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Build Your Own Band-aid Fuel Cell
ptorrone writes "Here's how to make a fuel cell from a band-aid...This has got to be the simplest way to build a fuel cell from scratch. The design is ridiculously simple, whilst being effective - it will allow you to explore the concepts of fuel cells in a ludicrously simple way."
Sounds... Simple
Can't we all just get along
Still requires you to buy specialty parts to complete. Sure, its a nifty idea. But so is trying to make a V8 engine out of soda cans. You'd still have to buy some parts to make it work right. Let me know when you can do it from just the store bought items.
AccountKiller
I see a bit more than a bandaid in the directions.
I pretend to know more than I really do by mooching off google and wikipedia.
High quality indeed... maybe that stuff would keep the mosquitoes out. And the airborn bacterium. So basically, build a fuel cell, and use one part known by laymen? Impressive. Why don't they just put the bandage on the outside of a ballard fuel cell bus?
I have freaks! I did something right...
I think our technicians and scientists should focus on simple technology first.
Simple technology is, ehm, simple to implement with possibly fewer failure chances and also fewer environmental issues.
This is what the world really needs now.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
how many watt-hours, at how many volts? and, just as important, is it rechargable?
anyhow, the bandaids were incidental. the "mea" part was $47.50. it's a heck of an expensive battery, even if IS a WONDER battery.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
Gypsies used a similar trick to get free lunch, they called it "nail soup". Tell the host that you can cook a "nail soup", a soup based on a nail.
Ingredients:
- One big nail
- Water
- Groats
- Bacon
- Salt, Spices, Herbs
- (...some more foodstuffs, I don't remember).
The idea was to cook a basic groats-based soup with nail in it. The nail didn't provide anything to the soup except of curiosity factor that made the host to provide the rest of the ingredients. The gypsy would eat one bowl, the host another, the nail would be saved for another cooking of the soup...
Here they use band-aid instead of the nail.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Incredibly Easy Way to Build A Ludicrously Simple Potato Battery.
Materials list:
Any ones will do. Make sure you don't get a sweet potato.
If you want to get really techie and heavy about stainless steel fly screen, the material that I used was top-notch stuff! The stainless steel was 318 grade - very high quality!! The screen was 72 wires per inch in both directions, with each wire being 0.0037". This wire is available from the folks at the totally fabby www.potatobattery.com
Rather difficult to assemble yourself. Much simpler is to buy one that is already made from www.potatobattery.com .
At all times when working with the MEA, you will need to wear cotton gloves. This is because the muck on your hands will greatly inhibit the function of the MEA. Cotton gloves are available in specialty stores, but I love my pair from www.potatobattery.com
[...]
[Image]
The completed Band Aid Fuel Cell!
Testing the Band Aid Fuel Cell
To test the fuel cell you will need some 3% Methanol solution. Again you can get this from the Potato Battery store ( www.potatobattery.com ), unless you know a bit about chemistry or are friendly with a college lab technician.
[...]
Have fun, and be sure to tell all your friends!!!
I suppose it makes no difference what brand you use, but the marketing implications of this are phenomenal. Imagine having bandaids that don't glow but actually light themselves!
Add a nifty strobe effect and you'll have the perfect rave accessories anytime you fall off your bike!
However, there is no practical use. I'd never incorporate this in any electric devices in my house. 1. It's too fragile. 2. It's way too expensive. 3. It's easier to grab a pack of batteries from Wal-Mart. 4. I'd probably use the last two bandaids to make the device, then end up cutting myself.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -Alan Kay
It seemed an awful lot of fuss to me, what's wrong with copper wire, steel wire, and a lemon? Now that's simple.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Let's see how long it takes 'til someone figures out to power the timer for some bomb with a similar design and we can't get band aids anymore.
"Sorry bud, you're bleeding and we can't do anything to avoid infections. But doesn't it give you a fuzzy warm feeling that it's all done for national security?"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"It has *not* to do with the observers' relative speeds asmuch as their window widths."
.. just wanted to let you know.
i believe the word you're lookoing for is *naught*
People wanting to look at this seriously should buy the PDF instruction book available from http://www.goodideacreative.com/fuel_cell.html. I got one, and it's good :) Damned good. I'm thinking about getting some other ones ( eg the solar one looks interesting too ).
A real man would use duck tape*.
*World + dog will insist that it's 'duct tape' but it isn't really. It's duck tape because it is (or once was) made out of canvas duck. It is totally useless for ducts because it's so darn porous.
The current economic system (especially in North America) is so out of whack with reality it's not even funny. We pay actors and atheletes millions of dollars, and they produce nothing. Yet we pay farmers, who produce every scrap of food on our plate, to whom we owe our very survival, next to nothing. In many cases, not even enough to maintain their own farms. Sometimes I think we need some sort of catastrophe, like running out of oil, to snap us out of our fantasy world and back to reality.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
This is remarkably like an article I once wrote about how to make a fission generator with stuff lying around the house. It turns out not everyone else has the same stuff lying around the house as me.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Well, that may be simple, but it is hardly a fuel cell.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
...the band-aid fuel cell builds you!
