Author Topic: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects  (Read 385343 times)

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Offline rollatorwieltje

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #325 on: September 26, 2015, 10:58:47 am »
It's a battery with decorative turbine shaped object attached to it. No way it's going to generate any serious amount of power. Certainly not at 2m/s wind.

Just for comparison, the Xzeres Skystream is one of the better "small" wind turbines, it can deliver 2.5kW. I has a 3.7 meter rotor and requires about 12m/s wind to do it. It needs at least 4m/s wind before it even starts moving (like pretty much any commercial wind turbine) . Even over here in the Netherlands where there's always wind that's already quite a lot (4m/s is 4 Beufort). At typical wind speeds that Skytream barely does anything, good luck charging your "300000mAh" (what does that even mean? 300Ah worth of paralleled li-ion cells?) with maybe 100W at best.

Also those turbines pretty much only work well in non-turbulent air. So forget putting that thing on the ground or on your roof, you'll want a pole at least about 20 meters high at minimum.

For wind turbines there's a simple rule: go big or go home. Small turbines aren't worth it.
 

Offline rob77

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #326 on: September 27, 2015, 09:54:26 am »
Can someone check this project : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janulus/trinity-portable-wind-turbine-power-station

It's a portable wind turbine... I have no doubt it would generate electricity but in how much time ? There is no specification of how much it generate under what conditions and I have hard time visualizing what a 2 m/s wind is ?

Thanks !  :P

the smalles turbine with r=30cm has a swept area of 0,28 square meters, in a 2m/s wind it will produce approx 0.55W of mechanical energy (yes half a watt)....  so make your own conclusions ;)
in 10m/s wind it would have approx 6.8W output (mechanical) so converting to electrical - it might yield enough to charge your phone.
and don't forget - at ground level the wind is slower and turbulent (rocks, plants in it's way) so the output might be even lower.

but anyways.. i think it's a highly impractical design... it will tip over and damage it's blades in no time... so you'll have to carry some equipment to anchor the turbine (much more weight than the turbine itself).
and also you might get some broken fingers/arms as a bonus... airplane propeller tips are painted with a contrast color for a reason - you can see the rotating blades as a circle with a different color.... their turbine blades are plain while - so harder to see while spinning.

it's definitely doable - with much much lower outputs than they declare , but highly impractical and even dangerous...
 

Offline McBryce

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #327 on: September 27, 2015, 08:36:11 pm »
The large one weighs 19kg !! Who's going to lug 19kg of unnecessary weight up a mountain? A months worth of iPhone external batteries would weigh less.

McBryce.
30 Years making cars more difficult to repair.
 

Offline MerseyViking

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #328 on: November 11, 2015, 04:09:54 pm »
A friend posted on FB a link to this article (well, fluff-piece really): http://anonhq.com/60-minutes-on-this-bicycle-can-power-your-home-for-24-hours/
Which led me to this video:
And this crowd-funding page: http://billionsinchange.com/solutions/free-electric

Thoughts? The default values from this site: http://www.tribology-abc.com/calculators/cycling.htm give us a useful output of 84W for an hour's cycling. Some of the inputs could no doubt be upped but that really doesn't seem like it'll power a rural household for 24 hours. A couple of LED bulbs overnight perhaps.
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #329 on: November 11, 2015, 04:33:41 pm »
I wouldn't call it crowd funding:

From their FAQ:
Quote
Can I donate or volunteer?
We do not accept donations, but we need your help. Please encourage your friends to watch and share our trailer and film, and follow us at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram If you would like to volunteer, please join us. This movement is in its early stage, so it may take us a little while to respond back, but as we grow our communication will improve.

Plus on the video they claim power overnight, not sure about the 24 hours that is in that article.

In the FAQ they also mention powering 24 light bulbs, a fan and two chargers for a phone and a tablet, but there is no claim of 24 hours, then again, maybe I did miss it.

