potential to have no corrosion process in them during the years.
Another proof for this is the following video.
I had some mixture left so I put it in a plastic cap thinking maybe I can experiment with it later when it will crystalize. You can see it in the center of the image above.
To my surprise it's producing about 36 mV (keep in mind the multimeter probes are made from the same metal):
About the fifth cell (the one I plan to build with carbon felt, magnesium sheet, PEG and polymer beads), I didn't built it yet.
I want to check Joel's videos so maybe I can find more information about the quantity of polymer beads Joel used when doing his mix and about the process.
I expect that cell to have high performance.
The two functional previous cells will be moved on my experiments table and I'll start experimenting with them and the varactors to see how I can use their self-charging energy.
Safety Note: be aware that copper oxide powder is toxic, take all the necessary precautions; avoid skin contact with it or inhaling it; after you've done working with it wash your hands and face with hot water and a lot of soap.
I'll come with updates when I'll have them.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
Sorry for the lack of updates but I had a lot of troubles building the solution for the 5th cell.
The different materials that I have (the PEG 3350 or the polymer beads, I don't know which one) result in different behavior than Joel presented using the Canadian versions of these materials.
I needed to make separate experiments with these two materials and to come with a different process to obtain a relatively similar solution like Joel shown when preparing that kind of cell.
I have a lot of photos I took and a lot of details to present what I tried and did but I need to organize all the data before presenting it.
Most likely I'll do that in the weekend when I'll have more time.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
As I said above, I had troubles using the PEG I have with the polymer beads while preparing the 5th cell.
I'm pretty sure the cause is one of them (or maybe both) don't have the same composition like their Canadian versions.
More specific, Joel description when he used his matarials was: put a few drops of hot water in the PEG then put polymer beads and start mixing them so the polymer beads will start disintegrate within the PEG like he shows here:
The polymer beads I have are very small:
But they grow big (like their Canadian version) when they are put in water and stay there for a while:
So I was thinking in PEG they will also frow bigger and disintegrate but it didn't happened like that, they didn't grow too much and didn't disintegrate in PEG as expected no matter how much I mixed them:
It was obvious there is a difference in the materials I have so I started to experiment with small quantities of PEG and polymer beads to find a process for mixing them together.
After many experiments I found a way to do that:
put the polymer beads in water until they grow bigger;
put the growth polymer beads in PEG mixed with a few drops of hot water;
put the plastic cup with the mix in a bigger recipient with boiling water;
mix the polymer beads with the PEG until the polymer beads disintegrate.
The result will be an oil-like translucid liquid:
Here is the mix put within the cell and the initial voltage measurement:
Then another problem: after 24 hours the mix didn't started to crystalize at all, it was still liquid.
I figured out I needed to eliminate the water from the mix so I've put the mix back in the plastic cup and I've put the cup in the same bigger recipient with boiling water for a while so the water from the mix can evaporate.
When the mix became viscous I've put it back in the cell. After about half of day I noticed it started to crystalize.
Joel says when his PEG-polymer mix started to crystalize the crystal kept growing for a while like this:
The mix I have is not growing while crystalizing but still I noticed something different about this cell: while drying this cell's voltage kept increasing for a while (4-5 hours) then is started decreasing. It's a totally different behavior than all the other cells because their voltages were permanently and slowly decreasing immediately after they were built.
This is the photo of the cell I took today (on the right side):
On the left side is the cell with PEG and copper oxide (having carbon felt and magnesium electrodes just like the 5th cell on the right side) which is drying for a few days now and its voltage is still (very) slowly decreasing.
In the plastic cup I've put some PEG-polymer mix and two electrodes made of some remaining copper and magnesium, I want to observe in time if there is any signs of corrosion on these electrodes:
This is its current voltage:
But keep in mind this one and the 5th cell are new and are not fully crystalized so their voltages will drop until they're fully dried.
As now I have more than two cells and just two multimeters I will not be able to monitor their voltages in real time so I'll get their current voltages from time to time.
Tomorrow I will do that and post images with the current voltages of this new generation of cells.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
This is the current status of nominal voltages for the 2nd generation of cells (use the image magnifier to see the details).