Ludicrous, simply ludicrous. Got to love that word, "ludicrous". Everyone, find a situation and use it in your conversation today and report back. Extra points if you used WHILST talking with your employer. Ludicrously yours, Me
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
It would appear that the submitter of the story is Phillip Torrone, the host of the MAKE blog (and apparently a Senior Editor?). I'd like to think that's not really the case: MAKE is really cool and this fuel cell is really lame. The worst part is that now I have that stupid "I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me" jingle running through my head.
Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the
If anyone here is squeamish on technical instructions, just run over to Google Video and search for such videos relating to "JoeCell" and "Joe Cell" (note the space between Joe and Cell will give parallel results) and "Water Electrolysis" and "Water Fuel" and "Orgone."
First, to bring the competancy and interests of the blessed Slashdot surveyer into context, download and watch the two Free Energy videos titled Equinox - It Runs on Water and Race to Zero Point. They are both about 700 MegaBytes total download, and give discussion and wit to some of the errata that science is trying to "tie" together as "String Theory" and the politics related to why most Free Energy inventors are murdered.
The original early 1990's footage in Australia, of the inventor of the Joe Cell, is available at length of 2-hours and 1.1 GigaBytes, titled The Early Years.
Next, is to compare the difference between a Joe Cell and advanced Water Eletrolysis. Electrolysis separates water molecules into the more explosive Hydrogen and Oxygen, and from there it is injected into the combustion engine through a carburetor. There is more explosive gas with the Hydrogen and Oxygen then there ever was in the 87-octane available at a liquid pump. There are also excellent results to 87-octane commercially-available gas also by an electrolysis process, and it is recordable that bottled-water certainly costs more, but the measurement of health is certainly better when handling less-volatile liquid that doesn't cause ill health. A Joe Cell is a unique type of Electrolytic Capacitor that uses water as the electrolye and with usually more than two neutral plates. Water Electrolysis has been known ever since the 1850's throughout the world, in various experiments with steam et al, yet the Joe Cell was created by a mechanic in Australia in the early 1990's (if I remember correctly).
I know for a fact that there are over 26 elements preceding the alleged first element "Hydrogen", and the supposed source of the Joe Cell and some process of Water Electrolysis, to derive capacity to collect freely-renewable energy. Water Electrolysis process is to have a number of metal-rods submerged in a hermeticly-sealed cannister of water, and a high-frequency of low-current high-voltage is pulsed through the rods to defray water molecules into free Hydrogen and Oxygen available for combustion. The rate at which the gas (think vapor/not liquid) is produced is a matter of technique that varies from inventor to experimenter. The Joe Cell, on the other hand, is different by negatively-charging water and combusting the irradiated elemental gas that derives from the water under a vacuum. The Joe Cell, under the vacuum of the combustion engine, will irradiate the 26 or more unusual/high-frequency elements preceeding Hydrogen, and derive locomotion from their combustion with an exaust of the more stable water we know of at atmospheric pressure and conditions. The various gas derived from typical Water Electrolysis however, after combustion and upon exposure to the atmosphere at the exaust-pipe (and muffler), will recombine into water and thus allow the matter to be re-collected into a fuel reservoir from whence the electrolysis process brought it about.
In effect, a Joe Cell has some difficulty from reverting to various stages of capacity or failing to lower "stages" of leak. A Joe Cell has more capacity to collect free energy than typical Water Electrolysis, but needs certain alloy of steel; but a complete assembly for an experimenter could have a Joe Cell inline charged by a combustion engine fueled from Water Electrolysis process and then switched to charge the Joe Cell and use it when possible. A Joe Cell is just
without prejudice
What was I expecting from a "bandaid fuel cell" in an article from a magazine named MAKE?
Well, perhaps something describing how to build a fuel cell that doesn't require an expensive (and sometimes difficult to obtain) membrane, or catalyst. I was saying to myself "Finally, someone has figured out how to use saranwrap (or something similar) as the membrane for a simple fuel cell".
I suppose if it was that simple, the companies would already be doing it - or would they? How many other times in our recent history have companies passed on simple and effective technologies for a product simply because you couldn't patent the crap out of them? Could fuel cells be any different? I wonder the same thing about solar technology - is there a way to make a better (or at least cheaper to build) copper oxide solar cell, or an easier to build organic solar cell (you know the ones I am talking about, which use cranberry juice or whatnot). In the case of a fuel cell, the expensive and hard to obtain parts seem to be the catalyst material and membrane (in the case of the bandaid fuel cell, it seems that the membrane you buy is just a combination of both in a pre-made stack). In the case of a homemade solar cell, the difficult piece is the front transparent conductor: It is difficult to make transparent conductive glass (silvering is one method, but it require chemicals that are heavily regulated today thanks to things like the PATRIOT Act - no kidding! - plus the chemicals are difficult to handle and expensive to purchase) - so most homemade solar cells, especially the copper oxide ones, use saltwater as a transparent conductor. I have also given thought to "silkscreening" a very, very thin layer of Artic Silver paste compound onto glass to act as a conductor, but I am not sure that would work, either.
