EEVblog 1532 - Another $2.8M WiGL Wireless Power Grift BUSTED (Part 3)

WiGL have raised another $2.8M on StartEngine for their mobile phone charging wireless power grift, in addition to the $5M they raised a year ago.
And yep, it's STILL using off the shelf technology, but this time with a new partner PowerCast!

Powercast confirm the energy receive levels for the 3W EIRP transmitter used:

00:00 - WiGL raised another $2.8M!
01:56 - Another debunking article
02:32 - They still claim it can charge anything, including EV's!
04:04 - Their supposed competition Energous
04:58 - They claim to have a $146M valuation! Err, what's Energous worth?
06:37 - Now it's salt water battery powered EV's!
07:20 - They have teamed up with the US Space Force!
08:17 - Let's watch the new campaign video!
13:23 - Do NOT invest in any company on Startengine or any other equity crowd funding site
13:58 - Let's watch the latest demo video for the US air force!
15:54 - They are just using off the shelf PowerCast wireless power modules!
18:00 - Sorry, you've lost your money. But hey, you kept them employed for years.

Other channels:

#ElectronicsCreators #Wigl #wirelesspowertransfer

[mikeselectricstuff]

I spoke to an Energeous rep at Electronica last year where they had a small booth.
The only plausible application they were showing was powering e-ink shop price tags, claiming that conventional ones tended to run out of battery.
At least they weren't claiming to be able to charge phones any more.

[miklov]

I don't always recharge electric vehicles. But when I do, I make sure to use the 1 mW charger.

[kevincozens]

This is also a demonstration of what is wrong with the Patent system.

[littleshopofelectrons]

Wireless power is the story that never ends. I'm a moderator for a Tesla coil and high voltage FB group and we are constantly debunking wireless power nonsense based on 120-year old Nikola Tesla ideas which have been thoroughly discredited. Explanations of the inverse square law have little affect on these dreamers. The dreams and the grifts never cease.

[Herby-]

A couple of weekends ago, I was at a nice national park here in the USA. In one foyer to an eatery they had a couple of displays that showed how much power the stepping on the floating walkway (it was about 10 feet by 10 feet). When you bounced up and down the "joule counter" would nicely increment with each step. According to the displays some days they would generate 40, 000 joules (more or less) of power. I did a back of envelope calculation and knowing that a day is 86, 400 seconds, it looks like the average power is about 1/2 watt averaged over the entire day. Then I looked at the monitors (there were two), that I suspect consumed about 100 watts each. So a total of 200 watts (they were nice LED backlit displays) consumed. Given that they MIGHT turn off the displays for 8 hours each day. That's a total of (pops up calculator) over 11 MILLION joules every day just to power the displays, and 40, 000 to offset it. Sorry doesn't work for me! I don't know the sponsor, but get real, it is a NET LOSS! They must have taken their notes from solar roadways. P.S. I haven't counted the capital cost of the stepping stones and their maintenence. I'm glad I'm not an investor! Some will never learn. Sorry I haven't looked for a web page describing this, and really don't care to.

[thedevilinthecircuit]

"Huge thanks to Rickard Consulting Group..." Bob Rickard (he's RCG) is also WiGL's Software Director. They brought him aboard because he knows how government contracting works, so he can play the system and keep the $ flowing.

[Digital-Dan]

In Heinlein's classic short story, "Waldo, " power transmission was reality, but it was (as only Waldo and his older mentor understood) slowly killing everybody. So the savant Waldo found a way to have the power antennae reach into another dimension where power was freely flowing, providing infinite free energy to everybody and saving the lives of humanity. You could tell that the antennae were tuned to the nth dimension because . . . they wiggled.

[dtvconsult]

This is just like the movie “The Producers”. Sell more and fail (pocket the cash, nobody expects a return with failure).

[onjofilms]

I believed you right up until I saw them drawing on a whiteboard. Heading over there now to buy some shares.

[McTroyd]

But Dave...! I've had wireless power for years. I call it a "lightning rod." Still working out how to deal with the inrush current, but it's definitely good electricity! Oh, and my neighbors hate me. 😁⚡💥

[thekaduu]

Even for line of sight, "... approximate power loss is inversely proportional to distance squared...." is what I used in my thesis more than 10 years ago. I am not an RF Engineer! But, guess what? Laws of physics must not have changed since then. I'd be more interested in what they are smoking... It's the good shit, indeed.

[lensherman]

It's more likely that the "$2.8M" is shill money siphoned from the 1st round rather than from new investors. It's like throwing money in the tip jar before you start busking.

[jcxtra]

The thing I never realised we needed, the excitement of Dave saying 'Wiggle' multiple times. Though I'm glad you're debunking this stuff though. Hearing you saying wiggle over and over definitely made me smile :)

[whuzzzup]

Someone once asked me if we could transfer energy wireless like they heard Tesla did. I said yes, we already do that and we call it "radio".

[jorik]

I can just imagine the wiggle team. 10marketing guys and sales people pushing 2 fresh engineers to just give something to show to customer's so they can close the contract.

[tomteiter]

I think all this proves is that a frustrating amount of people do have so much money, they can just piss it away for stuff like this. They simply don't care...

[christopherjackson]

I feel 100 percent qualified to commit financial crimes after watching all 3 parts lol

[umbraelegios]

WiGL: We have a US Gov contract
So did a university to study shrimp running on a treadmill. Or the group studying cow farts. If you can't get a US Gov contract, you are not trying.

[WaynesWorld]

My dad used to say 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time'. Still true.

[mikegofton]

Fools and their money are easily parted