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Free Energy
by guyfrom7up on December 2, 2007

Table of Contents

intro: Free Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 1: The Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 2: The Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

step 3: Clarification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

step 4: Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 5: Glueing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 6: Clip it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 7: You're done!?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

step 8: Taking it further . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

step 9: trouble shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
intro: Free Energy
In this instructable I will teach you how to suck energy from this planet called earth, even I don't know exactly how it works, but it works, can't argue with results!

Sorry, no video will be added, where I live it's been snowing and it's producing terrible results. Right before it started snowing it produced a thrid of a volt in a couple of
hours, now that it's snowing and that it's officially winter it's only charging up to 0.03 volts, which is terrible. If you know how to solve this problem then please comment!

THIS IS REAL, NOT A HOAX

step 1: The Theory

This was invented by the ultimate genius of all time, Nikola Tesla. I'll basically try and crack it down to how I understand it, and how a normal person would understand it
(mind you this is how I interpret many difference sources, what I'm saying may not be right)

The earth and it's atmosphere is basically a giant capacitor, when lightning strikes it discharges it. Tesla's device sucked power from that infinitely charging capacitor to
charge a man made capacitor. By putting an electrode in the air and an electrode in the ground, you tap into these energy source to charge your own capacitor.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 Image Notes
1. Nikola Tesla, the man with the plan
Image Notes
1. Tesla's tower which was going to wirelessly power the world with free, almost
unlimited energy. It was shut down due to investors pulling there money out of the
project

step 2: The Materials

What you need is:

Aluminum Foil

Glue (not shown)

Paper

An Electrolytic capacitor

alligator clips

A multimeter

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 Image Notes
1. Tape
2. capacitor
3. 2 alligator clips
4. 8 and a 1/2 by 11 sheet of aluminum foil
5. 8 and a 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper
6. little strip of aluminum foil

step 3: Clarification
This instructable is a proof of concept. If you would like to line the roof of your house with this stuff then you should be smart enough to do it if you're going to attempt it.
This has some advantages and disadvantages over solar cells:

Pros:
Cheaper
Lighter
Easier to Make
Doesn't require sun
It won't really break

Cons:
Doesn't produce as much electricity for the same size "cells"

Image Notes
1. Food saver/cooker, practical joke, and now free energy

Image Notes
1. Expensive somewhat efficient cells that require the sun

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
step 4: Tape
Tape the foil strip to the big piece of aluminum foil so that it acts as a lead, make sure the aluminum foils are touching.

Image Notes
1. tape!

step 5: Glueing
Glue a piece of aluminum foil to the piece of paper. I'm not sure why this is necessary, but Tesla said so. Tesla said to insulate 1 side, so I insulated it with paper.

Image Notes
1. tape is here if you look really closely
2. paper
3. a lead that is attached to the aluminum foil.

step 6: Clip it
Clip an alligator clip to the aluminum foil and attach the other end to the positive side of your capacitor. Clip the other alligator clip to a ground such as the third prong on a
wall socket or a metal water pipe (make sure it's all metal, not plastic).

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
step 7: You're done!?!
It may not look like much, but you just created a device that will obtain you free electricity! During my experiment using a 560uF capacitor it took about an hour to get to
.08 volts. Not bad considering the size of the panel and how low it is. Later I got after several hours 1/3 of a volt, exciting!

step 8: Taking it further

Now that this proof of concept is done you can scale up!

You can:

Line your house with it

Make conductive balloons (should work really well) so that you get both huge surface area and a high altitude. The only reason why I didn't do this was because I didn't
have the resources.

Use this as a science fair project and win 1st prize.

I'm going to be experimenting with aluminum tape and see if it works really effectively outside

step 9: trouble shooting

1) My capacitor charged and then discharged.
Something went wrong with your panel so that you capacitor is actually emiting the little energy that it has.

2) My capacitor isn't charging.

Make sure that your ground is a real ground.
Using it outside works better for some reason
use a smaller value capacitor (between 1000uF and 100uF is good)

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 214 comments

1up says: Jun 26, 2009. 4:58 PM REPLY

So all you really need is a big piece of metal that's isolated from ground? So that could be like a shed roof, right?

jediking14 says: Jun 5, 2009. 5:36 AM REPLY

try using it for a swamp cooler

crockman1 says: Jun 3, 2009. 9:34 AM REPLY

try doing this with a kite, the farther away from the ground the collection plate is the larger the concentration of positive ions

steed1172 says: Jun 1, 2009. 6:54 PM REPLY

Tesla was ttly awesome it's sad to think his "partner" cheated him(it is not known to be a fact but this is thought by of many)if tesla had been around today... i
think his dreams would have been REAL...sucks for us thou too

jfkendall says: May 22, 2009. 1:29 PM REPLY

The paper insulates the aluminum from grounding itself and dispersing the charge. I believe that you will find that it acts as a barrier forcing the electricity to
flow to the capacitor.

