1906 Wonderful Wave Power Mechanism

you can find the Tinkercad files here

[chriskeeble]

If your videos were part of the national curriculum, the next generation would be UNSTOPPABLE. Thank you Rob, keep doing what you're doing.

[pat_link_]

Genius, your videos are natural food for thought. I am a teacher and love the content you produce, Robert.

[hightechredneck]

Now that is brilliant. With the addition of a flywheel, DC generator, and inverter this could very easily be made grid scale.

[MrChris]

Really love the way you explain foundational concepts Robert.
Lol! And it looks like you are finding more and more fun ways to use those 3d printers.

[JehuMcSpooran]

That Lav mic is a great addition for your videos, Rob. The audio was great. Saves your voice too.

[nigelwilliams]

Wonderful work as always!

A feature of (in this case) wave energy, but shared by all sorts of energy converters from natural sources, is the intermittency of the input compared with the nice even output required for domestic use.

With your tidal arm, to attenuate the output you could use the arm to pump water up into a top tank, and then run a fixed speed turbine and alternator on the discharge from the tank into the bottom tank to give you 240 V 50 Hz (or what ever you require).

I find that step between intermittent and widely variable input and the required steady output is the biggest hurdle for any comprehensive natural energy capture system.

I like the thought experiment where you have say a huge flywheel rotating, and you want to add the energy from a falling feather to the energy in the huge flywheel. Its a problem worth solving.

Conceptually, use the input to generate some electrical current in a wire. Boost the voltage and frequency of that way up - say 4000 Volts and 1000 Hz, regardless of the current The high frequency enables very effecient AC to DC conversion, and then a PWM setup provides the 50Hz and a simple 4000 V / 240 V transformer gets the required voltage.

The trick is to get ALL your input devices to sing the same 4000 V 1000 Hz tune (i.e. to fill the 'top tank'), regardless of the current they are providing.

Its a dark and stormy night here with torrential rain and a decent gale. (Its my fault, I just upgraded my wind vane - hence the blow!) The down pipes from my roof could give me about 60 Watts of energy as the rain falls through the available three metres, while the gale could provide a swag more Watts with a suitable converter. These two intermittent and unmatched inputs have to somehow get aligned to 'fill the top tank' which can then be drained by the output system at the required 240 V 50 Hz.

In this day and age any fool can make sparks come out of a sun or wind or water driven device. The trick is to get that largesse into a suitable form for the end user to do things with when its needed.

Your universal solution to this intractable problem is eagerly anticipated by your adoring congregation!!! :)

[pohkeee]

I appreciate all you years of experience and you are also a superb teacher. Which also answers several commentators questions…there are years of mistakes that are actually lessons…followed by the philosophy that there really are no mistakes if they are turned into lessons! And finally, lessons that you slow down and teach to others produce a deep and thorough understanding of the subject matter. Experience + teaching = clarity of principles and design. 🖖

[technicalfool]

You've just made a mechanical full-bridge rectifier. I'm sure Mehdi of Electroboom would enjoy.

[paulkrebs]

I've often thought looking at our younger, slender gum trees here in Australia of how much they can sway even in low wind where we don't have waves near us. We do have lots of trees. Something like this could be perfect.

[pauljamison]

"the ratchets are a little bit delicate... so if i were to redesign this... but the ratchets are easy to see, easy to understand..."
brilliant channel, and that's why. thank you.

[ryanjamesloyd]

Awesome.
Were I to do such a thing, I think instead of printing the ratchet bit I would just use 2 cheap ratchet tools yoked together with a socket or bolt stuck in the cog, so that bit would be more robust. Of course, in a salt water environment, it occurs to me that might not be ideal due to corrosion.

[allanjacques]

Brilliant as usual and so quick from design idea to prototype. Your head must be exploding with ideas! Tidal beats wave for reliability and .. well it will never run out! "constant as the tides" There was or is an Australian company that developed a mechanism which was affixed to the bottom, mounted on a pylon of some sort and swiveled to meet the changing direction of the tidal flow. It was shaped like a fish and always pointed into the tidal flow. It moved like a fish, gently flapping its tail section from left to right. Through gears or Hydraulics it captured the movement and converted it to electricity. It was an environmentally sublime design with respect to fish and capable of producing considerable energy

[barabolak]

I have no idea how you do this! It literally takes me a MONTH to come up with a design and 3d print something that often doesn't even work!

[rdshed]

The finest in British shed engineering!

[canadianboondocker]

😊 what about just pushing up and down on a piston to a connecting rod to a crankshaft? The crankshaft would keep turning in the same direction

[peterengland]

Hi Rob. You are right! Waves are huge potential sources of energy. You can, however, get rotary power directly from waves without any mechanical mechanisms. As shown in your diagram of waves, there is a circular motion in the water beneath the wave. It is a flow of water that rotates through 360 degrees as each wave passes. If you put an eccentric vane on a stationary shaft in the water under the wave it will rotate once in the flow of each wave. This then produces rotary motion directly from the kinetic energy (the flow of water) of the wave. The amount of energy the vane can harvest will governed by the height of the wave (trough to crest), by the depth of the vane in the water beneath the wave, and by the size of the vane.

[richardjohnson]

Also a drain generator in a large body of water that uses a float to keep the the top above the water and a screen to filter, you could maybe also use the air bubbles going back up to create more power.

[jasonhaymanonthedrawingboard]

I've seen devices like this? plunger toy is one example. some I've seen a bicycle wheel use because of the mech in the rear cassette. if that was linked to a flywheel? oh boy time to sit down for a cuppa? pat yourself on the back? hi revs and lots of power on the rim? they have had similar thing for some time? often given out as party toys? they sometime light up? burger king had a superman toy that did it? push and release. around it would go?

great job rob!

[EastBayFlipper]

Love the videos Robert ❤
For tidal power, why not look at airfoil/tuyure designs but in a tidal flow to pull water through a venturi effect and avoid the problem of minced fish and fishing gear by rounded brass screens around the intake 🤔
I'll be testing this summer aside have a tidal inland sea in front of some family property and it's a constant flow almost all day

[richardjohnson]

Another one would be essentially a "runaway diesel engine" but using the U tube with an inline still that is insulated that has electric heaters that capture the power from the difference in pressure and temperature with the height of the tube and transfer it to the water, which should eventually continuously boil