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Author Topic: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)  (Read 33553 times)

conradelektro

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Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« on: February 29, 2016, 10:36:21 PM »
The oldest "electricity generator" is the electrophorus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophorus which was invented around 1760.

The electrophorus can be viewed as a variable capacitor which is pre-charged. And by separating the plates (moving one plate of the capacitor further away) one can increase the Voltage of the pre-charge (the principle of charge separation).

The pre-charge is set up by rubbing the "cake" of the electrophorus (the electrolyte) occasionally with fur or wool (the triboelectric effect).

The electrophorus is normaly viewed as a demonstration object (demonstrating the charge separation principle) and not as a continuous source of electricity. One creates a high Voltage charge in the movable plate of the electrophorus and that is the end of it.

Here you can see such a typical demonstration video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO95iGtRVv0 (which is not from me). There are many such demonstration videos available at YouTube if you care to search for "electrophorus".

I developed two circuits (a "basic circuit" and a "basic doubler", see the attached circuit diagrams) which allow to use the electrophorus as a continuous source of electricity. Well, not as continuous as a battery, but one can create a train of High Voltage pulses.

The "basic circuit" is demonstrated in my two videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCp68VX7NE  and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzoUiZnR5QA

The two videos are not very well done and you have to eliminate the diode HVRT200 mentally. It does not do harm, but it is superfluous (just two HV capacitors are needed and at least one gas discharge lamp (FL, Neon Lamp, CFL). So stick to the "basic circuit" as attached.

The "basic circuit" delivers a HV pulse in one direction (when the top plate is lifted) and then a HV pulse in the other direction (when the top plat is set down again) and so on. If the gas discharge lamp has a rather low break-through-Voltage (e.g. 300 Volt), a series of positive pulses and then a series of negative pulse and so on, is created (because the charge builds up several times per stroke to 300 Volt).

My little research topic is to come up with additional circuitry (which would replace the gas discharge lamp) to for instance charge a super cap with the generated pulse train.

The "basic doubler" is demonstrated in my video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notE4ugcgvk

and in the video it charges a capacitor with pulses in only one direction to about 5000 Volt (in this case negative pulses) and drives a simple electrostatic motor.

So, the "basic doubler" creates a train of pulses in only one direction. The direction (positive or negative) depends on the polarity of the charge imparted on the "cake" by rubbing it with fur or wool. The polarity of the charge depends on the cake-material, if its acrylic, the charge is positive when rubbed with fur or wool.

My little research topic is to come up with additional circuitry to alleviates the "reverse current problem" of the two diodes in the "basic doubler" so that the capacitor can be charged to very High Voltages (e.g. 20 KV). Higher Voltages make an electro static motor more efficient.

Remarks:

It is not a spectacular thing and there is no OU. The energy for "charge separation" is put in when lifting the top plate. And once the charge has built up one feels the attraction force (which has to be worked against when lifting the plate). So, one not only has to work against gravity (the weight of the top plate) but also against the electrostatic attraction of opposite charges (as a positively and a negatively charged object are attracted).

For me it is fascinating that such a simple machine as an electrophorus (pre-charged variable capacitor) can be used to generate a train of pulses. Imagine a simple crank mechanism as depicted in the attached drawing. Such a simple mechanism will allow to do scope measurements in order to quantify the "electricity" generated per second or minute (if the crank mechanism is turned uniformly e.g. by an electric motor).

Is it useful? At the moment, NO! But one can hope to develop a better electrostatic machine than the simple electrophorus which would create more electricity (e.g. a modified Wimshurst machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimshurst_machine). And this newly developed "not any more the old Wimshurst Machine" would have no brushes and no mechanical contacts (just HV diodes, HV transistors and HV capacitors).

I observed that the top plate of the electrophorus only has to be lifted 2 mm in order to create a 1000 Volt pulse. One could therefore build a machine that utilizes micro movements like vibrations (cause by wind or by the movement of people over a side walk or by car traffic).

