LEGO Elastic Energy: Making Power From Rubber!

(*Not applicable on Lumino, Textra and Limited Edition)

In this video, we experiment with storing mechanical energy using elastic rubber, serving as a sort of Lego mechanical ‘battery’. When we want to use this energy, we can then release this kinetic energy into a Lego generator, turning it into electricity.

So let’s experiment with a few different Lego mechanisms that we can use to store energy and power some generators! Can we create a mechanism that is useful for anything practical?

See my latest experiments and behind-the-scenes footage!

[JamiesBrickJams]

(*Not applicable on Lumino, Textra and Limited Edition)

[sandwichmanu]

I'm eager to see a gravity battery now that you bring it up.

[adammee]

Legend has it if you say 'Full bridge rectifier' 3 times into a mirror, ElectroBoom appears 🤔

[kudosensei]

I'd like to see the hand crank replaced with a well geared foot pedal, charging your phone while being anxious seems like a good use of that state of mind.

[crapchannelbruh]

"THERE'S NO FREE ENERGY"
electroboom-

[Ramog]

18:01 as you probably discovered, gravity is much easier to work with, since the force is constant. With rubber bands the force increases the further you wind them up so either you crank it for long and the force is just too big to really use it or the machine has too much resistance to use anything but the first bit of energy saved in it before the torque becomes too little.

[BartJBols]

I get the assignment is to use rubber bands, but to twist rubber bands in a spiral, or to roll them up is actually a really inefficient way to store rubber band energy. Their energy is far better served with being extended out freely. While yes, this will create a lot of force and short movement, its the ideal way to power something with an escapement mechanism like a weight would, that swings a pendulum or spins up a large wheel.

If you really want to stick to the windup, add a rope to the rubber bands and wind up the rope, stretching out the rubber band, As you wind up rubber bands it will bind and the inner spool isnt as stretched out as the last winds.

[jimmio]

11:39 I realize you're a lego channel, but lego is the limiting factor when you've got massive forces like elastic band or *twisted rope*. Use fitness bands. Scale up. Lose the plastic. Increase the gear ratio even further so it takes at least a minute. Figure a lever for a human to stand on every minute that resets the internal rubber band. Boohoo, you have to take a step once a minute to charge your phone and run safety lights when the power goes out :P

[teaaddict]

It really makes you think about how much energy the smallest of processes require. No wonder we're causing our plant to overheat

[Mariano.Bernacki]

You can also use rubber bands for (super inefficient) refrigeration. No, I am not kidding you, stretch a rubber band and feel it with your lips, it gets noticeably hotter as you stretch it. Then hold it stretched for a few seconds to let it cool to ambient temperature, and let it go back to its relaxed state, it will be noticeably colder than ambient.

[jonnybonk]

You should probably come up with a flywheel and some kind of wind up mechanism which would allow you to simultaneously crank up the weight and still be able to power the load.

[XAORESS]

Next up : Lego fission Energy: making power from uranium 235

[zombieregime]

I like that you can hear the AC wave produced by the coils when running diodes. When the diodes conduct therefore draw power the magnet encounters some resistance due to the current flow, then it swaps and the diodes go into blocking stopping the current (for the most part), and the magnet spins a little freer, until it swaps again and they start conducting. Very interesting demo....

[Roland]

I love that your one of the only “LEGO” YouTube making those types of things

[Broke.Bricks]

how do people even figure this stuff out 🤯

[UnWanderer]

Try putting ferro-magnetic cores, like small bars or something like that, It theoretically makes the coils to "catch* and generate more energy. Cool generators 👍

[tonik]

Holy shit dude, this is awesome!! I hope to see a video with a gigantic generator using the slingshot rubber, maybe you could try doing it like the slingshot works? I also cannot wait to see the gravity video!

[TheHDreality]

As Joergsprave from the Slingshot Channel will tell you, there's no point pulling rubber over a pulley, what you gain in length you lose in friction.

More recently though Shoottech released a slingshot with pulleys (though it looks a lot more like a bow than a slingshot at this point) where the tricks turns out to be having multiple short bands (they go from like 8cm to like 20cm pulled by a string on a pulley) in parallel to increase the force pulled by the string using a pulley.

Twisting them around themselves is only a good idea for model planes because it saves a huge amount of weight since you don't need as much structural rigidity to deal with the torque or gearing to increase the speed.

(Most rubber band planes would actually go further if you just launched them from your finger using the elastic band but the ability to stay in the air longer and slower is their whole selling point)

But for a ground storage mechanism you don't have weight limitations which is why gravity works so well, so the reasons to use rubber at that point are basically gone, *except* for compactness and working at different orientations, thus why clocks used springs for so long.

[matthewbourgeois]

When you do the gravity one, try gearing it REALLY high like a clock and having a differential so it can be rewound without interrupting its output.

[StormBurnX]

Makes me wonder how long until Jamie finds the videos of the people making full-size pendulum clocks out of LEGO and decides to turn one of those into a generator.

Actually, now that I think about it, that... might actually be a really neat system to set up. A weight that drops over the course of an hour would be perfect for topping up a phone before bed or juicing it up in the morning during shower and breakfast, etc...