Gravity Light (v2) Homemade/DIY

Homemade/DIY gravity light/gravity generator that powers LEDs using falling masses giving enough light to read by. The masses are water bottles that fall for around 12 minutes before needing to be lifted back up. A capacitor stores excess energy to keep the light lit long enough to do that. The gravity light was originally invented by Deciwatt.

See also:

Gravity Light (v2) Making and Enhancements
(coming soon)

How to Make Capacitors - High Voltage Homemade/DIY Capacitors

And also:

Gravity Light - Making and Enhancements (version 1)

Follow behind-the-scenes on:

Music used throughout:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
ISRC: USUAN1100873

[MongrelShark]

Those high power LED's really made a big difference! Well done.

[hacksmith]

It keeps getting better! What kind of current are you producing from that motor? 20-50mA?

[Zorn]

Who could possibly dislike this? Fantastic work!

[bakupcpu]

Was nice meeting you at the maker fair today. Keep up your great video. Cheer!

[electronicsNmore]

Reminds me of how a Grandfather clock operates. Very nice demonstration of how it works, but I agree with others about it not being practical. Must be hard to concentrate and read with that noise from the DC motor. Still a great video. :-)

[nw]

I found that using a stepper motor from an old printer makes an excellent generator, it is capable of producing ample power at a very low RPM. Power can always be stored in NiMH batteries or ultra-caps for later use for convenience. Thanks for your videos:)

[consciousenergies]

Good stuff! You have an efficient oscillating circuit on your LEDs? Keep on creating my friend, it is a wonderful experience and your time spent to share your explorations with us all is much appreciated.

[GHanBax]

Hello, this is wonderful. What kind of generator or motor did you use?

[Wavefront]

Nice improvements, looks a more stable now.

[laharlk]

how about using a wooden gearbox with steel rods and ball bearings? wouldnt that be better and have less friction?

[USWaterRockets]

Nice improvements! Any chance you can further adapt this to see how well it would work as a wind power or water powered light? That would be great for camping!

[leafbranch]

This works with the led bulbs used to replace incandescent bulbs.

[TheAtomicDerp]

Have you considered attaching some old CDs with the reflective sides pointing at each other? That may up the brightness.

[SonicDadDotCom]

Hey that is really cool Steve! What is the final RPM at the generator?
-Ritchie

[corentinane]

Good morning sir,
With a friend we try to make a gravity light and we saw I you had succeeded. Would you be available to discuss this subject because several steps are causing us problems.
Thanks in advance

[JavierSalcedoC]

what about one of those exercise machines for home, connected to batteries that are charged up during your daily work out routine?

[pmz]

Sir why donot u try the super joule ringer circuit(SJR for short) by lasersaber it can help light the gravity light LEDs for a longer time.or u can try charging a super cap and decreasing the discharge time by a resister

[MilanKarakas]

E=mgh, or in your case where m=14 kg, acceleration is 9.81 (lets round to 10), and h i about 3 meters. E=14*10*3=420 Joules, or watt*seconds. 1 Watt LED may last then 420/60=7 minutes, or 0.1 watt LED ten times that value (will be good that you can slow down this mechanism).

By increasing mass (m in the formula), and/or increasing height (h in the formula), one can accumulate more potential energy. With adding weight, one problem arrive (which may be solved easily), and that is friction of the mechanism. So, mount it on your balcony, and if it is say 10 meters above ground, put say 72 kilograms (my weight), and you have E=72*10*10=7200 Joules, or 7200 watt*seconds. To 'reset' this weight to the initial height, just stay on the ladder and on the mechanism that may support your weight in counterbalance of this mechanism with the same weight as yours. Then it is easy to pull that weight up to 10 meters, and you have it: light for very long time (1 W LED at 7200 J may last for 120 minutes, or two hours!).

[MusicMakesYourLifeBetter]

Could you improve it by just using a much larger wheel instead of the bicycle one you are currently using?

[GoRepairs]

You could make a bigger version for outside.