Towards A Printed Generator

[bushhack]

This idea offers someone in a bushcrafting situation a way to start fire in addition to powering small tools from slowly charged batteries. In the woods sap can be used in a variety of ways: sealant and waterproofing are of highest interest to me. Stacking these is certainly a key to power improvement. Other improvements may come from petal counts and lengths. When I’m ready I’ll need to play with this myself. If my results are worthy I’ll post them.

[darrellpidgeon]

Very fascinating! The flat profile alone opens up several possibilities. That foil tape is useful for so many things. I've used the tape before to test a homemade capacitor. I used the lid of a CD case, applying equal pieces of foil on both sides. It worked better than I thought it would. You're right about one thing; humidity is the main downfall of any electrostatic system.

[hissst]

Robert. I am positively rivetted. I cannot wait for more on this series, I will build this along with you, looking forward to the layout and design instructional video. And looking forward to another one of yours with your ink ! I may also look at doing a smaller version with more disks out of CDs as I have stacks of useless cds !

[lubbock]

If one were to seal this from the environment as you suggested, the resulting enclosed container may then have its air removed, leaving a vacuum. this would virtually remove any resistance on the disk from drag. For something so light with such little inertia that little amount of drag could drastically affect the efficiency.

[nicholashall]

I've been enjoying your videos for years and never commented. You sir are national treasure! My children are finally old enough to start enjoying your videos as well (ages 7 & 9). Your ability to make complex subjects accessible to ordinary folks is wonderful, and your enthusiasm is so contagious that even uneducated folks like me can't help but head down to the basement to tinker (I loved both of your bioplastics books). Do you have a Patreon account where we can help support the production of these wonderful videos?

[joohop]

Thank You Robert
Energy Is Round About Man That He Does Not Know Of STATIC ELECTRICITY IS EVERYWHERE
Bless Up

[j.rumbleseed]

That is great technology. A flywheel UPS lead to the breakthrough of the flywheel drive that Porsche took and revolutionized as the GT3 Hybid. Basically, a Dirod. When the car brakes, it charges the flywheel, and when the driver hits the button, it sends it back to the motors. 97%+ break energy recovery!

[DeliciousDeBlair]

You can also buy some copper tape if you like, I bought some to use as a gasket on my engine, and I have a whole lot left over.

[benthere]

Well done, Robert.
Instead of your fabricated rivet, I would've drilled several small (030") holes and then put a dab of your conductive ink on both sides. That would make a plated-thru hole like in a PC board. The voltage is so high and the current is so low that the resistance of the ink is inconsequential. As a matter of fact, I think you could silk-screen all the conductors for everything using your ink.

[stevetobias]

When you think about it, this is pretty cool. As you said, no magnets or coils and apart from the axle and the carbon brushes, nothing is touching. This could be driven by a fan on a large pulley and a small pulley in place of the handle. Of course once it has been sealed.

[andrewharbit]

Most intriguing, what is the relation to petal size and inducted charge? If you were to use more petals the number of times the brushes make contact would be more frequent, the area of induced charge onto the petals would be less correct, however the increase in contact frequency may increase the power.

[melellington]

I would love to see that static generator running off a wind turbine. In other words, a windmill without the usual magnets and coils of wire.

[jakattah]

Be interesting to see if your conductive paint over the aluminum would improve it!

[tagsoftware]

I love it, Robert. My compliments. If the unit needs to be sealed, could something like an aquarium be used as a container, to then pull a vacuum to reduce internal friction?

[BoBjjjjs]

Very interesting, I would love to see a few plates, enough to give around 12v just to see how well it worked. Would a printed one also work as a small motor, maybe not. But print a generator is a wonderful idea.

[lubbock]

You know Robert, a relatively easy way to make a small multi-disk Dirod generator maybe to paint ink onto the stacked disks of an old hard drive. Just an Idea.
If you do not wish to look into this, I will :D

[strongforce]

Awesome can't wait to see the follow up on this series ! Stacking them sounds good ...if using a light and thin material could potentially stack hundreds in "Not such a big space" lol with a decent efficiency.., really wonder how such device would compare to a industrial grade generator in terms of efficiency (mechanical power converted into electrical) this could be the FWG generator, sell the kit and make $$ on it + ink :), also rather than thinking in terms of total power output maybe it's best to think in terms of "whats the minimum amount require to charge a battery bank" (12, 24, 48+) so then we don't necessary need the peak power in amps, just thinking out loud here.. :D

[htmagic]

RMS, and a bigger diameter wheel would give more power too. Somehow this struck me similar to the Methernitha free energy machine.

[stevenfaber]

Very cool! Perhaps you could place it on the Stationary Bike to see what kind of levels you could get from it, in hopes to place it as a generator on actual bikes, for EBike charging? As an add-on range extender?

[thornhedge]

You're worth your weight in Platinum Robert! Great presentation and really cool build...
Perhaps I misunderstood: Didn't you say it worked as a motor or a generator? Will it do both at once? Motor on one side production on the other?