O.k., I stop speculating and I hope that may be some are interested in this hobby of mine.

Greetings, Conrad

guest1289

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #1 on: February 29, 2016, 11:57:31 PM »
Hope you don't mind me posting my question that I can't figure out an answer to,  I posted it previously on :
http://overunity.com/14021/electrostatic-motor/msg475332/#msg475332

Since I can't find the answer to my question as to how electrostatic-charges dissipate, 
    that is,  whether a normal smooth surface looses it's electrostatic-charge into the air over time,  or whether it can only transmit that charge to another object,
I can't work out the answer to the question below .

   ( There are several different types of electrostatic-motors  )

   I Can't Figure Out The Following -

   Electrostatic-Motor In A Vacuum
       If you placed a suitable type of  electrostatic-motor( for this vaccum question ) into the highest vacuum that can be achieved :

    -  Would the motor run for a longer time,  than in a non-vacuum,   before dissipating all of it's charge  ?

    -  I assume that putting it into a vacuum,  could not turn it into a perpetual-motion device

    -  Each time a  moving-charged-component  of the motor( in the vacuum ) discharges some of it's charge to a stator in the motor,  would it visually look like one of those plasma-globes  ?

    -  Could some additional wiring( and maybe electronics ) turn it into a  self-running  perpetual-motion device,   ?

TinselKoala

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2016, 03:42:14 AM »
Hope you don't mind me posting my question that I can't figure out an answer to,  I posted it previously on :
http://overunity.com/14021/electrostatic-motor/msg475332/#msg475332

Since I can't find the answer to my question as to how electrostatic-charges dissipate, 
    that is,  whether a normal smooth surface looses it's electrostatic-charge into the air over time,  or whether it can only transmit that charge to another object,
I can't work out the answer to the question below .
Charge can persist on a surface for a long time if conditions are right. A "perfect" insulator is hard to find though. Dry air is pretty good but not perfect. Charge can dissipate by corona (ion) spray from surface irregularities like sharp points, rough areas etc. Usually, moisture in the air will condense a little bit on surfaces, even smooth ones, and a little dust contamination along with the adsorbed water will make a conductive path for charge to leak away.
Quote
   ( There are several different types of electrostatic-motors  )
Yes, that's right.
Quote

   I Can't Figure Out The Following -

   Electrostatic-Motor In A Vacuum
       If you placed a suitable type of  electrostatic-motor( for this vaccum question ) into the highest vacuum that can be achieved :

    -  Would the motor run for a longer time,  than in a non-vacuum,   before dissipating all of it's charge  ?
Probably. You need a very hard vacuum though, because air gases become more conductive with lower pressure, to a certain point, then the vacuum becomes less conductive as you get into really hard vacuum. Look up Paschen's Law, Paschen curve.
Quote
    -  I assume that putting it into a vacuum,  could not turn it into a perpetual-motion device
You assume correctly.
Quote

    -  Each time a  moving-charged-component  of the motor( in the vacuum ) discharges some of it's charge to a stator in the motor,  would it visually look like one of those plasma-globes  ?
Not necessarily. Plasma globes are actually filled with gas at low pressure. It depends on where you are in the Paschen curve for the particular gases. If you have a really hard vacuum where the residual gas is not conductive, your ES motor may not even work at all, depending on what type it is.
Quote
    -  Could some additional wiring( and maybe electronics ) turn it into a  self-running  perpetual-motion device,   ?
Good luck with that. Conservation laws still apply, even in vacuum.

TinselKoala

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2016, 03:43:52 AM »
@conrad: Thumbs up! Nicely done.

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2016, 01:54:16 PM »
   ( There are several different types of electrostatic-motors  )

There is this book from Oleg Jefimenko about electrostatic motors http://rexresearch.com/jefimenko/jefimenkoesmotors.pdf  which explains the basic types.