Keep in mind the last two cells are built recently, they still got a lot of water inside them so their voltages will drop significantly as they keep drying.
About the 3rd cell (the one with aluminum tinfoil electrodes and PEG plus copper oxide solution) I'm not sure what's going on with it. Most of the time it got 10-30 mA but sometimes it goes crazy jumping up and down to above 100 mA or even reversing its polarity.
I verified there are no imperfect contacts between the probes and the electrodes, the contacts are okay but it's still doing that. I have no idea what's the cause.
This is a video with that behavior:
I don't know what this thing is detecting, any ideas/hypothesis about the cause of this behavior are welcome... ๐
I'll keep posting updates about the cells status and also about the experiments I will start with the two cells from the 1st generation.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
I think this is the only explanation for this behavior.
This is the video showing millivolts on both DC and AC:
Certainly this cell is different. Its output is very small so I cannot use it as a power source but it can become a very sensitive sensor for ambient energy accumulations.
And also this cell is the proof these cells are not galvanic as this one have electrods made of the same material and this exclude any galvanic process. And this means there is the potential for these cells to work forever without the electrodes corrosion which occurs in the galvanic cells.
The process in these cells is most likely based on quantum tunnelling.
But this could be proved only in time like 1-2 years of functioning while powering something like a low-power LED and checking there is no corrosion appearing.
Thank you Jagau !
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
Have you looked at the cell's electrostatic activity with a scope? Watch for noise or coherent signals.
When connected to the scope, take a strong magnet and move it around the cell (close/far) to see if there is any variance in the (overall) electrostatic dipole intensity/activity.
Also, turn on/off devices in the cell's proximity to see their affect on the electret.
Because the cell's medium allows for random polarization, there can be sub-regions (domains) where local dipole(s) change as they interact, like stirring soup ... or eddy currents in a river.
Imagine a region/domain charging as another discharges. It's like the motion of planets in a solar system when they align/disalign. What if the domains are rotating due to random resonances, or a gravitational spin effect.
The electret, from my understanding, is analogous to a magnet, only the electrostatic field does not align uniformly like striking a piece of iron at one end to kinetically align all the domains to form a resonant medium ... a magnet.
Consider that there may be other ways to align the electret's domains, like applying a bias frequency (AC or magnetic) while hammering DC pulses through the medium. Microphone electrets are made with high voltage application.
Imagine loosening the domains while aligning them, like vibrating cement in foundation forms to purge air pockets, or more like applying an ultrasonic bias signal to a tape recording head while simultaneously applying audio signals.
This type (organic) electret is essentially plastic/mutable, wheras a magnet is not.
Note: Suspending metalic molecules in a plastic medium, to align the electret's dipole, is analogous to adding plastic to metal to form a flexible refrigerator magnet. One marginally aligns while one marginally misaligns. There is likely an optimum mixture.
"Electrets are prepared by being heated and simultaneously exposed to an electric field. In this process, many dipoles in the material become oriented in a preferred direction. After heating, the material is “frozen” and keeps the position of its electric dipoles for a long period of time." - Electret
"An electret can be considered a piece of dielectric material with the presence of quasi-permanent real charges on the surface or in the bulk of the material, or frozen-in aligned dipoles in the bulk." - Electrets
The last link mentions the use of electrets for harvesting energy.
Sorry for the late reply but I wanted to come not with just a simple answer but also with a summary of what we know until now about these cells.
First there is no electrostatic charge on cells' surfaces. I tried some time ago with some styrofoam pieces and they don't get attached anywhere on these cells. Styrofoam usually attach to objects having static eletricity because of the triboelectric effect.
It doesn't mean there are no electrostatic charges but I suppose they're more subtle manifesting inside the cells between regions/domains of the crystalized PEG (eventually mixed with copper oxide powder or polymer beads).
