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Dual switch FLAG test with FSCC

A project log for Flexible circuit wind generator

A new way to generate wind energy using only polyester film based flexible circuits

stuart-mackenzieStuart MacKenzie 01/23/2022 at 05:370 Comments

So my previous test of the FLAG with a fractal switched capacitor circuit (FSCC) used only one switch to trigger the circuit.  Ideally for the FLAG, the FSCC should be triggered at each of the end positions of the inner layer when it oscillates in the wind.  This time I made a dual switch out of thin polyester film and conductive decal material.  This way, the FSCC can be triggered every time the FLAG reaches either side of its range of motion.  The switches were kinked again similarly to last time (a little too much kink this time I think).  The kink is to ensure the switch will make good contact when it is gently compressed by the center layer of polyester against the outer layer of the FLAG.

I inserted the dual switch into the FLAG, so there is a switch is on either side of the center layer.  I connected it to the yellow wires, which trigger the FSCC.  The high voltage current goes to the FSCC circuit through a pair of alligator clips, in the same way as before.

I then allowed the FLAG to oscillate with the air blower in my garage, connected to the same FSCC circuit as before.  This time, I was able to light as many LED's of different colors as I could fit on my proto-board, which was 20 regular size LED's, and 2 extra large LED's.  I think due to the switches being kinked too much, the switching was not occurring quite at the perfect time, so the brightness was not quite as good as the previous test.  Nonetheless, the blinking frequency looked much faster with the dual switches (it looked borderline like being continuously lit at times), and I was able to light up more LED's.  It looked like the FLAG could have lit even more, though probably not as many as it can light in series without the FSCC at a few hundred volts.  Using all identical LED's also would likely have worked a lot better.

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