There are two important principles:

1) Objects which have the same electric charge are pushed apart or if two objects have the opposite electric charge they are attracted.

2) The rocket principle: electrons or air ions are ejected

There are many types of electrostatic motors and they employ one or both principles stated above.

I know, this explanation will not be helpful. I suggest you read the book from Oleg Jefimenko as a start.


About electrostatic motors in vacuum:

If an electrostatic motor needs air ions (either to transport charge or for ejection) it will not work in vacuum.

If you look at the simple electrostatic motor in my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notE4ugcgvk you will see that two copper strips are very close to the rotor. If the copper strips touch the rotor, it will work in vacuum. If they are close to the rotor but not touching it will only work in air (or in an other gas atmosphere), because charge is transported through the air by air ions. You see, it is not that simple whether an electrostatic motor will work in vacuum or not.

In general it is costly (in terms of energy) to eject electrons from a material (the material has to be heated to a high temperature), therefore all electrostatic motors which depend on ejecting electrons are not very efficient (but they will work in vacuum).


OU and electrostatic motors:

There is nothing in electrostatic motors that would suggest OU and definitely not in vacuum.


The future of electrostatic motors:

I see a great future of electrostatic motors in Nano-Technology (very small motors). But it is not possible to do that at home.

I only show an electrostatic motor in the context of my "electrostatic generator experiments" to demonstrate the High Voltage and that even the most simple device (like the electrophorus) really generates a considerable amount of electricity. My aim is to step down the High Voltage to useful levels (like 5 Volt or 12 Volt) with simple circuits.

I have this idea (may be it is a useless idea) that electrostatic generators have been neglected in the last 100 years and that they could be a useful power source if only a little power is needed e.g. for charging a mobile phone or any small device that is carried to monitor body functions like blood pressure or blood sugar level.

A pet theory of mine is that vibration is best utilized for electricity generation by help of an electrostatic generator (not by help of Piezo crystals  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity  as is often tried today).

Greetings, Conrad

guest1289

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2016, 03:18:56 PM »
I will have to read that last post later.

In the following post, 
http://overunity.com/16295/all-permanent-magnet-complete-levitation/msg475693/#msg475693
sm0ky2  typed :
Quote
that townsend-brown guy did this 50 yrs or so ago, after he started making things electrostatically levitate.

the force can be arranged to repel, propel, attract, or detract motion between the source and the opposing charge,
whether it be on the object being moved or not.

in this manner, it is much like magnetism

   So many or most things that can be done with a magnet,  can be done with electrostatics.
     
   (  I still don't fully understand why electrostatic-motors do actually  rotate successfully,  but I'll check the wikipedia-page and it's links   )

    So,  is it possible that by replacing a magnet with an electrostatically-charged-object  that you could achieve having  the  long sought   MONOPOLE   that  magnet-motor  makers have always claimed would make a  magnet-motor  possible,   although it would be an electrostatic-motor .

   I'm guessing that if the  'moving-electrostatically-charged-components'  in an   electrostatic-motor  could be  'prevented'  from discharging some of their charge to the  stators,  then the motor could run perpetually ( even though,  doing that to all  known  'electrostatic-motor'  designs would probably stop them functioning  ).
___
  So,  plastics etc,  can hold an  electrostatic-charge,   but are very poor electrical-conductors.

    That makes me wonder if the  'electrostatic-charge'  held by plastics etc,   might actually exist 'ONLY' on the surface of the plastic object,  and since a plastic-object can hold a very high electrostatic-charge,  would that be a layer just made of electrons on the surface of the object .

   Also,  watching a youtube video of the  Electrophorus  powering  light-bulbs etc,  are these NON-ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTOR-CHARGED-MATERIALS( including plastics etc ),  at some point functioning as  electrical-conductors .

   If these  non-electrical-conductor-charged-materials( including plastics etc ),  are at some point functioning as  electrical-conductors,  then,  are they also generating a  MAGNETIC-FIELD around them,  which should not happen since they are not metals.
   