Redfox888888 says: May 20, 2009. 5:50 PM REPLY

NIKOLA TESLA IS AWESOME!!

mfuchs88 says: May 1, 2009. 12:43 PM REPLY

but how do i use it for any purpouse, and what does grounding mean? plz help.

xerxesx20 says: May 6, 2009. 3:54 PM REPLY

Grounding literally means connecting to an electrical earth or ground if you prefer.

This can be achieved by using a household electrical earth, such as a computer case, pin on a socket (be careful) or any plumbing/gas you have, or by
driving a large metal stake (spike) into the ground in some soft soil outside.

kooler says: Feb 17, 2009. 8:41 PM REPLY

i live below the mountains .. i get 6.3 volts ac on metal roof from my wood shop at mid day.. at night it goes down to 5.6.. i have played with it using a car
condenser from the coil and it holds hard at 6 volts and from the condenser i use a voltage multiplier to go to 12 volts.. but the current is so low.. i cant find a
use for... but if you do let me know

radiochemist says: Apr 9, 2009. 7:24 PM REPLY

i wonder if you put it into a diode bridge and a big enough capacitor bank if you could do something with it?

kooler says: Apr 9, 2009. 9:43 PM REPLY

I have tried using bridge rectifier... but the volts go down to 2 vdc 0.0001 amps.. and capacitor bank takes for ever to charge up...hours to get above 6
volts... but my volts do go up when the roof is wet.. 29.5 volts
I found out the joule thief works good with earth batteries so I was thinking of using it to help push the frequency up and running both in to a bridge
rectifier and then a capacitor bank.. or a small transformer to boost the volts even more before the cap bank....

radiochemist says: Apr 10, 2009. 11:59 AM REPLY

yeah maybe a transformer and some kind of amplifier might help, let me know how the earth batteries work out, this is a pretty cool idea

cody316 says: Apr 9, 2009. 8:28 AM REPLY

have you ever wered anything with this? if so, how big of a capacitor and how much aluminum foil would i need for 460 volts? i want it to power an electric
motor on a go cart... because wouldnt a go cart that you never have to put gas in be F$@%ing awesome!?!?!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 PKM says: Aug 12, 2008. 3:07 PM REPLY
To answer your question- I believe this works because water droplets in the air carry a slight charge relative to the ground (which is amplified in
thunderstorms until it sparks to earth), and when they hit the plate the charge they carry is stored in the capacitor. I'm not sure why the plate has to be
insulated on one side- why not try not insulating it and see what effect it has?

Out of interest, have you measured the amount of energy you can extract from this? 0.3V from thin air sounds like a lot, but you have to remember that it is
0.3V of static, not a 0.3V battery.

If your capacitor is 560uF = 0.00056F and the voltage is 0.3V, the energy stored is 0.5CV2 , or 0.5 * 0.00056 * 0.09 = 0.0000252 joules. To put this into
perspective, one billion billion times this much electricity costs about a dollar. Alternatively, this much energy could light up a standard 20 milliamp LED for
about half a millisecond- faster than the blink of an eye.

You are extracting energy from thin air, which is a very cool trick of itself, but this setup is never going to produce practical quantities of energy. You
mentioned a science fair project, though- if you investigated how to make the most of this generator (different positions, orientations, capacitor sizes, weather
conditions etc.) it would make a great science project.

Lithops says: Apr 6, 2009. 10:45 AM REPLY

Actually you need the water droplets to freeze first to create a static charge in the cloud, which will eventually manifest as lightning.

Jaycub says: Aug 16, 2008. 5:32 PM REPLY

Actualy it collects cosmic rays(protons and alpha particles.

itsthatsguy says: Aug 13, 2008. 10:35 PM REPLY

hi I have upgraded this device the reason he only gets a third of a volt is becuase of the fact that the enrgy is AC I have built a device I saw on youtube
that takes that ac and stores them into 2 capictors 1 is positive the negtive, goto my instructables to see how to build it, but with a good sized cell and a
nice ground I can get 3 volts in 10 minutes. if anyone gets this to work better or anything please tell me your elevation I believe that is the key to making
this work in at about 200 feet I get almost nothing and 7000 I get 3 volts in ten minutes so yeah have fun with it.

radiochemist says: Apr 9, 2009. 7:20 PM REPLY

I've heard about this before, the way they did it was putting the aluminum foil on a balloon, and from what I understand is that the larger the balloon
and surface area for the protons to hit, and the higher you can get the balloon in the sky, the more charge you will get. It's basically taking the minute
electric charge that's floating around above the ground that would eventually become lightening when too much charge accumulates in the clouds
and storing it in a capacitor.

PKM says: Aug 14, 2008. 3:01 AM REPLY

Now that is interesting. Do you have any photos of your charge collector (the alu foil plate part)? Am I to understand by at about 200 feet I get almost
nothing and 7000 I get 3 volts in ten minutes that you put the collector at 7000 feet to get 3V?

It might be worth investigating supercapacitors- 3V in a 1Farad capacitor is a non-trivial amount of energy

itsthatsguy says: Aug 14, 2008. 10:22 PM REPLY

yes i left this overnight one time and i got 9 volts after that it doesn't seem like the voltage changes and no i don't have photos of m y deivce
although i will make some soon my cell is about 4'X6'; and i am using a standard wall outlet ground.

cheers

jillg says: Apr 5, 2009. 7:06 PM REPLY

you could put this in a shirt and power it of the static electricity you generate, right?

sindaear says: Mar 31, 2009. 6:53 PM REPLY

Has anyone used this to actually power anything practical? ( A fan, a pump, etc., other than a few LED's?) I may have missed it in reading the comments.
After the first hundred or so I skimmed a bit.

ReCreate says: Mar 27, 2009. 5:17 PM REPLY

I got myself a 1000Uf capacitor,and it is rated at 16V
Will it work?
Also,will i generate more electricity during a lightning storm?

tengaman says: Mar 2, 2009. 2:22 PM REPLY

hey dude what tis the actual name od the device?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 guyfrom7up says: Mar 2, 2009. 4:20 PM REPLY
Tesla's Radiant Energy Reciever

kooler says: Feb 17, 2009. 8:54 PM REPLY

sorry i forgot to say that the car condenser is the trick to keeping your voltage at peak... it charges alot faster and can hold huge surges... and yes when
lighting hit it loses it volts for a few mins... it is because the clouds are positive charge.. and when lighting stikes it descharges what protons are in the clouds
to the ground... alot of people say the the energy that you get on this is the falling charges from the clouds... but who cares it free .. right ??

surfturf says: Jan 21, 2009. 10:59 AM REPLY

when lightning strikes it discharges it? Can you explain that again? Did you mean
-When lightning strikes, earth surface is discharged? Ok seems fair anough ;)

Killin Idea says: Feb 17, 2009. 5:05 PM REPLY

I think that he means that the earth and it's atmosphere form a giant capacitor, and when it discharges it's stored energy, it is in the form of lighting.

Plasmana says: Feb 17, 2009. 7:45 AM REPLY

Okay, I tried it and it works! I got about 0.1v using a 4.7uF capacitor in about 20 seconds or so.

cris1133 says: Feb 4, 2009. 5:34 PM REPLY

what about combining this concept with a marx generator.

surfturf says: Jan 21, 2009. 10:54 AM REPLY

"Tesla tube" - "EV gray tube" is´nt a turbine..

Scalar_rob says: Jan 4, 2009. 9:53 AM REPLY

If you use some two isolated wires and copper pins you can produce much more than with the foil antenna. The setup is similar, to this one, however you will
see an immediate voltage of 1.5v and a build up voltage of 3.9 to 4.2 volts over 5 minutes.

I have been able to replicate these results in three different counties where I live so I dont think its just geography.

I would be happy to show this to anyone who wants to know. It would be good to have multiple confirmed replications from different areas in the country.

I have pictures and video, but wont be able to post them until later tonight.
if your interested here is my e-mail.
rob@freeradiant.com

Xellers says: Dec 29, 2008. 8:43 AM REPLY

How do you know that you're collecting "static charges"? This seems a lot like you're just catching radio waves. You've not demodulating anything, or using a
coil to tune to a certain frequency, but you're still catching them. Try this with a 100ft radio antenna, and the results should be much better.

arzthaus says: Dec 27, 2008. 10:08 AM REPLY

perhaps the reason it doesn't charge as much in snow is because maybe the falling snow accumulates charge as it's falling through the atmosphere. It
brings charges from the atmosphere to ground level, bringing the earth to equilibrium. Kind of like lightning, except very slow and peaceful.

HybridTech says: Dec 27, 2008. 9:00 AM REPLY

The concept is right, but the why is a little off. At 2000 feet elevation, in the ionosphere, there is a TON of static electricity. Anyone who lives in the mountains
in winter time gets a daily dose of light switch shocks! What Tesla showed is a way to gather the static charge, charge the capacitor, and use it. HAM radio
stations use this technique in the mountains on a much larger scale. Check out this link Free Electricity

boxa888 says: Dec 18, 2008. 11:51 AM REPLY

guys if you want more proof of this device, just type tesla radiant energy into youtube . i have put up some videos also showing this, and i show you how to
build it as well. this system proves cosmic rays and also earth current and earth capacitance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-yAkIF8LE8

guyfrom7up says: Dec 18, 2008. 4:37 PM REPLY

you explained that stuff very well

I was actually going to your videos a while ago to find answers to some of these peoples questions

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 washttub1960 says: Apr 22, 2008. 1:06 AM REPLY
Why not scale up further? The metal roof of a house or out building. Would that work? What I'm asking is does thicker metal work?

guyfrom7up says: Dec 18, 2008. 4:35 PM REPLY

only problems with large metal structures is that they tend to be grounded

boxa888 says: Dec 18, 2008. 11:52 AM REPLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-yAkIF8LE8

heres a good link that will explain this to you! you will really like video 8 on this site as well!!

Kabuto says: Apr 22, 2008. 8:44 AM REPLY

Any metal that could be insulated on the back would work.

Thicker metal actually may work better; it has a lower resistance.

Shahee says: Nov 3, 2008. 4:52 PM REPLY

What about a vehicle? Like the surface area of a bus roof?

Kabuto says: Jan 20, 2009. 11:13 AM REPLY

If you could ground it, it would work.

attis1 says: Dec 17, 2008. 8:59 PM REPLY

It's called induction. The approaching storm induces current into the object.

bikerbob2005 says: Sep 1, 2008. 3:51 AM REPLY

long time ago for our shortwave radios we would build a simple circuit of a drop leg from the radio ant to ground with a neon bulb ,as a thunder storm gets
closer to your ant the neon bulb would dimly wink if the bulb went steddy then better unhook ant from the radio as the 99'tower was about to get blasted

Jeeper186 says: Dec 10, 2008. 1:29 PM REPLY

I remember doing something like this about 25 years ago. We used a neon bulb with a resistor. One side connected to a coat hanger that went out the
window into the air above the roof, the other went to ground using another coat hanger. Everytime the lightning would strike, the neon bulb would light
up. I just cant remember what resistor to use and what order the components went in. If someone knows please let me know, I want to make one for the
kids.

arzthaus says: Dec 8, 2008. 11:22 AM REPLY

wouldnt you want a larger capacitor value? more charge can accumulate if there is a larger capacitance. Since the voltage difference is so low between the
atmosphere and ground at such low altitudes, a high voltage capacitor is not necessary, just a high capacitance one. does that make sense? im just thinking
out loud

evilscotsman says: Sep 22, 2008. 3:34 PM REPLY

Its not the thickness but the surface area thats important, also the material. What Tesla had discovered is that the sun is a massive electrostatic generator,
around 200 Billion Volts, raining charged particles on the earth continually. The earth is charged to around 360,000V between the upper ionosphere and the
ground, the air in between acting as the "dielectric" or insulator. Aluminium is used as thats what capacitors are made of, since it stores a high charge on its
surface compared to other metals. What you are doing is connecting your little capacitor to a much bigger capacitor thats being charged by these particles.
The formula for a capacitors value is gained from the square area of the plate, (Pi*Radius) 2 times two for an equal size pair, however you are using the ground as the Neg
plate, and your foil square is the Pos plate...surface area is everything. The maximum charge voltage a capacitor can achieve is just below the dielectric strength of the insulator.

Make the sheet much larger, or get it higher up for better results, snow is a diffuser of energy as it is both conductive and evenly distributed so lowers the
electrostatic potential of the air it falls in by creating an impedance from sky to ground, leaking away the charge so you get less....this system when properly
set up would charge indefinately until something gives (or arcs over) in the storage cap.

steven.noyce says: Aug 26, 2008. 8:01 PM REPLY

I was wondering if this device has a name, and also if the capacitor is needed, or if you could theoretically just attach a very small load to the two wires that
you have the capacitor connected to (for instance, if you hypothetically had a LED that used pretty much no power whatsoever, would it light up if you
replaced the capacitor with it).

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Mako-Energy/
 Kabuto says: Aug 30, 2008. 4:34 PM REPLY
With a large enough panel, you could light an LED, replacing the capacitor with it. However, a capacitor lets you use a much, much, much smaller panel.

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