This is my first post on this website. If I am not in the right section/or have done something wrong please notify me.
Short and simple. I have constructed a tower outside my home, roughly 14ft to see if I could generate any electricity from it. I was getting a .524 AC reading on my meter and anywhere between 3.5mV to about 80mV for a DC reading. (keep in mind this was for experimental purposes only, not to actually do anything with)
I made a diode rectifier to convert the AC I was getting. With the diode rectifier It jumped to 1.6 volts AC and about 1.2 DC. I'm assuming this is because of the voltage drop in the diodes. The AC/DC voltage readings are non linear. They change frequently but never go below at least 1 volt. I was able to charge a capacitor to about 1.8 volts and light a small LED.
My first question is How can I amplify this voltage to something more usable? I have read about single stage transistors, 2-3 stage amplifiers, op-amps, voltage multipliers, boost converters and just about anything else. The thing is, my knowledge is limited. I have downloaded all the e-books provided on this website and I am only halfway through book one. I have maybe a slightly just above average knowledge of electrical concepts/components. So the things I do find on how to do this are hard for me to understand at this moment.
My second question is, obviously I do not know how to use transistors. I have NpN and PnP type but I do not know how to configure them in a circuit so they would amplify the AC or DC voltage a am getting. I have seen a lot of schematics with wires/capacitors/resistors all going to different parts of the NpN transistor and it is very confusing. And I have tried to construct everything I have listed above but to no end as I just do not understand it yet.
My third question is how can I slowly release energy from a capacitor? To keep an LED lit for anything more than 1 second.
If someone can explain this in very, very simple terms that I can understand it would be great.
The problems I run into when I google something is that I come across very detailed explanations, but with terms/definitions and I have no idea what I am reading.
Again, if anyone could help explain how to amplify this it would be a great help. Thank you.
Short and simple. I have constructed a tower outside my home, roughly 14ft to see if I could generate any electricity from it. I was getting a .524 AC reading on my meter and anywhere between 3.5mV to about 80mV for a DC reading. (keep in mind this was for experimental purposes only, not to actually do anything with)
I made a diode rectifier to convert the AC I was getting. With the diode rectifier It jumped to 1.6 volts AC and about 1.2 DC. I'm assuming this is because of the voltage drop in the diodes. The AC/DC voltage readings are non linear. They change frequently but never go below at least 1 volt. I was able to charge a capacitor to about 1.8 volts and light a small LED.
My first question is How can I amplify this voltage to something more usable? I have read about single stage transistors, 2-3 stage amplifiers, op-amps, voltage multipliers, boost converters and just about anything else. The thing is, my knowledge is limited. I have downloaded all the e-books provided on this website and I am only halfway through book one. I have maybe a slightly just above average knowledge of electrical concepts/components. So the things I do find on how to do this are hard for me to understand at this moment.
My second question is, obviously I do not know how to use transistors. I have NpN and PnP type but I do not know how to configure them in a circuit so they would amplify the AC or DC voltage a am getting. I have seen a lot of schematics with wires/capacitors/resistors all going to different parts of the NpN transistor and it is very confusing. And I have tried to construct everything I have listed above but to no end as I just do not understand it yet.
My third question is how can I slowly release energy from a capacitor? To keep an LED lit for anything more than 1 second.
If someone can explain this in very, very simple terms that I can understand it would be great.
The problems I run into when I google something is that I come across very detailed explanations, but with terms/definitions and I have no idea what I am reading.
Again, if anyone could help explain how to amplify this it would be a great help. Thank you.