Maybe there you could look into geothermal via thermoelectric devices... /\/\/\/*=Martin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eoin Ross" To: Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 1:26 PM Subject: Re: [PIC]: Anyone run PIC on 6V lithium camera batts? Thunderstorms in New Zealand are not as frequent as what I have observed to be the case in the USA (Ohio) Would be interesting to see if/how it could be done. I believe Nikolai Tesla had some device that picked up electricity from the atmosphere using a tank type circuit - maybe an urban myth/mad scientist story though. If the device is to see service on the west coast of the Sth Island I don't know that there'd be much RF to pick up for power ... there's maybe 2-3 AM stations and 3-4 FM and 2-3 TV transmitters around (and the area is rather mountainous) The island is about the size of Ohio and has about 1,000,000 people on it. >>> martinrp@VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA 02/25/02 10:40AM >>> > >> > This is probably a silly idea but how about a small coil that picks up stray rf radiation, rectify it and pump up a low leakage electrolytic, this could be used in conjunction with the battery, > Hmm. If you're close enough to a major transmitter and you can put up a decent antenna and protect it from lightning... How about collecting some electrons from the lightning? Some kind of capacitor and diode arrangement to charge a battery. There's far more energy available there, the trick is to collect as much of it as possible in the nanoseconds available, and to avoid collecting a direct hit. A low-leakage cap with several thousand volts on it could trickle-charge a nicad via some current regulator that can cope with the stress... /\/\/\/*=Martin -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu