Evanescent Potato Coupling

The Potato that transcends wires…

 

Nah, just kidding.  I’m developing some different battery types, some of which are immensely cooler than the Mar-Cell v1.0.  For example

Why use a plastic box for the cells when I can use the copper casing as the connector.  Looks much cooler, but I shouldn’t leave it on my coffee table for the neighbours to see through my front window.

Anyhow, while I’m doing that and waiting for parts, I’ve been looking into Evanescent Wave Coupling.

Wireless power transmission has been branded up nowdays with all sorts of names like “Qi” (pronounced Chi) but when it comes down to it, we’re basically talking evanescent wave coupling.  For those of you mathematically blessed, here’s the post that got me into it to begin with.  If that doesn’t melt your brain just a tad, try going through all that without the ability to measure capacitance and inductance alongside not having a source for the unicorn of components, the variable capacitor.

Well the good thing is that if you can’t get hold of those vital components, you can always use the old lab power box to vary the current and control the oscillation that way.  This results in a nice little copper coil that you can make with some speaker wire as the transmission source.

The speaker wire I was using was copper on one lead and some sort of devil metal on the other.  Couldn’t solder it very well and basically was an all round pain in the ass to work with. While it worked, the results were less than stellar.

You basically had to have the receiving coil right over the top of the transmission coil to get a result.  There’s a good chance this is due to using copper for the receiver and devil metal for the transmitter, but with the way this thing behaved when trying to solder it, who cares.  So now I have this air gap transformer, what am I going to do with it?

Well, because this can also transmit power through objects like the plate I have pictured above and the coffee table as seen in my first pics, it means I can use it for what I really wanted.  I can put some christmas lights out on the balcony and leave them running without having to leave a door open or cut a hole in the wall.  Power transmission through the glass door. 🙂

If the maths from Alan’s post I linked earlier wasn’t enough to hurt your brain, then riddle me this batman.  How is a 3.5volt LED being powered by 0.6 volts at 90mA using AC when the diode requires DC?