Captret - Perpetual Light with Dead Batteries

[skaght]

I ran the captret as follows with my 1.5 volt NiMH. Captret was made from a single cup in an ice cube tray and aluminum foil and aluminum tape. Let me know if you think I hooked something up wrong.

[ibpointless2]

I ran the captret as follows with my 1.5 volt NiMH. Captret was made from a single cup in an ice cube tray and aluminum foil and aluminum tape. Let me know if you think I hooked something up wrong.

Is the aluminum tape acting like a plate or are you using aluminum foil for both plates? The sticky material could causing the clouding water, and make sure to use aluminum foil for both pates.

One reason why i think the plates are being destroyed is because of the battery, its causing oxidation to forum on the plate which eats away at the foil.

I've also noticed that you're using the old water captret design, i've made a simplifed version but it gives the same effect. Look for the attachment below.
Water Captret 2.0 simplified.JPG



Also i've come to find out that the Water captrets themselves can be used as batteries. I'm not fully sure but hooking a battery to the water captret could destroy them, i will test that soon.

[skaght]

Thanks for the updated design. I should be able to build lots of those together in my ice cube tray! I'll see if that works better in series and leave out the battery for now. I did use aluminum tape in my design, but the aluminum foil itself was definitely what was being consumed. There was grey scummy oxidized aluminum all around the plate and the tip of the foil was almost completely dissolved.

[Jbignes5]

Yeah...

Thanks for the updated design. I should be able to build lots of those together in my ice cube tray! I'll see if that works better in series and leave out the battery for now. I did use aluminum tape in my design, but the aluminum foil itself was definitely what was being consumed. There was grey scummy oxidized aluminum all around the plate and the tip of the foil was almost completely dissolved.

Thats what happens when you power it with a battery. Something in your tap water is reacting with the aluminum.

[ibpointless2]

Thanks for the updated design. I should be able to build lots of those together in my ice cube tray! I'll see if that works better in series and leave out the battery for now. I did use aluminum tape in my design, but the aluminum foil itself was definitely what was being consumed. There was grey scummy oxidized aluminum all around the plate and the tip of the foil was almost completely dissolved.

@skaght,
I would try not using the battery and maybe bottled water instead, but the biggest thing is to not use the battery.








@all
Here's how I make my Water Captret Batteries.

YouTube - How to make a Water Captret Battery.MP4



Someone has pointed out to me that the Water Captret Battery has a magnetic field around it when a compass is place near it, its small but noticeable.

[Jbignes5]

Could you do me a favor?

@skaght,
I would try not using the battery and maybe bottled water instead, but the biggest thing is to not use the battery.








@all
Here's how I make my Water Captret Batteries.

YouTube - How to make a Water Captret Battery.MP4



Someone has pointed out to me that the Water Captret Battery has a magnetic field around it when a compass is place near it, its small but noticeable.

Could you check your cell for an AC voltage?

[ibpointless2]

Could you check your cell for an AC voltage?

I wish i could but my meter only goes as low as 200 VAC.

[Zooty]

I wish i could but my meter only goes as low as 200 VAC.

Your saying your meter will not read voltages below 200v? Are you sure its not 0 to 200v?

[ibpointless2]

Your saying your meter will not read voltages below 200v? Are you sure its not 0 to 200v?

My meter can only read AC voltage from 1 to 200 volts. It can read milli volts if its DC but not AC. All my Water Captret are making voltage below 1 volts ( .100 to .800 volts ).

[skaght]

AC voltage

ice cube tray water captret with new design:

DC voltage 0.17V
AC voltage 0.03V

[ibpointless2]

ice cube tray water captret with new design:

DC voltage 0.17V
AC voltage 0.03V

Hook it up to a resistor for a day or two and see if the DC voltage goes up over time when connected to a resistor (measure across the resistor). Try a resistor that is at least higher than 1000 ohms.

[Jbignes5]

Actually I found the reason..

I ran the water captret overnight with the 1.3 volt NiMH. My load was a 60 ohm low voltage dc motor. The motor ran, albeit rather slowly. The water bubbled and after the overnight run, it became cloudy. The aluminum foil also began to disintegrate. I think for some reason, the water captret turns the two plates into a normal battery and they then begin to charge and degrade with use.

I would guess it's similar to lead acid batteries where you start with two identical lead plates and then apply a voltage across them to condition the battery. One plate becomes oxidized the other reduced as the lead acid battery is formed. The voltage difference in the captret appears to do the same thing to the aluminum as it creates a new battery with the aluminum foil. That would explain why with shorting and with continual use, the water captret effects become stronger. There could be another explanation, but that makes sense from what I'm seeing...

In my opinion, the most interesting thing about the water captret is where does the increased voltage come from. I'd like to look for other tri-plate capacitors (without water) that can replicate the effect.