The person doing it, is the guy that came up with the 5-hour Energy and he is giving 99% of his billion net worth on projects to help humanity.

 

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #330 on: November 11, 2015, 09:56:16 pm »
So what is so "innovative" about that human-powered gadget? 

To be sure, I think it is great that Mr. Bhargava is spending his millions on such worthy causes to improve life on the planet.
Kudos to him. He is in the 1% of the 1% for philanthropy, IMHO.

But the gadget shown in the video looked like nothing more than a flywheel attached to an industrial-strength alternator.
And it looked like there were 8 wires coming out of the alternator in two phases,
And connected to two rather modest bridge rectifiers bolted to the frame (@1:34)

The meters showed ~12V @ ~10A = 120W   (@0:32) 
Although the dialog (@ 1:55) said "we're able to power 1050 equivalent watts of lighting..."
Perhaps by using more efficient CFL or LED, they are citing the "equivalent" of what traditional incandescent lamps would produce?
At 2:09 there is a close-up of the bulbs on the wall, and the nomenclature around the base says "12V" although they looked incandescent.

The whole video was about the stationary bicycle-alternator, which doesn't look particularly "innovative" to me.
Or am I missing something here?  No mention of the storage necessary for practical use.
Big capacity cells would probably be MUCH more expensive than a pedal-powered alternator.
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #331 on: November 11, 2015, 10:15:17 pm »
Somewhere in that site it states that they are not doing anything really new.

Their focus is for them to be simple and affordable. But I think the weight on a chain that someone else did is a better solution for lighting.

Gravitational storage seems a better solution than kinetic storage and less parts to go wrong. But the gravitational one was per bulb, this is for about 30 low power devices.
 

Offline 0xdeadbeef

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #332 on: November 16, 2015, 11:32:47 am »
Ok, boring free energy once again but it seems like people just don't learn...
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-u-plug-green-generator#/
Trying is the first step towards failure - Homer J. Simpson
 

Offline Delta

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #333 on: November 16, 2015, 02:57:51 pm »
Ok, boring free energy once again but it seems like people just don't learn...
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-u-plug-green-generator#/

FFS.  I thought even IGG didn't allow blatant laws-of-physics defy shite like that...
 

Offline AmbientSix

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #334 on: November 18, 2015, 01:19:10 pm »
It's hilarious that they expect us to believe magnets that can lift 2500lbs each can be safely contained in a gutter pipe...  I might make an account just to report it...
 

Offline McBryce

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #335 on: November 18, 2015, 01:43:44 pm »
It's hilarious that they expect us to believe magnets that can lift 2500lbs each can be safely contained in a gutter pipe...  I might make an account just to report it...

So when you accidentally leave it on a metal shelf you need 10 friends to get it back off? :D

McBryce.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 02:12:49 pm by McBryce »
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Offline FrankBuss

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #336 on: November 18, 2015, 02:00:42 pm »
These neodymium magnets can be very strong. A 2500 lbs magnets is expensive: http://cgi.ebay.de/250456488560 I wonder if they have more than one of it in it, then it would be profitable to buy the generator and sell the magnets :)

Of course, too dangerous to buy it, because I doubt they will ship anything at all and if they do, it will be a fake, like something they wrote they didn't use, a battery and an inverter, and no money back guarantee. I guess that's why they emphasize it is a device for emergeny usage for power outages etc. If it would work as described, they wouldn't sell it, but make money by building a power plant, which is a prove that it doesn't work.
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Offline McBryce

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #337 on: November 18, 2015, 02:12:29 pm »
Cool. So when I order one on ebay and they send it via DHL. How does the delivery guy remove it from the metal floor of his delivery van?