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2016, 05:17:34 PM »
   Also,  watching a youtube video of the  Electrophorus  powering  light-bulbs etc,  are these NON-ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTOR-CHARGED-MATERIALS( including plastics etc ),  at some point functioning as  electrical-conductors .

   If these  non-electrical-conductor-charged-materials( including plastics etc ),  are at some point functioning as  electrical-conductors,  then,  are they also generating a  MAGNETIC-FIELD around them,  which should not happen since they are not metals.

Dear Guest1289,

one can not answer your questions manly for two reasons:

1) You seem to have almost no knowledge in the principles of electrical engineering. (Which is fine, one can not know everything and you might have had a different kind of career.) And if some one has no knowledge in a certain filed one would need to educate this person for some years which is usually done in schools, colleges and universities. And nobody can do that for you by answering questions which touch on the most trivial and the most difficult.

2) You question principles which have been discovered in the last 300 years and are well established. And in order to discuss these principles you again would need not only basic but advanced knowledge in electrical engineering and physics (mainly about atoms). And again one can not give you this knowledge by answering questions which are mostly silly (not because you are dumb but because you lack the most basic understanding which can only be gained by learning about the subject for several years).

I do not want to talk you down (I myself know very little in almost all fields) but you should understand the problem we have with answering your questions.


But I will write about one of your questions (which is cited above) because it concerns my electrophorus experiment:


The electrophorus is a simple capacitor (metallic plate - electrolyte - metallic plate). The electrolyte is the acrylic plate in the middle. A current can go "through" a capacitor (although the electrolyte is absolutely no conductor, it is insulation) if it is alternating current. You have to learn a bit about capacitors and AC to understand that (and I am not providing this teaching here and now).

So, why is there a closed circuit in my "basic circuit" and in the "basic doubler"? It is because the electrophorus is an Alternating Current generator and not a Direct Current generator. The generated AC current is not a nice sinus wave, it is a pulse (or several pulses) in one direction and then a pulse (or several pulses) in the other direction, hence some sort of dirty AC. And AC (also dirty AC) can pass through a capacitor.

In the "basic circuit" this dirty AC (the pulses in both directions, positive and negative) passes through the electrophorus itself and through the additional two "normal" capacitors and goes alternately through the gas discharge lamp.

In the "basic doubler" this dirty AC goes through the electrophorus itself and is then rectified (to pulses in only one direction) by the two diodes. So, this is practically speaking an AC source and a rectifier.

In addition one has to understand, that the electrophorus is "pre-charged" because the acrylic plate holds on its top surface some charge. This charge is created by rubbing the acrylic with fur or wool and this charge stays for many hours if not days. But eventually it disappears literally into the air.

An now the "charge separation" principle has to be understood, because it is which makes the current flow out of the low Voltage "pre-charge" (in my contraption it is about 3 Volt) by becoming a high Voltage (several thousand Volts) when lifting the top plate.

https://www.boundless.com/physics/textbooks/boundless-physics-textbook/electric-charge-and-field-17/overview-133/charge-separation-476-5639/

The energy is put in by lifting the top plate against the attraction force between the negatively charged top plate and the positively charged acrylic plate surface. (One also has to lift the top plate against gravity because it has a weight, but this does not create electricity. Floating in space one would only feel the electrostatic attraction between the top plate and the acrylic plate.)

I am pretty sure this answer will not help Guest1289 because it needs quite a lot of knowledge in electrical engineering (which took me years to learn).

Greetings, Conrad

guest1289

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2016, 09:05:53 PM »
Your replies,  and my websearching,  have answered my questions .

   I only type posts incase I type anything useful,  either for the thread,  or if I am the first to invent something new on the thread,  then it stays on the thread as proof ,  so there's no real need to answer any of my questions  .

