Bedini Earth Light

[NickZ]

Hiops, Everyidea and all:
I just crushed the quartz rocks right on the beach using a stone on a flat rock, until the quartz looked like floor, with some small bits also.
I think that the carbon cell works a little better though. The combination of layered Carbon and Quartz also seam to work fine. After two days the led is still bright using three cells, and does not seam like its going down in brightness, by much. The weakest cell will always determine and limit the total current output when several cells are connected together. So, until I have three identical cells, I won't know what all they can really do. But 60 mA per cell is not bad, and I'm sure that can be improved on...
These cells costed me $0... I especially like that part, and they were fun to make. They can be connected in series as well as in parallel, to obtain the needed voltage and current levels, and they have low cell impedence, as well.

[skaght]

strange and smelly alum battery...

This goes back to some older posts on this thread. I made a battery with magnesium and silver electrodes and used alum water as the electrolyte. I expected the battery to last a long time, but something really strange happened. My meter couldn't register the current, yet there was enough to power a small motor. After a couple minutes the whole cell started to stink like rotten eggs, which made me concerned about what kind of gas was being liberated from the cell and I stopped the experiment and aired out my place. It was strange that my meter couldn't register the current. It actually blocked all current flow. I tried the meter on another small load and it read just fine, so I know my meter isn't bad...

[seth]

The internal rock resistance is high, but not THAT high

Indeed

Life is a learning process...

[ibpointless2]

I made a video of what I'm calling the literal crystal battery, you can't get anymore crystal battery than this.
Literal Crystal Battery - YouTube

Marcus Reid talks about "solid polycrystalline" is his electrolyte, which literally means....."Polycrystalline and paracrystalline phases (see Polycrystal) are composed of a number of smaller crystals or crystallites" Crystal inside of crystal I guess you could say. Just one crystal won't work, but some inside of other will and I have done the test to prove that.

To prove the Polycrystalline works was simple. When water freeze it becomes a ice crystal. This water crystal is a single crystal and it doesn't work good as electrolyte at all, barely any millivolts. But add some borax and salt substitute to the water and then freeze it and you have a crystal cell with crystals inside of it which makes it a polycrstalline structure and it starts producing over a volt of power. I really think I can do this current set up i have now with the literal crystal battery.

[hherby]

This goes back to some older posts on this thread. I made a battery with magnesium and silver electrodes and used alum water as the electrolyte. I expected the battery to last a long time, but something really strange happened. My meter couldn't register the current, yet there was enough to power a small motor. After a couple minutes the whole cell started to stink like rotten eggs, which made me concerned about what kind of gas was being liberated from the cell and I stopped the experiment and aired out my place. It was strange that my meter couldn't register the current. It actually blocked all current flow. I tried the meter on another small load and it read just fine, so I know my meter isn't bad...

It sounds similar to what happens in hot water heaters depending on the mineral content of the water. It is a galvanic reaction most likely between the alum and magnesium which is liberating sulfur from the alum.

Alex

[NickZ]

All:
I just made another quartz/carbon cell this morning, my smallest and strongest cell yet. It was also made using a capacitor can that is a bit smaller (1/2" by 1 1/4"),than the previous two cells. In this last cell I ground down pure smokey quartz crystals points, not rocks from the beach. This small cell outputs 50mA and nails the meter, and stays there, and even goes up from there (with a load from the meter).
The cells have the rubber plug on the top of the aluminum can, so they should be fairly hermetically sealed, and the mix is also pressed down tight, plastic insulator on the inside of the can bottom, as well as the top, under the rubber plug.
I also got my first crystal rock cell to nail the meter at 50 mA also. Both cells are full of quartz. The quartz crystal points finely ground down work the best, with only minimal amount of carbon used, just enough to get the crystal to conduce.
Seams like a good start on the crystal cells, as these are made with about 75% quartz, 20% carbon. Three cells did last all night long, with no noticeable drop in led light intensity. No additional water was added, no heat, nor any doping. Pictures later today, my camara is charging
Although at first the carbon only cell performed better, but now it is the lowest output between the two other quartz/carbon cells.
NickZ

[eternalightwithin]

So basically what I said before about the granite rock composition and John B said about mica... that's the whole kit N caboodle.

85% of granite is Silicon Dioxide and Alumina. Which you got there.

By layering it like you did, I think you've increased the surface area.

I wonder if the voltage would increase if you put an electrode in each layer of carbon and wired them in series.

P.S. I'd like to acknowledge my wife and, ahem, wiki for any previous displays of insight I may have had.