McBryce.
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Offline FrankBuss

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #338 on: November 18, 2015, 04:23:59 pm »
Cool. So when I order one on ebay and they send it via DHL. How does the delivery guy remove it from the metal floor of his delivery van?
The magnetic field strength is a function of 1/r^2 and I guess they are using lots of bubble wrap for a good distance to the packet outside, so should be no problem.
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Offline SeanB

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #339 on: November 18, 2015, 05:23:45 pm »
IIRC those magnets above a certain strength are not shippable by air, as the stray field will interfere with the fluxgate backup compass and the standby magnetic compass in the navigation system.
 

Offline electr_peter

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #340 on: November 18, 2015, 06:43:03 pm »
IGG campaign is pure scam about magnets. It is not even new in any way.

This video shows how big magnet is packaged for shipping. Extra padding and metal plates/mesh on all sides help to reduce intensity of magnetic field somewhat.



Channel brainiac75 is pretty interesting - checkout some videos about separating/handling/storing strong magnets.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 06:44:35 pm by electr_peter »
 

Offline Brutte

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #341 on: November 19, 2015, 10:55:07 am »
Quote
These neodymium magnets can be very strong.
And expensive. They should have used electromagnets in that u-plug. That would cut the goal of the IGG campaign from 250k to 25k or below. With same effect as electromagnets have no (theoretical) bounds on how "very strong" these are.
 

Offline McBryce

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #342 on: November 19, 2015, 12:07:21 pm »
Quote
These neodymium magnets can be very strong.
And expensive. They should have used electromagnets in that u-plug. That would cut the goal of the IGG campaign from 250k to 25k or below. With same effect as electromagnets have no (theoretical) bounds on how "very strong" these are.

And the power required for the electromagnets come from where exactly??  :palm:

McBryce.
30 Years making cars more difficult to repair.
 

Offline crispy_tofu

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #343 on: November 19, 2015, 12:10:03 pm »
Batterisers, of course.  :-DD
 

Offline FrankBuss

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #344 on: November 19, 2015, 03:33:59 pm »
The generator produces "115 volts at 17.3 amps of power" says the campaign. You could use some percentage of it for the electromagnet. It would only need an extra wheel to start it.

I wonder how the current device starts. All the scientific free energy reference videos on Youtube demonstrate that even with rare earth magnets you need some big battery or start the motor by hand. Does it already run when it is shipped? A 2000 watt spinning motor would be interesting to ship, because you can't easily rotate it around some axis.
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Offline Ryano

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #345 on: November 19, 2015, 04:57:30 pm »
The whole video was about the stationary bicycle-alternator, which doesn't look particularly "innovative" to me.
Or am I missing something here?  No mention of the storage necessary for practical use.
Big capacity cells would probably be MUCH more expensive than a pedal-powered alternator.

Hell.... we were rocking a setup that blows this thing out of the water back in 2010! Made with nothing that can't be found in the average garage.

https://seattlebmp.wordpress.com/

« Last Edit: November 19, 2015, 05:02:22 pm by Ryano »
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #346 on: November 19, 2015, 05:50:15 pm »
That's pretty cool, the only thing that surprises me is that they were still using myspace in 2010.
 

Offline Delta

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #347 on: November 21, 2015, 12:24:59 am »
That bicycle powered gig is really cool!  I bet the cyclists really feel it when they hit a loud bit of a song!
 

Offline Delta

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #348 on: November 21, 2015, 12:27:07 am »
A 2000 watt spinning motor would be interesting to ship, because you can't easily rotate it around some axis.

I once saw a colleague pull an Inertial Navigation unit out of a rack without waiting for the three gyros to wind down from 27000rpm.  Most amusing!  It took him ages to put it down...
 

Offline Brutte

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Re: List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects
« Reply #349 on: November 22, 2015, 11:22:09 pm »
And the power required for the electromagnets come from where exactly??  :palm:
McBryce.
It is supposed to be a 2kW device, isn't it?

As long as electromagnet does not perform work (which is a standard property of a permanent magnet) the consumed power is zero (apart of ohmic losses that can be made arbitrarily small by design).
 


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