   Obviously, and as I think you said,   the  electrophorus is  the most efficient design for electricity-generation, and I assume more efficient than any  wimhurst-type-generators,  maybe if someone thinks of a way to design a  RADIALLY-FUNCTIONING-ELECTROPHORUS,  then that would replace current generator-designs .

   Now that I have confirmed the only reason  electrostatic-motors  eventually stop, is because they lose their charge to the atmosphere,  I can see OU potential in them.
  (  But since I have never seen, or know of a successfully functioning  magnet-motor which has been authenticated( replicated ),  then I would assume the chances of success with an  electrostatic-motor  are equally low, or lower  )

   In electrostatic-motors,  and the  device that this thread is based on,  there is a flow of electricity,  and especially when it flows through metal,  it creates  pulsating-magnetic-fields,  maybe those pulsating magnetic-fields could be used to create-kinetic-movement, or to flip-switches,  etc .
  (  Now I'm wondering about electrical-currents, and magnetic-fields,  in the the insulator-materials you use, like acrylics.
     A year or two ago, I read about plastic-magnets,  and in the past I have read that electricity can flow in many, or almost all insulating materials.   
      That made me wonder about a charged-acrylic-object,  maybe   'Persistent_Current' ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_current )    could occur in a charged insulator-material like acrylic,  especially if it was designed in just the right way,  and maybe by adding a diode .

  What About,   running an  electrostatic-motor  inside a simple sealed-container,  containing air at normaL pressure,  so that the air containing the charge which the  electrostatic-motor  has lost,  will remain inside the container,  and then eventually all the charge in that air will be transferred to the sealed-container,  and then you could direct that charge back to the  electrostatic-motor .   And,  the sealed container containing air at normal pressure,  would itself be inside a hard-vacuum,  so that no charge is lost .

   

   

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2016, 10:27:03 PM »
Obviously, and as I think you said,   the  electrophorus is  the most efficient design for electricity-generation, and I assume more efficient than any  wimhurst-type-generators,  maybe if someone thinks of a way to design a  RADIALLY-FUNCTIONING-ELECTROPHORUS,  then that would replace current generator-designs .

I like to say that the electrophorus is the most simple electric generator machine (not the most efficient). But I speculate (and try to prove in the near future) that the electrophorus (charge separation) is more efficient than the Piezo electric effect. More efficient in  the sense that it needs less mechanical energy to get the same amount of electrical energy because the losses when squeezing a Piezo crystals are high. The reason I see in the fact, that one can not squeeze individual crystal molecules. And by pressing down on a Piezo crystal one only deforms a low percentage of the crystal molecules in the right way (mostly heat is generated).  But charge separation works very uniformly over the whole surfaces which are pulled apart. But this is speculation, please do not quote me.

Now that I have confirmed the only reason  electrostatic-motors  eventually stop, is because they lose their charge to the atmosphere,

An electrostatic motor does lose charge into the air, but this is negligible. It stops when the electricity supply is interrupted. Electricity flows through an electrostatic motor like through all things driven by electricity. If no electricity runs through a lamp it will not shine. If no electricity runs through an electrostatic motor it will not turn. The brightness of the lamp depends on the amount of current going through and the torque of an electrostatic motor also depends on the amount of current running through it. So, there is no miracle or unexpected energy.

I said that an electric charge put on the top surface of the acrylic plate (by rubbing it with fur or wool) will dissipate into the air eventually. This happens everywhere not only in an electrophorus. A non conducting surface can hold charge for many hours but not indefinitely.  (I think TinselKoala explained that in one of his posts above.)

What About,   running an  electrostatic-motor  inside a simple sealed-container,  containing air at normaL pressure,  so that the air containing the charge which the  electrostatic-motor  has lost,  will remain inside the container,  and then eventually all the charge in that air will be transferred to the sealed-container,  and then you could direct that charge back to the  electrostatic-motor .   And,  the sealed container containing air at normal pressure,  would itself be inside a hard-vacuum,  so that no charge is lost .

