Wave and Magnetic Field Powered Generator

My project is a generator which gets it’s power by using ocean waves to move a magnet up and down through a copper coil repeatedly to collect electricity.

Name:

Jacob Spiegel

Areas or interest:

Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering

School:

French American International School

Grade:

8th grader

First Milestone

Inductor Coil

My first milestone was the creation of my coil. The image (Left) is an image of my fourth, and final coil. My first coil had been made out of exposed copper coil, which would have shorted itself. The second and third coils sprung off the tube that I was wrapping it around either while I was making them or when I attempted to take it off the tube. My fourth coil was successful but I was forced to keep it on the tube because I had wrapped it too tightly. The only negative aspect of having the coil on the tube is that it creates a barrier between the magnets and coil which lightly reduces the amount of magnetic force received by the coil. It did have an unthought of benefit which was that it made it easier for the magnets to move up and down through the coil.

Second Milestone

My second milestone was attaching my buoy to my magnets. I did this by attaching my buoy to 2 copper poles connected by duck tape and superglue with a rubber band. This was effective because it allowed a small amount of movement but not to much or to little. I then connected the buoy and copper rods to the magnets via a small plastic joint which was effective for the same reason as the rubber band. (The link to the left represents milestone 1 and 2).

Final Milestone

My final milestone was connecting the two parts via a string at the bottom of the PVC pipe so, while it’s in the water, they don’t drift apart (this modification was added after the videos were created) and testing the project. By testing it I have concluded that, on average, my creation generates between 0.05-0.1 volts per up or down movement. During the last few days of BlueStamp I have thought of many other forms of clean energy which are based off of the same inductor-baced idea and I hope to come back next year so I may delve back in to my research in clean energy.

MintyBoost

How the Minty Boost works

Minty Boost Diagram

My starter project is the Minty Boost. The Minty Boost is a battery which you can use to charge anything you can plug into it. It is composed of 1 integrated circuit (IC), 4 capacitors, 5 resistors, 1 diode , 1 inductor, 2 AA batteries and 1 female USB jack. The purpose of the capacitors is to protect the batteries from any voltage spikes created in the charging process. The function of the resistors is to help the device that you are connecting the Minty Boost to recognizes it as a suitable charger. The purpose of the diode is to stop current from flowing in to pin 7 of the IC, The inductor’s purpose is to create voltage spikes which turn the 1.4V to 1.2V that your 2 AA batteries produce into 5V to charge your device. Finally, the purpose of the IC is to quickly switch from sending current to pin 1, which is directly connected to the negative side of the battery (also known as ground or GND), to pin 7, which is connected to the inductor. By switching current between GND and the inductor, you are letting the inductor create voltage spikes which charge your device.