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Hello everyone! I hope I'm not about to beat a dead horse here, but I can't quite find what I'm looking for in older posts, so I'm hoping to bring it up new.
I'm looking into earth battery tech. I'm not using anything fancy, I'm utilizing graphite and magnesium rods. The graphite rod is north of the magnesium, buried deeper than the magnesium. I'm currently testing the best placement at my address to optimize voltage/current (my magnetic inclination is 66.6 degrees) and I have a total of ten rods each which I hope to utilize later once i've found the optimum placement.
To date, my best voltage is in the AA battery range (about 1.54 v and somewhat less). My record current was a spike at 80 mA (which sank like the Titanic over time). These readings came from my rig with the carbon rod placed 4'4" north and 9' down from the Mg rod. The carbon is 1" dia and about a foot long. The MG rod is roughly 1.25" dia and 1'9"long.
Here's where I'm dancing on my own feet. From what I understand, if I make a row of these and hook them up in parallel, the current won't increase, in series the voltage won't increase, because it's all in essence in the same electrolyte (dirt) acting as a unified anode/cathode. I understand that everyone suggests "isolating them with something like plastic". That isn't feasible here and it'd just make a galvanic battery anyways.
So I've given it plenty of though and this is where I'm thinking of going:
Make the ten batteries (just find the best arrangement and line them all up one after the other in a long line with all the magnesium rods making a line going East-to-West and the Graphite following in suit somewhere north of the magnesium). That's ten cells each putting out 1.5 volts (hypothetically). If I then use a toroid to transfer the voltage from the individual cells to a single circuit that runs through all the toroids, would the induced voltage sufficiently "isolate" each cell from one-another while combining their power in the induced line? I guess the attached picture is the best way of describing the idea. My intended application is to use something like the Slayer/Lidmotor/Xenomorph/etc.etc. tech from the Big Joule Thief thread to run various things around the place.
What's everyone's thoughts? Is this feasible? Do you propose a better solution? And I'm terribly sorry for such a longwinded first post.
Edit: Is there any chance that using inductor coils wouldn't work due to the DC nature of the current? Would I have to connect each battery to a dedicated inverter/oscillator prior to trying to run it through the inductor coil to produce a flux breakdown? Or is a DC current just fine in this application? (I may want to mention my associate's degree is not in electrical engineering)
I'm looking into earth battery tech. I'm not using anything fancy, I'm utilizing graphite and magnesium rods. The graphite rod is north of the magnesium, buried deeper than the magnesium. I'm currently testing the best placement at my address to optimize voltage/current (my magnetic inclination is 66.6 degrees) and I have a total of ten rods each which I hope to utilize later once i've found the optimum placement.
To date, my best voltage is in the AA battery range (about 1.54 v and somewhat less). My record current was a spike at 80 mA (which sank like the Titanic over time). These readings came from my rig with the carbon rod placed 4'4" north and 9' down from the Mg rod. The carbon is 1" dia and about a foot long. The MG rod is roughly 1.25" dia and 1'9"long.
Here's where I'm dancing on my own feet. From what I understand, if I make a row of these and hook them up in parallel, the current won't increase, in series the voltage won't increase, because it's all in essence in the same electrolyte (dirt) acting as a unified anode/cathode. I understand that everyone suggests "isolating them with something like plastic". That isn't feasible here and it'd just make a galvanic battery anyways.
So I've given it plenty of though and this is where I'm thinking of going:
Make the ten batteries (just find the best arrangement and line them all up one after the other in a long line with all the magnesium rods making a line going East-to-West and the Graphite following in suit somewhere north of the magnesium). That's ten cells each putting out 1.5 volts (hypothetically). If I then use a toroid to transfer the voltage from the individual cells to a single circuit that runs through all the toroids, would the induced voltage sufficiently "isolate" each cell from one-another while combining their power in the induced line? I guess the attached picture is the best way of describing the idea. My intended application is to use something like the Slayer/Lidmotor/Xenomorph/etc.etc. tech from the Big Joule Thief thread to run various things around the place.
What's everyone's thoughts? Is this feasible? Do you propose a better solution? And I'm terribly sorry for such a longwinded first post.
Edit: Is there any chance that using inductor coils wouldn't work due to the DC nature of the current? Would I have to connect each battery to a dedicated inverter/oscillator prior to trying to run it through the inductor coil to produce a flux breakdown? Or is a DC current just fine in this application? (I may want to mention my associate's degree is not in electrical engineering)
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