My Burning Man project: LEDs lit by wireless power
When I asked about making 900 MHz antenna, this was the project I was working on: tiny wireless power fobs that will go on the keychain of those in my camp at Burning Man this year. As you can see they're relatively big — they're repurposed wireless LED Christmas ornaments that were part of this tree from Frontgate (now discontinued) — and they have antennas in the green boards themselves. I figured why mess with success (especially when my attempts at making little coiled antenna failed)?
As you can see in the video, they're obviously at their most bright when you get the transmitter antenna right next to them, but I've had them start glowing when on the same plane as the transmitter from up to almost ten feet away. Not exactly a homing beacon for those lost on the playa, but they should work fine as little secret power crystals — well, test tubes, thanks to my roommate Jesse's work — that light up when you get near enough to our most important Burning Man camp project: our own private Port-A-Potty.
Also, they light up when my GSM cell phone talks to the tower, not unlike those little bracelets you can get in Chinatown. Makes you wonder what sort of special sauce Powercast, the maker of the hardware, actually added to the system.
Anyway, thanks for all your suggestions. I've got another 50 or so of these that haven't been messed with so if I can manage to bring the transmitters back in one piece I may be able to play around with boosting the power and range in the future.
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Nifty.
A little more safe than handing out Geissler tubes and making them walk near Tesla coils, but still, +1 on the nifty.
Definitely an awesome idea. I don't have anything neat planned, I've been too busy making sure I have all the supplies I'll be needing. I am hoping to bring some supplies to have a miracle fruit party, assuming that my order arrives in a timely fashion. Do you have any idea where your camp is going to be? It'd be cool to say hello in person.
7:30 and B, I'm told. I'll drop something in Twitter or on here once I get set up, although I don't plan on doing much Real Blogging. We are shooting a bunch of BBtv stuff, though.
Sounds good, I will try to check in.
So at last it's revealed: your plan is NOT to transmit data (as many had supposed) but to broadcast power! Tesla would be proud!
This has a lot of potential. I'll bet you could focus your energies with a simple paraboloid reflector and make a power beam. (Aluminum roof flashing from Home Depot works great for making trough-style reflectors for WiFi, etc. There are decent templates available on the web.)
You could sweep a crowd with the beam and illuminate your friends. Or use the beam as an invisible pathway to guide people in the dark, sort of like an ILS approach at an airport.
Any chance of modulating the carrier (basically switching the 900 MHz signal on and off)? You could do anything from sending Morse Code to making the lights dance to music.
(Hmmm: beware the 'Dope-ler Effect' where bad ideas come at you so fast they seem good.)
Agreed!
Joel this is very cool!
(sorry the rings didn't work out)