Experiments on harvesting energy from sun, wind, sea waves and air waves.
The idea is to grab very small streams of energy and use them to power small devices. The central idea is to define the use from the amount of energy catchable... The machines will be intermittent and we can so experiment a world with no permanent power. We'll have to wait for manifestations of the devices and surely be surprised by sudden unexpected events.
We explore what people like to call Free-energy devices, as antennas catching ambient waves and transform them into electricity. This activity runs in-between reality and fiction as a lot of myths or urban legends spread on the Web. (for example the fascinating activity of Inventor3 that is visible on youtube : 1. Technically we experiment with a little Energy Harvester, the LTC3588(2), which allows to drive 100mA circuits from series of capacitors (SuperCaps). Sparkfun sells a breakout board (3). The source can be piezoelectric sensors, small solar panels, or antennas) We try to design this kind of antenna that is a long wire loop, a small transformer to increase the voltage, a low dropout diode bridge to straighten the current and a set of Supercaps to harvest power until the LTC3588 drops it out...