The electrophorus (or any other electrostatic generator) does not take electrons from the air. The "charge separation effect" does not create electrons and does not suck electrons from the air and does not push electrons into the air. It just increases the tension (Voltage) between the positively charge and the negatively charged surfaces. Positive charge is a surplus of electrons and negative charge is a lack of electrons.

So, your sealed container does not change anything. And people did put electrostatic machines in a sealed housing to keep them in dry air and to protect them from dust and also for security reasons as not to hurt bystanders, and the machines worked like outside of the housing (under the same air humidity).

And this leads us to the age old question: are electrons flowing through a conductor when a current flows. Well, this is a difficult one. You will get many different answers. I say, this is not the case. I know this is most confusing but not really relevant in practice. For all practical purposes one can imagine that something flows (why not electrons). It is less confusing if you imagine Alternating Current. One could depict AC as electrons going a short way forward and then backwards again. But this is just a mental  image and not reality. "What is electric current?" is a very difficult topic. The analogy with water flowing through a pipe is totally wrong, it is only a mental crouch. So, finally we have touched a difficult and complicated subject which is not clearly answered by science. But we do not know what electrons really are, or Protons or molecules or atoms. We only have theories about them and these theories are very consistent and can be proven over an over again. Even if one does not know what something really is, one can measure and observe what this something is doing when treated in a certain way. One can say that electrical engineering is to know how electric current behaves, although one does not know what electric current is.

Greetings, Conrad

guest1289

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2016, 11:39:54 PM »
Yes, the charge-separation of the  electrophorus  must be the simplest .
   For a long time I have wondered if a changing  magnetic-field  can be used to cause the  Piezo-electric-effect in some types of crystals,  to try and create that effect more efficiently.
   But,  to design a  proper-Radial-Electrophorus,  you could use a spiral shape, like the one in the magnet-motor  I posted below :
http://overunity.com/15774/permanent-magnet-motor/msg475833/#msg475833
    But how could you achieve the electrophorus charge-seperation without physical-contact,  or could it be achieved by a very narrow distance of separation.

  Ok, so an eventual interruption in the discharging-cycles of the  electrostatic-motor  is what causes it to stop,  and the interruption is caused by the gradual depletion of the charge, which I assume has been lost to the air.  In that case,  when the motor stops,  it still contains alot of it's charge .

 
Quote
The electrophorus (or any other electrostatic generator) does not take electrons from the air.
      Yes, I know.  The idea I typed was just to put an  'electrostatic-motor'  into a sealed-air-container( containing air ),  and then put that container,  into a hard-vacuum. 
       I thought that once the static-charge of the motor,  had been lost to, and absorbed by the air,  that  'eventually'  the static-charge in the air could be absorbed by the walls of the sealed-air-container,  and then fed back to the motor.
    But I think you have let me know that when the motor stops,  it still contains alot of it's charge ,  so my idea should not work .

    Well, I had read that  'electron-drift'  occurs in electrical-current,  but that the current is primarily  'electromotive-force',  and there are separate wikipedia pages for electrical-current  and  'electromotive-force'.
    I think its been explained( lately by sm0ky2 ) that in a  permanent-magnet,  since the atoms are all aligned,  then the  electrons orbits are aligned,  and since an electron has an electric-field,  all these aligned-spinning-electric-fields are the magnetic-field. ( the electric-field and magnetic-field are unified in the  'theory-of-relativity'  I think )
    My own theory is either sm0ky2's  theory,    or,   fact,  electrons  are always changing the height of their orbit ( scientists call it a  change-of-energy-state ),  and each time they change the height of their orbit,  they either gain or lose photonic-like-material( what photons are made of, I don't know the term,  and I don't know if electrons emit full photons ).
    So,  could that continual emission of  photonic-like-material  from electrons be what the electromotive-force  is made of,  or maybe it's what the magnetic-field is made of.   
   Not that thats relevant.
     