[Slider2732]

Pictures later today, my camara is charging

Someday, with crystal cells as power source

Wishing to see what the carbon looks like in regular batteries, I had some embarrassing trouble with a D sized Alkaline last night. Found that the positive end went right down to a plastic insert that separates the negative terminal. There were layers before getting into the thing, of metal and then a thick plastic layer.
I was forcing open the thick metalwork at the base and slipped, the screwdriver tore off a nice chunk of my left thumb
Nick, could you take a pic of the battery internals and point out which type is best to use ?

Because,

I don't have medical insurance and might not want to do this too many times

[Lidmotor]

Epoxy sealed crystal cells ---Update

This is a video showing where I am with the epoxy sealed crystal cells. The big news is that the first one that I made a few days ago DIDN'T DIE. It went down in voltage but I found out that heating it made it recover. The second one I made with copper and magnesium instead of the zinc and copper. It performs better right now but we will have to wait and see what happens after a few weeks.
My testing LED oscillator "Penny" is still running after almost three wekks on the Ibpointless "stove top" cell. The loaded voltage is around .9 volts and goes up and down slightly during the day. We had a hot spell here a few days ago and the cell voltage went way up to almost where it was new. These cells are very temperature sensitive.

Epoxy sealed crystal battery-- Update.ASF - YouTube

Everybody here seems to be trying all kinds of things now. The Marcus Reid cell that John B. is testing is perhaps the most important experiment though. If we can all understand what make that one work it will answer many questions. Maybe raise a bunch more.

Lidmotor

[NickZ]

Slider and All:
Sorry to hear about the thumb, it almost happened to me.
I just cut the D cell open using a shovel, by giving it a whack right in the middle.
The D cell that I used is not from an alkaline battery, I don't know what kind of battery it is, as it is so old, that there is no information on it anymore. All I can tell you is that in the can there was carbon powder or grains, and in the center there is a whiteish powder sticky substance in a paper type cylinder. It might be carbon-zinc.
Here are a couple of pics of the little cell that I made today, sorry they are so blurry, I'll take better pics next time.

[NickZ]

@ Eternalightwithin:
You given me an idea about layering the cells. In order to get higher voltage from a single cell, maybe the cells can be made like a miniture voltaic pile battery (that has layers). So that a penny or quarter sized magnesium and carbon layers can be separated by thin electrolyte film,and several volts be obtained from one cell.
I will try that next... the trick is the thin but efficient dry electrolyte layer.

@ John B and Lidmotor: I'm still going to stay with the dry crystal cell program, just been playing with what I have available. No costs involved.
I am not trying to divert the thread, please excuse me if I am... just having some fun.

[Slider2732]

Thanks for your answer

I'm looking to do the stove top drying and then put the carbon between, layering. 2 epsom cells will run a calculator, so naturally thoughts turn to putting at least 2 cells in one container. Brute force is the key eh, ok, that suits fine for revenge on this battery !
Nearly every cell keeps a voltage on it that i've made, about 3 dozen cells now and averaging 0.4V. But, all will deplete in amperage over the weeks, to a flat zero. Water etc will always bring them back but that's not the idea of course. Lidmotors heat finding is somewhere along the right track though

Must say, the capacitor cans are a winner...made a few now readied for mixtures and they look good too

[SilverToGold]

Are you sure it's JUST carbon powder?

Looking at this picture it seems that there are other things in there besides carbon.



Here's a video of a guy breaking apart a battery and explaining it's components.

Get Zinc, Carbon Electrodes and MnO2 from a Lantern Battery - YouTube

I thought you removed a carbon electrode from the battery and grounded it down.

Was the "carbon" dry or a little wet in texture? If it was a little wet, I doubt you have "carbon". Better off grounding down the carbon rod.

Interesting crystal battery!

The D cell that I used is not from an alkaline battery, I don't know what kind of battery it is, as it is so old, that there is no information on it anymore. All I can tell you is that in the can there was carbon powder or grains, and in the center there is a whiteish powder sticky substance in a paper type cylinder. It might be carbon-zinc.

[NickZ]

@ Silver to Gold:
I looked at the Nurd Rage video that you had sent a link to. Some useful info there, but my old D cell battery was not like the one in the video. There was no carbon core, and the center had a whiteish gum material. In any case my new cells seams to work, so far. Mostly what I used was quartz, the carbon is the only needed in minimal amounts as a conductive binder.
The pure quartz points I used today really make thisnewest cell different, and better than the carbon only electrolyte control cell that I made yesterday.
But even the quartz beach rocks and carbon cell is doing well.
I made 4 new cells out of one old thrown out battery, by mostly using quartz.
Still need more time to see some duration test results.

[quantumuppercut]

I've thought of a possibility that water generate electricity that is non galvanic. The equation could be a hybrid to electrolysis of water and gas recombination.

2H2O(l) <=> 2H2(g) + O2(g)

Decomposition of water would give electron flow (4e?). The source of energy for this electrolysis would comes from ambient through autoionization.