The degrading of your electrodes is by chlorine in your water. Aluminum and chlorine is a no no... It makes the best known acid around. If anyone is gonna replicate this then I suggest you only used distilled water or at least water that has been left standing for a week.

Here is the information on how I came to this conclusion.

Aluminum chloride:

Aluminium chloride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pay attention to the reaction with water paragraph.

Chlorine:

"Purification and disinfection
Main article: chlorination
Chlorine is an important chemical for water purification (such as water treatment plants), in disinfectants, and in bleach. Chlorine in water is more than three times as effective as a disinfectant against Escherichia coli than an equivalent concentration of bromine, and is more than six times more effective than an equivalent concentration of iodine.[27]
Chlorine is usually used (in the form of hypochlorous acid) to kill bacteria and other microbes in drinking water supplies and public swimming pools. In most private swimming pools, chlorine itself is not used, but rather sodium hypochlorite, formed from chlorine and sodium hydroxide, or solid tablets of chlorinated isocyanurates. Even small water supplies are now routinely chlorinated.[4]
It is often impractical to store and use poisonous chlorine gas for water treatment, so alternative methods of adding chlorine are used. These include hypochlorite solutions, which gradually release chlorine into the water, and compounds like sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione (dihydrate or anhydrous), sometimes referred to as "dichlor", and trichloro-s-triazinetrione, sometimes referred to as "trichlor". These compounds are stable while solid and may be used in powdered, granular, or tablet form. When added in small amounts to pool water or industrial water systems, the chlorine atoms hydrolyze from the rest of the molecule forming hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which acts as a general biocide, killing germs, micro-organisms, algae, and so on."

So we have aluminum and then we add water and chlorine which is in the water. This might be the effect we are seeing and when the chlorine concentrations are higher the effect is stronger and eats the aluminum. BE VERY careful of this acid. The danger zones would be near the aluminum itself.

Besides that lets look at this as well:

Aluminium battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[FRC]

John Bedini

I think John Bedini mentioned these aluminum batteries in one of the Energy
from the vacuum series. In the US, there was a network of stations, that
would replace these aluminum batteries, after they ran down, in electric vehicles used by the military or some other government department. Sometime in the last century, possibly in the 1940's.


FRC

[ibpointless2]

The degrading of your electrodes is by chlorine in your water. Aluminum and chlorine is a no no... It makes the best known acid around. If anyone is gonna replicate this then I suggest you only used distilled water or at least water that has been left standing for a week.

Here is the information on how I came to this conclusion.

Aluminum chloride:

Aluminium chloride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pay attention to the reaction with water paragraph.

Chlorine:

"Purification and disinfection
Main article: chlorination
Chlorine is an important chemical for water purification (such as water treatment plants), in disinfectants, and in bleach. Chlorine in water is more than three times as effective as a disinfectant against Escherichia coli than an equivalent concentration of bromine, and is more than six times more effective than an equivalent concentration of iodine.[27]
Chlorine is usually used (in the form of hypochlorous acid) to kill bacteria and other microbes in drinking water supplies and public swimming pools. In most private swimming pools, chlorine itself is not used, but rather sodium hypochlorite, formed from chlorine and sodium hydroxide, or solid tablets of chlorinated isocyanurates. Even small water supplies are now routinely chlorinated.[4]
It is often impractical to store and use poisonous chlorine gas for water treatment, so alternative methods of adding chlorine are used. These include hypochlorite solutions, which gradually release chlorine into the water, and compounds like sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione (dihydrate or anhydrous), sometimes referred to as "dichlor", and trichloro-s-triazinetrione, sometimes referred to as "trichlor". These compounds are stable while solid and may be used in powdered, granular, or tablet form. When added in small amounts to pool water or industrial water systems, the chlorine atoms hydrolyze from the rest of the molecule forming hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which acts as a general biocide, killing germs, micro-organisms, algae, and so on."

So we have aluminum and then we add water and chlorine which is in the water. This might be the effect we are seeing and when the chlorine concentrations are higher the effect is stronger and eats the aluminum. BE VERY careful of this acid. The danger zones would be near the aluminum itself.

Besides that lets look at this as well:

Aluminium battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes i agree watch out for chlorine, and people use caution too when dealing with electronics.

I've been trying to replicate the degrading aluminium plates with a battery connected and so far nothing happening. I've got my water captret hooked up to a 1.6 volt alkaline AAA battery. The plates still look new and the water is clear. Just a few bubbles and thats it, but it does drain the AAA battery. I use city tap water. As long as you build like i tell you to i don't really see any problem. Heres how to build them...
YouTube - How to make a Water Captret Battery.MP4

[gravityblock]

Besides that lets look at this as well:

Aluminium battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Could somebody dip a captret into a glass of water (with baking soda and without baking soda), and see if the voltage decreases as the captret is further immersed into the water. We need to rule out the aluminum-air battery effect when an electrolytic capacitor is connected in the captret mode, because the outside of the aluminum can is exposed to air. Just a thought.

GB