Again Lidmotor, very nice setup... you are definitely an inspiration :)
I got a question though, how did you connect the solar panel to the supercaps? because if I understood right the charge part on de circuit diagram was short-circuited..
eddiejager---The solar panel is just connected straight to the capacitor (+ to + and - to -). The capacitor is connected to he TOP CHARGER the same way. On the charge side of the circuit I removed the charge battery and connected what would be the (+) side connection straight back to the (+) side of the source (the supercap).
another thought for that transparent contraption box. there is a video on youtube where there is a switch on the outside of a box, and mechanics inside that when you flip it a portion of the plexiglass will tilt back and then a little arm pops out to flip the switch back off. at that point the arm retracts and the plexiglass seals the box again.
i just thought that would be amusing if for example someone was tempted to open the box and grab the gyroscope. it'll close again if it has power ;)
i calculated for every hour of charging from a solar pannels with 70 milliamps,you would get 14 hours of run time if everything was 100% efficient. you would need a battery which is more than 70mah(just about any battery) to run it through the night if the night was 14 hours long. i am certain 3x rechargable nimh AA's would do the job perfectly if in series. as your solar pannels give way more than is required. the solar pannels will put in heaps more charge than the circuit is taking out.
rroge5 ----Thanks. It sounds like it would work. Another thing that I was considering was using a little 2watt 12v panel that I have and a small 12v lead acid with a voltage regulator.
yup, basically your solar pannel needs to give 2x the load current if there is 12 hours of sunlight then 12 hours of dark. the battery just needs to be big enough for the night shift. if you wanted to work out the absolute minimums. but the stuff youve got is probally many times wat u need
Very cool Lidmotor! A few thoughts: Using the caps and solar panels is giving you your battery charge/no-charge data. In other words when it's sunny and the cap voltage increases, that means you have enough juice to run the top and charge the battery at the same time, and vice-versa for a cloudy day.
On cloudy days the panels might not put out more than the battery voltage. You could use your Joule Thief expertize to still extract the available energy to pump some juice into the battery.
You of course are right about using the super caps to make a quite accurate power consumption measurement for the rig, which is the key piece of data that everything revolves around. All that you need is a stopwatch, a voltmeter, and a 1% precision resistor to calculate the approximate power consumption at different voltages.
You also need a diamond tip for the top! Diamonds are a nerd's best friend! lol
Funny that you would mention the top tip. Even though the top is partially levitated, there is going to be friction and wear at that point. Right now I am using a teflon lubricant but if this thing has to run for days or weeks on end then something has to be done about that tip. A diamond would cut the glass, Then there is the problem of how to attach it. I can just see me walking into my local jeweler and asking him, "would you please inslall a diamond on the tip of my top. lol
Perhaps you could Crazy Glue a fleck of an uncut diamond to the tip of the top. Something that looks like a little pebble. I am out of my realm, too lazy to search. lol
Here is a tip about tipping your top: At the top of the morning, with a tip of your top hat tip toe to the top top topper that works at the top jewelery store in town. Just be sure to tip the top top topper to get a tip top diamond of top quality fixed to the tip of your top top. Only use the top top in your top collection for top performance. I tip my hat to you and good luck, you are at the top of your topping game. Can you top that? lol
Lid, round diament in c quality or less may be the answer.
However, i use steel saw tried to cut the compressed ferrite core about 10 minutes of cutting has no effect on the ferrite, since ferrite is made by carbon same as daimond.
It should hold for many years, infact the mangnatic ferrite can be compress together when manufacutring the neo mag on the tip part
Thanks for the tips on how to calculate the power needed. I ran a similar experiment months ago with one of my Bedini motors and the problem came when I ran into those cloudy days. The only way around this is overkill with the solar panel and battery. I just used a voltage regulator before to hold a constant voltage and it worked well.
You may be familiar with using a precision resistor and timing how long it takes to reach 63% of the battery voltage to calculate the capacitance.
Then once you have the precise value of the cap, you time how long it takes to drop from 5 volts to 4.8 volts to make an estimate of the current consumption at 4.9 volts. The start cap energy minus the end cap energy gives you the Joules consumed. That value divided by the seconds gives you your power @4.9 volts. Then i = P/4.9, and so on... lol
is there a way to shut the solar cell off automatically so the capacitor does not over load.. or is that something that does not need to be done
Camaro99boss 1 month ago
Again Lidmotor, very nice setup... you are definitely an inspiration :)
I got a question though, how did you connect the solar panel to the supercaps? because if I understood right the charge part on de circuit diagram was short-circuited..
eddiejager 2 years ago
eddiejager---The solar panel is just connected straight to the capacitor (+ to + and - to -). The capacitor is connected to he TOP CHARGER the same way. On the charge side of the circuit I removed the charge battery and connected what would be the (+) side connection straight back to the (+) side of the source (the supercap).
Lidmotor 2 years ago
I would like to see the top generate enough energy to run itself perpetually!
MattBlytheTheOne 2 years ago
hoiw much more energy would it generate if you mounted neo.d magnets around the periphery of the top?
MattBlytheTheOne 2 years ago
This way it looks like early 20th century scifi.
Wonderful.
JavaLessons 2 years ago
another thought for that transparent contraption box. there is a video on youtube where there is a switch on the outside of a box, and mechanics inside that when you flip it a portion of the plexiglass will tilt back and then a little arm pops out to flip the switch back off. at that point the arm retracts and the plexiglass seals the box again.
i just thought that would be amusing if for example someone was tempted to open the box and grab the gyroscope. it'll close again if it has power ;)
lvecsey 2 years ago
Hi. What's in the spinning top.
cheers
ZEROPOINT132 2 years ago
ZEROPOINT132-----The ball magnet is glued to the inside bottom of the top. In my last video I show a diagram of it.
Lidmotor 2 years ago
i calculated for every hour of charging from a solar pannels with 70 milliamps,you would get 14 hours of run time if everything was 100% efficient. you would need a battery which is more than 70mah(just about any battery) to run it through the night if the night was 14 hours long. i am certain 3x rechargable nimh AA's would do the job perfectly if in series. as your solar pannels give way more than is required. the solar pannels will put in heaps more charge than the circuit is taking out.
rroge5 2 years ago
rroge5 ----Thanks. It sounds like it would work. Another thing that I was considering was using a little 2watt 12v panel that I have and a small 12v lead acid with a voltage regulator.
Lidmotor 2 years ago
yup, basically your solar pannel needs to give 2x the load current if there is 12 hours of sunlight then 12 hours of dark. the battery just needs to be big enough for the night shift. if you wanted to work out the absolute minimums. but the stuff youve got is probally many times wat u need
rroge5 2 years ago
Very cool Lidmotor! A few thoughts: Using the caps and solar panels is giving you your battery charge/no-charge data. In other words when it's sunny and the cap voltage increases, that means you have enough juice to run the top and charge the battery at the same time, and vice-versa for a cloudy day.
On cloudy days the panels might not put out more than the battery voltage. You could use your Joule Thief expertize to still extract the available energy to pump some juice into the battery.
Drevtoobe 2 years ago
You of course are right about using the super caps to make a quite accurate power consumption measurement for the rig, which is the key piece of data that everything revolves around. All that you need is a stopwatch, a voltmeter, and a 1% precision resistor to calculate the approximate power consumption at different voltages.
You also need a diamond tip for the top! Diamonds are a nerd's best friend! lol
Drevtoobe 2 years ago
Funny that you would mention the top tip. Even though the top is partially levitated, there is going to be friction and wear at that point. Right now I am using a teflon lubricant but if this thing has to run for days or weeks on end then something has to be done about that tip. A diamond would cut the glass, Then there is the problem of how to attach it. I can just see me walking into my local jeweler and asking him, "would you please inslall a diamond on the tip of my top. lol
Lidmotor 2 years ago
Perhaps you could Crazy Glue a fleck of an uncut diamond to the tip of the top. Something that looks like a little pebble. I am out of my realm, too lazy to search. lol
Drevtoobe 2 years ago
Here is a tip about tipping your top: At the top of the morning, with a tip of your top hat tip toe to the top top topper that works at the top jewelery store in town. Just be sure to tip the top top topper to get a tip top diamond of top quality fixed to the tip of your top top. Only use the top top in your top collection for top performance. I tip my hat to you and good luck, you are at the top of your topping game. Can you top that? lol
Drevtoobe 2 years ago
How many tops can a top tipper tip if a top jeweler could tip tops? Hummm---maybe its time for a new project.
Lidmotor 2 years ago
Lid, round diament in c quality or less may be the answer.
However, i use steel saw tried to cut the compressed ferrite core about 10 minutes of cutting has no effect on the ferrite, since ferrite is made by carbon same as daimond.
It should hold for many years, infact the mangnatic ferrite can be compress together when manufacutring the neo mag on the tip part
fdoca 2 years ago
Thanks for the tips on how to calculate the power needed. I ran a similar experiment months ago with one of my Bedini motors and the problem came when I ran into those cloudy days. The only way around this is overkill with the solar panel and battery. I just used a voltage regulator before to hold a constant voltage and it worked well.
Lidmotor 2 years ago
You may be familiar with using a precision resistor and timing how long it takes to reach 63% of the battery voltage to calculate the capacitance.
Then once you have the precise value of the cap, you time how long it takes to drop from 5 volts to 4.8 volts to make an estimate of the current consumption at 4.9 volts. The start cap energy minus the end cap energy gives you the Joules consumed. That value divided by the seconds gives you your power @4.9 volts. Then i = P/4.9, and so on... lol
Drevtoobe 2 years ago