At any rate, this article did nothing to cause me to get excited and MAKE something. For a toy experiment, it isn't worth it. I would have been much more impressed had they detailed building a solar powered stirling engine from empty cola cans and a fresnel magnifier...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Lets see; bandaids, wire screen, scalpel, volt meter, sissors, cotton gloves, 3% solution of methonal. Got it. I can go to my local stores, and purchase the stuff, no problem.
Ok, I'm looking at the "5 Layer DMFC MEA", not so simple, How can I do a "McGiever" on this?
Now for a logistics question, "What would it take to apply this solution to an average home for One Year?" This would be VERY interesting.
This Band-Aid Battery strikes me as a really temporary, stop-gap solution.
- Murphy's Corollary: - It is impossible to make things foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
I posted the following comment in this article at the bottom, here. Either Joe Cell or Water Electrolysis reservoirs can be constructed with less than USD 20 in material from a local hardware or gardening store. Enjoy...
~!@#$%^&*()_+
If anyone here is squeamish on technical instructions, just run over to Google Video and search for such videos relating to "JoeCell" and "Joe Cell" (note the space between Joe and Cell will give parallel results) and "Water Electrolysis" and "Water Fuel" and "Orgone."
First, to bring the competancy and interests of the blessed Slashdot surveyer into context, download and watch the two Free Energy videos titled Equinox - It Runs on Water and Race to Zero Point. They are both about 700 MegaBytes total download, and give discussion and wit to some of the errata that science is trying to "tie" together as "String Theory" and the politics related to why most Free Energy inventors are murdered.
The original early 1990's footage in Australia, of the inventor of the Joe Cell, is available at length of 2-hours and 1.1 GigaBytes, titled The Early Years.
Next, is to compare the difference between a Joe Cell and advanced Water Eletrolysis. Electrolysis separates water molecules into the more explosive Hydrogen and Oxygen, and from there it is injected into the combustion engine through a carburetor. There is more explosive gas with the Hydrogen and Oxygen then there ever was in the 87-octane available at a liquid pump. There are also excellent results to 87-octane commercially-available gas also by an electrolysis process, and it is recordable that bottled-water certainly costs more, but the measurement of health is certainly better when handling less-volatile liquid that doesn't cause ill health. A Joe Cell is a unique type of Electrolytic Capacitor that uses water as the electrolye and with usually more than two neutral plates. Water Electrolysis has been known ever since the 1850's throughout the world, in various experiments with steam et al, yet the Joe Cell was created by a mechanic in Australia in the early 1990's (if I remember correctly).
I know for a fact that there are over 26 elements preceding the alleged first element "Hydrogen", and the supposed source of the Joe Cell and some process of Water Electrolysis, to derive capacity to collect freely-renewable energy. Water Electrolysis process is to have a number of metal-rods submerged in a hermeticly-sealed cannister of water, and a high-frequency of low-current high-voltage is pulsed through the rods to defray water molecules into free Hydrogen and Oxygen available for combustion. The rate at which the gas (think vapor/not liquid) is produced is a matter of technique that varies from inventor to experimenter. The Joe Cell, on the other hand, is different by negatively-charging water and combusting the irradiated elemental gas that derives from the water under a vacuum. The Joe Cell, under the vacuum of the combustion engine, will irradiate the 26 or more unusual/high-frequency elements preceeding Hydrogen, and derive locomotion from their combustion with an exaust of the more stable water we know of at atmospheric pressure and conditions. The various gas derived from typical Water Electrolysis however, after combustion and upon exposure to the atmosphere at the exaust-pipe (and muffler), will recombine into water and thus allow the matter to be re-collected into a fuel reservoir from whence the electrolysis process brought it about.
In effect, a Joe Cell has some difficulty from reverting to various stages of capacity or failing to lower
without prejudice
I know for a fact that there are over 26 elements preceding the alleged first element "Hydrogen"
You know this do you? Might I ask how you know this? Hydrogen is the first element because it has one proton in it's nucleus (I say one proton, because that's the only thing for certain thanks to ions,) not because of some kind of political "we like hydrogen better than firstium" style of thing. The way the periodic table works is each element in the table has a certain number of protons in their nucleus and they are ordered by this. Therefore, to be less than hydrogen, you must have zero protons in the nucleus. Therefore, to be less than hydrogen, it must be just an electron or a neutron floating around somewhere, not an actual atom at all and therefore not an "element."
I don't really understand why you even said this though. No one ever said anything about needing elements before hydrogen for it to work or something.
Oh, and leave string theory out of this. It's clear you don't even know what it is. It's not a political movement or something, to put it really simply, it has to do with quantum particles and the theory that it may be possible for some to be essentially connected to each other so that one will respond to the other. No murders have occured over this theory and it's quite silly to even think it possible. There's nothing in it to murder for.
I would suggest that everyone else take this person's statements with a grain of salt. It can't hurt to read up on the Joe Cell if you want, but, simply put, if it were so simple as that, don't you think people would be capitalizing on this? Even if you are scared of "the Illuminati" coming after you, the potential profits are enough to hire a host of bodyguards.