So what we know so far about these cells:
1. There is no electrostatic charge around or on the suface of the cells;
2. Unlike standard batteries/accumulators these cells' resistance is 0. So when placed in a circuit these cells provide energy but they don't close the circuit (think about Tom Bearden's "don't kill th dipole !" advice):
3. There is intense activity inside the cells with random fluctuations as I shown in my post here:
4. Altough they provide voltage they provide no or almost no current. That tells us these cells are not common galvanic-based cells which would provoke electrodes corrosion, most likely we're dealing with a quantum-tunneling process which should not affect the electrodes so these cells should work forever. But of course this could only be confirmed after having these cells powering something (one or more LEDs) for a few years;
5. There is evidence that strong permanent magnets could improve cells' efficiency:
6. While they're built they can be conditioned using temperatures high enough to make the PEG mixture melt and applying electric pulses to the cell:
7. Altough they provide almost no current the cells like to charge capacitors and they do that very fast. I tried that with some random capacitors I had around and they were charged in 1-1.5 seconds at cells nominal voltage. So even if the cells themselves provide almost no current we can obtain real current from the capacitors they're charging very efficiently;
8. If we apply reversed pulses to the cells they respond back with pulses having voltages many times higher than the applied pulses. This is our undeniable proof of cells overunity. Joel says in one of his videos he saw responses going to near 100 V:
So this is a summary of what we know so far.
For now I'm letting this 2nd generation cells crystalize without experimenting with them because applying pulses, voltages etc. to them while they're not crystalized could damage them (like a wrong conditioning) messing up with their internal dipoles.
So far these are the most efficient candidates from this 2nd generation I took photos right now (sorry for the low light, it's night here):
My plan is to use them to power at least one LED and to make sure there is no corrosion effect. I'm pretty sure there will not be any corrosion because these cells are not using any galvanic process but an quantum tunneling process. If this is confirmed (will take years of running them and observing them) then these cells will work almost forever (there will still be some normal corrosion process made by the humidity in the air).
This is my plan, at least in theory, I'll see how it will work. So what I want to do is to use a cell to charge up a capacitor using an Avramenko plug so in that capacitor I'll obtain also some current. I'll also try to use the Toshiba 1SV149 varactors I bought for storing the energy from the fast random voltage fluctuations. So the pulses from the capacitor will also have some current and I can use it just to power a LED using a Joule Thief. This is the simple plan.
The more complex plan is to power that LED but also if there is enough energy to send a part of that pulse back to the minus of the cell so I can boost it's output. That would be very nice if it's possible.
But for now I must let the cells crystalize and to not mess with them yet as I could damage them.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
In the weekend I had some time for experiments so I'm adding updates.
After this time the second generation of cells should be ready for experiments, I think there is no trace of water in them and they're fully crystalized.
First, the current nominal voltages of the cells as measured in weekend:
Also I checked the status of the first generation of cells, these are their current nominal voltages:
During the experiments I didn't observed any improvement on the cells when I placed a powerful Neodymium magnet under them.
No immediate effect or after I placed them on the magnet for many hours.
So it's a different behavior than what Joel observed but of course this is not a definitive conclusion, I'll try again with different magnets and different orientations of these magnets.
Another thing which came as a surprise is the fact that the unstable cell (the one having aluminum tinfoil electrodes and PEG plus copper oxide solution shown in the video here) when connected in series with another cell can "transmit" its instability to that cell.
More specific, during some experiments I've put it in series with the cell having carbon felt and magnesium electrodes and PEG plus copper oxide solution and this cell became unstable too and is manifesting the same behavior:
I'm not sure if this will remain a permanent behavior (if it does I probably ruined this cell) or it's just a temporary effect and this cell will return to its initial stability after a while.
Very weird phenomenon and totally unexpected, I'll see what will happen.
But I decided I'll never connect the cell having aluminum tinfoil electrodes and PEG plus copper oxide solution with any other cell during the experiments.
I started experimenting with this one which I've made without too much effort, if it will be affected I could break it to get the electrodes and I can easily build another one similar:
It has high enough nominal voltage so I can use it to learn the behavior of the cells and to find ways to collect their voltage and build the circuit for that purpose so I can get also some current to power at least one LED.
I'll come with updates as I progress with the experiments.
Regards,
Fighter
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of
energy, frequency and
vibration."
