List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects

[septer012]

Bandito: A Mosquito Blocker You Wear On Your Wrist
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bandito-a-mosquito-blocker-you-wear-on-your-wrist-camping#/

The Facebook feed advertisement said "This portable device uses sonic sounds and smells...".

[timgiles]

Well... its one of hundreds of devices that claim to cause either insects or rodents to flee using a mixture of ultrasonic sound, smell from some form of natural or other perfume and (not in this one) heat and / CO2 (for insects).

I am not sure there is any firm evidence for any of it. It is even still up for debate as to what it is mosquitoes home in on. I believe CO2 is proven and body heat also. Not sure that any of the natural perfumes have been proven to be effective.+

[keethrax]

Been a while since there's been an entry here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aipowerbar/ai-powercube-the-360watt-120volt-perpetual-energy/description

Introducing the AI PowerCube, simply plug in your consumer device and enjoy FREE electricity wherever you happen to be, it provides a constant current and at the same time it keeps itself charged without the need for Grid recharging, Gas, Solar, Wind or Hydro.

The unit comes packed with components including two clever generators that actually produce more power than it consumes, enabling you to enjoy 360 Watts at 120 Volts DC of Perpetual power.

[PlainName]

Perpetual power must exist, then, since Kickstarter will have seen the working prototype.

Edit: Hes says:

I have filed a patent and I cant divulge any of it as it would be copied and jobs would not be created and that is the purpose too for this project.

Just from that you can see he is a bullshitter of the first order. The whole point of patents is that you tell everyone how it works in exchange for the IPR being protected. He would know this in spades had he actually filed.

[agehall]

Yep. Love how all idiots try to claim the patent-card to avoid disclosing information when in reality, a patent application would mean that they would have to disclose everything to the public.

[McBryce]

Been a while since there's been an entry here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aipowerbar/ai-powercube-the-360watt-120volt-perpetual-energy/description

Introducing the AI PowerCube, simply plug in your consumer device and enjoy FREE electricity wherever you happen to be, it provides a constant current and at the same time it keeps itself charged without the need for Grid recharging, Gas, Solar, Wind or Hydro.

The unit comes packed with components including two clever generators that actually produce more power than it consumes, enabling you to enjoy 360 Watts at 120 Volts DC of Perpetual power.

"The technology will become more efficient and powerful over time", wow, so over-unity wasn't enough for them, they're aiming for over-over-unity! That's true ambition!

Uses: "Emergency lighting when the grid fails" - Why would you need grids after this has been invented?

McBryce.

[ikrase]

It's always kind of remarkable to me how these things that are obviously meant to be perpetual motion machines never come right out with it. This even applies to science fiction

[GregDunn]

That's because perpetual motion machines don't even get a look at the patent office - they've been sent so many that it it is a special category with an automatic "no".  Some consumers are intelligent enough to see that as well, so they obfuscate their claims.

[Richard Crowley]

Back in the days of mechanical perpetual motion machines, the USPTO required a working model to accompany any patent application for perpetual motion.  It seems likely that the requirement to analyze modern technology has surpassed the ability of the USPTO to hire competent analysts.

[asid61]

An oldie but a goodie:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawnpwest/30-second-charging-rechargeable-battery

The video showed him charging the "battery" with a tiny circuit that had a coupe resistors and a TO-220 on it. Passing the hundreds of amps needed to charge your theoretically ground-breaking battery through 0.1" pitch headers... good luck. There was a lot wrong with that project but the way he charged it was the most aggravating thing I ever saw.

[Labrat101]

Its nearly as bad as some scientist found a way to capture lighting in a cave acting as a large
Capacitor . ..
But could not get withing 500 meters to use the electric .
 No one could control the output.   
The ultimate power source . Run & Plug .

[0xdeadbeef]

What puzzles me most about this kind of kickstarter projects is the hubris of people who barely grasp a certain concept (e.g. capacitor) and still think that everybody else in the world was too dumb to come up with their great idea. I guess this based on this archetype of the mad scientist who creates a groundbreaking invention in his backroom that Hollywood keeps on using until this very day. I'm torn if I should envy or pity people who still can live with this view of the world since at some point in my life I couldn't help to realize that there are so many so clever people working all over the world on all kinds of problems that it's highly unlikely that whatever you can come up with has already been realized or discarded for very good reasons.

