Kris I have to disagree with all your claims...
Tons of energy harvesting devices out there capable of paying off the cost of manufacturer.
The obvious solar, wind, and hydro ones...
That doesn't disagree with my claims.
I didn't, and don't, claim that it's impossible to convert energy from one form to another!
These schemes all convert energy from one form to another. Light energy from the sun; wind which is created by heat from the sun; hydro which is created by evaporation due to heat from the sun.
Tidal energy also sounds promising to me. This is created by energy from the gravitational pull of the moon as it spins around the planet. This source of energy, like the sun, will eventually fail, but not for a very long time!
This is a totally different concept from the idea of energy being created from nothing!
Then there is stuff like this.
Which is 100+ year old tech.....
An "atmospheric motor". Sounds serious!
I think to add a tank circuit and some step down would likely make the output more usable.... May not work, but far from a stupid idea.
Bzzzt! Wrong. A "step down" arrangement (gearing, or transformer) does not increase the amount of energy. This is all basic stuff.
Some versions use a reverse bias spark plug->revers ignition coil->FWBR-> charge battery. I'm hearing many reports of charging 12v systems similar to small solar/wind systems this way... From 60 feet or so of cable...
There's a lot of BS around. People like to claim things like this, for various reasons. I can't say they're wrong; I just say that if it's for real, they need to take a scientific approach: document everything, get third parties involved, etc. Garage tinkerers with YouTube videos do not convince me, and they shouldn't convince you.
I'm still not finding your attached hendershot replication peer review... You certainly have the skills to give it a genuine attempt... At this point if you dont, you are working for petro chem company's.. Whether by formal agreement, or just bad attitude.... Due to saying it doesn't work without having tested it.... If your not prepared to put in the replication time. dont waste everyone else's time being a bad sport!!
What utter rubbish!
Where is the detailed explanation of how the Hendershot contraption is claimed to work? Where is even a BASIC explanation of how it's supposed to work? Apparently it extracts energy from the Earth's magnetic field. That's an old idea, but it doesn't work - a static magnetic field does not HAVE any energy.
You have the wrong attitude. Have you heard the axiom "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"?
In claiming that yet another free energy device will not work, I am not making an extraordinary claim! I am actually making a very mundane claim. It is incumbent upon the person who claims that he has violated the laws of physics and nature to provide convincing evidence.
You keep saying this device wont produce power. I have asked anyone that disagrees to prove it with a working model... I am assembling parts. Challenge has been issued. I can definitely power a small radio with this device. Lets make it interesting and have a lux challenge. See who can get the most LUX produced by any light source... LEDs incandescent, spark gap whatever. Measurements are to be taken in true RMS with an o'scope. And compared to LUX meter averages.
You're assembling a Hendershot generator?
If you believe in it, this is probably the best way to get you to understand. It's a shame it will waste a lot of time, and perhaps money. But it should convince you... If you are intellectually honest with yourself.
If you put the failure down to not having exactly the right part, or not holding your tongue at the right angle, or any other reason, you will be deliberately deceiving yourself.
I am not interested in building one myself, and I don't think anyone else should either. But if you want to challenge the laws of physics, that's up to you.
Even a device that dosent work, and you have some idea why, but cant fix it will teach something... If it wont work and you have no idea why, you'll probably still learn stuff trying to work it out. If your getting frustrated, you have an attitude issue. which is preventing you from seeing possible solutions as you are focusing on the problem to the exclusion of logical thought.
Needless to say, I disagree.
I dont belive the laws of thermo dynamics are wrong. I have a di-pole antenna that throws sparks though.... I think there are likely many ways of harvesting energy's that we are only barely aware of to do work, with a device that is cheap and easy to make...
Harvesting energy? Great idea, if you can find a plentiful source of energy. Like I said, tidal sounds like a very good idea to me. Not that easy to harvest, but it seems like there would be a lot of energy involved. I don't really know much about it though. It might be a pipe dream I guess.
Extracting energy from radio waves? Possibly feasible for very low-power applications if you live underneath a transmitter! But any tiny bit of energy you harvest is ultimately coming from the mains electricity supply, and beyond that, from coal, gas, wind, solar etc.
Chances of making one that will run my fridge in my backyard are fairly low, but these things could be improved by people with better skills, training, and tools. If they would stop insulting people etc for long enough to pull heads out of asses and give it a go. Whats the worst that could happen? spend some time on one that doesn't work, and upload results so others dont have to waste time on that one?
That's not a sensible approach. There are hundreds of crazy ideas out there. Claiming that skeptics need to build them, in order to demonstrate that they won't work, is not reasonable. Most of them are so poorly documented that you can ignore them off the bat anyway. And skills, training and tools won't help if the whole concept is unworkable.
So If someone does an experiment to try and find something out for them self, and you have told them it will fail without any scientific basis or explanation. That makes them a target in your opinion? Because I'd say that makes them an excellent scientist.
Bzzzt! Do you know how science is done?
You need to first understand the existing laws and theory that are relevant to your field. This is where "over-unity" and "free energy" folks fall down before taking their first step.
Then you need to have a clear hypothesis (what's commonly called a "theory"). Then you perform your experiments. Then you document your results.
Alternatively, you can actually mess around with stuff in the hope that you'll discover something useful, but when you do, you (or someone else) needs to document it to a level where other (skeptical) scientists can see exactly how it's supposed to work, be confident that you haven't made any fundamental errors due to any of many types of common misunderstandings, and be able to repeat the experiment if they are adequately convinced that it might be worthwhile.
This process does not normally include providing minimal information, building prototypes in your garage, uploading unclear videos to YouTube, asking for investors, and selling components and plans. These are hallmarks of the con artist, or at least the hopelessly self-deceived.
No wonder this forum is dying.... Anyone that wants to try something not in a text book gets bulled out. Its not a forum, its a Sheeple factory.
This forum is dying? It seems pretty active to me. Several new members recently. What makes you think it's dying?
Edit:
When people come to these forums with new ideas, the response seems to go in one of three directions.
If it's a reasonable idea and they just need help with the design, then we provide that help. It doesn't matter whether the idea is in a textbook or not; if it's feasible, we help.
If it's an unreasonable idea, and they have suggested it because they're new to electronics and don't understand what would be involved, we tell them so, and give specifics of why it's impractical.
If it's an idea of the type that is widely known to be impossible, presented by people who ought to know better, some of us can be disparaging. It's our way of trying to save them from themselves. A bit of reason and ridicule every time they promote something crazy SHOULD discourage people. Unfortunately with the really serious and underinformed ones, it can have the opposite effect. But staying silent can be interpreted as tacit acceptance, so I don't always do that.