   anyway, please don't waste time with my utterings, you should be developing your own devices and ideas further

Kator01

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2016, 03:10:05 AM »

sm0ky2

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2016, 10:25:00 AM »
@ Conrad

maybe you could connect your crank to a small Sterling Engine.
then power the electrophorus with a tealight candle :)

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2016, 11:53:33 AM »
conradelektro,
can you read german ? 3M produces Elektret-Filter-Material. Could this help to improve the effect ?
http://solutions.3mdeutschland.de/wps/portal/3M/de_DE/3M_Purification/FiltrationSolutions/SolutionsFor/AirFiltration/
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/843394O/datasheets-purification-luftfiltration.pdf
Regards
Kator01

I looked at the specifications (Datenblatt) of this filter and found the following:

"Die Partikelabscheideleistung von elektrostatisch geladenen Filtern geht während
der Verwendung zurück."

This tells me, that the charge in the filter gets lost over time. They do not say after how many days or weeks. But this happens in all electrets. Electrets hold a "quasi-permanent electric charge", meaning that the charge disappears after a while and it is difficult to determine how long it holds.

If it is not too expensive I will try to get such a filter, thank you for the hint.

I think that it is important to have some means to re-charge the cake of an electrophorus e.g. by occasionally rubbing it with fur or wool. I plan to do a recharge-experiment with a 30 KV High Voltage power supply. I will try to charge up the acrylic plate (the cake of my latest electrophorus) by help of the 30 KV HV power supply. May be by connecting the ground plate and the top plate (which is resting on the cake) to the HV power supply and letting it sit for some minutes. Or I connect the ground plate and a metallic brush to the HV power supply and and brush the surface of the acrylic plate for a minute.

I read that electret microphones lost the charge pretty soon (after a few months). Some think that the charge in the electret can be preserved for years by enclosing it in metal. I connected the top plate and the ground plate of my latest electrophorus over night or over a weekend and then had the impression that the charge was better preserved. But this simple tests are not conclusive because sometimes the charge held for days without that connection.

I sometimes lose the charge on the acrylic plate suddenly and I am not sure why. It happens when I change the circuit, but not always. If I leave a certain circuit in place and only generate electricity for some minutes every now and then (by moving the top plate up and down, and then stopping for hours or days before resuming) I think I never lost the charge.

I am of course looking for a better cake material than acrylic, but acrylic is easy to find and easy to work with.

After all, this is a hobby, not a well funded development project in order to flood the market with millions of electrophorus based generators.

Greetings, Conrad
 

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2016, 12:10:50 PM »
@ Conrad

maybe you could connect your crank to a small Sterling Engine.
then power the electrophorus with a tealight candle :)

I am thinking about slave labour. So, be careful, if you show up near my house you might be put to work. (This is sarcasms, not a real intention. I write this caveat because very often people, like the owner of this forum, do not get it when I make a joke.)

The crank mechanism (which will be driven eventually with an electric motor) has the purpose to enable oscilloscope measurements. For proper measurements one needs a uniform up and down movement of the top plate, not necessarily fast, but as regular as possible, with an almost constant and more or less repeatable frequency.

I see the electrophorus and the crank mechanism as a study object, a means to explore this principle, not as a useful electricity generator. But may be the explored principles can one day be used to build a pretty good generator. But for sure I am not planning to turn this into a business, it is a hobby.

(But secretly I want to become stinking rich and I intend to save the world. Again, do not believe that.)

Greetings, Conrad

conradelektro

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Re: Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2016, 09:46:51 PM »
There is hardly anything new under the sun:

http://cap.ee.imperial.ac.uk/~pdm97/powermems/2011/Poster/P-26.pdf

http://cap.ee.ic.ac.uk/~pdm97/powermems/2004/pdfs/187_Arakawa.pdf

Vibrational Power Generator based on the elctrophorus principle (pre-charged variable capacitor), an electret foil is used as "cake".

Greetings, Conrad