[Labrat101]

Fucked if I know....I'm a little teapot 

 

    These Mad scientist are going to Blow our Plant to pieces   

       An the next nearest planet is 200 light years away ...
              My old car would not make it 
                            even if the headlight were on FULL BeaM   

  RNS

[ogden]

Single UV led of unknown power to clean 500ml of unfiltered water in 60 seconds. Right "Get water sick anywhere (tm)"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auronbottle/auron-pure-water

[madires]

They say:

Auron purifies without filters or chemicals, turning water from any source into pure goodness.

Will it work also for water taken from the intake of a sewage treatment plant? Or water from the holding reservoir of a mine?

[ogden]

Then there's UV air purifier. This one could be closer to truth because actual tests are made (as they say):

https://respiray.com/product/

[Cyberdragon]

Single UV led of unknown power to clean 500ml of unfiltered water in 60 seconds. Right "Get water from sick anywhere (c)"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auronbottle/auron-pure-water

Does it say LED? UVC LEDs are expensive and weak, it might be a tiny mecury tube.

[mikerj]

Single UV led of unknown power to clean 500ml of unfiltered water in 60 seconds. Right "Get water from sick anywhere (c)"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auronbottle/auron-pure-water

Does it say LED? UVC LEDs are expensive and weak, it might be a tiny mecury tube.

They state it's an LED in the comments section, I wouldn't have expected anything else for the small size of the battery they must have in in.

[thatawesomeguy]

Another water from the air device..

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kara-pure-turning-air-into-drinking-water--2/coming_soon

https://karawater.com/

[brucehoult]

Another water from the air device..

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kara-pure-turning-air-into-drinking-water--2/coming_soon

https://karawater.com/

Why not? I've had a device at home for many years that is rated to extract I believe 25 litres of water a day from air, though I think that's at 25 C and 80% humidity which I don't have. I think in practice its extracting about 10 litres a day, using 8 kW/h of electricity to do so. I then throw the water away as the purpose is to make the room more comfortable both by reducing the humidity and by pumping out about 800 W of heat from 330 W of electricity.

[McBryce]

Another water from the air device..

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kara-pure-turning-air-into-drinking-water--2/coming_soon

https://karawater.com/

Why not? I've had a device at home for many years that is rated to extract I believe 25 litres of water a day from air, though I think that's at 25 C and 80% humidity which I don't have. I think in practice its extracting about 10 litres a day, using 8 kW/h of electricity to do so. I then throw the water away as the purpose is to make the room more comfortable both by reducing the humidity and by pumping out about 800 W of heat from 330 W of electricity.

Wow, how can you get 800W of heat from 330W of electricity?

McBryce.

[Labrat101]

Another water from the air device..

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kara-pure-turning-air-into-drinking-water--2/coming_soon

https://karawater.com/

Why not? I've had a device at home for many years that is rated to extract I believe 25 litres of water a day from air, though I think that's at 25 C and 80% humidity which I don't have. I think in practice its extracting about 10 litres a day, using 8 kW/h of electricity to do so. I then throw the water away as the purpose is to make the room more comfortable both by reducing the humidity and by pumping out about 800 W of heat from 330 W of electricity.

Wow, how can you get 800W of heat from 330W of electricity?

McBryce.

I think that some one is mixing up  W/o work output with W as in Watts  .. As a Heat Pump is only at best 80% efficient  . Depending on RH%, Dew point,
and ambient Temp . and  a few other factors ..
A regular example 1HP Home split AC on a Good day can extract about 3Lts per hour . but if the windows etc are closed this will drop to maybe 1Ltr/Hr. or Less
No Free energy unless plugged into next doors Fuse Box 

 

[brucehoult]

Another water from the air device..

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kara-pure-turning-air-into-drinking-water--2/coming_soon

https://karawater.com/

Why not? I've had a device at home for many years that is rated to extract I believe 25 litres of water a day from air, though I think that's at 25 C and 80% humidity which I don't have. I think in practice its extracting about 10 litres a day, using 8 kW/h of electricity to do so. I then throw the water away as the purpose is to make the room more comfortable both by reducing the humidity and by pumping out about 800 W of heat from 330 W of electricity.

Wow, how can you get 800W of heat from 330W of electricity?

McBryce.

Water heat of vaporisation at 21 C is about 680 Wh/kg.

All the electricity going into the dehumidifier obviously turns into heat. The excess 800-330 = 470 W of heat is explained if it is condensing 470/680 = 0.7 litres of water an hour.

That's perfectly feasible for a typical domestic dehumidifier.

[EEVblog]

Up to 6 times more efficient than regular solar panels per area!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tipa/tipa-total-internal-photonic-absorption

[coppice]

2 years between postings of dodgy crowd sourced projects? Are the crowd source sites cleaning up their act? Surely not.