Flower power for your micro
Dr_Acula
Posts: 5,484
There is an article in Nuts and Volts - website link here http://www.nutsvolts.com/index.php?/blog/post/flower_power
They are getting quite a few millivolts out of a cactus - I think up to 800mV for some plants. As the article rightly points out, if you want more volts, you need an isolated ground for each plant.
I am thinking of measuring the voltage in a tree. I have a tree that is 100 years old that had a metal tag with the name of the tree and it has grown around the tag and the tag (galvanised iron) does not appear to be troubling the tree in any way. So I wonder if one could connect permanently to a plant without injuring the plant?
If so, next question - how many milliwatts?
And could one combine this with some nifty new stepup technology from Linear http://www.linear.com/pc/productDetail.jsp?navId=H0,C1,C1003,C1042,C1031,C1060,P90287
One would have to correct for any galvanic effects in the metal, so possibly zinc is out of the question for the moment. Possibly straight iron, and make sure it is iron for both the plant and the ground. Possibly gold or platinum?
Some intriguing experiments for the weekend?
They are getting quite a few millivolts out of a cactus - I think up to 800mV for some plants. As the article rightly points out, if you want more volts, you need an isolated ground for each plant.
I am thinking of measuring the voltage in a tree. I have a tree that is 100 years old that had a metal tag with the name of the tree and it has grown around the tag and the tag (galvanised iron) does not appear to be troubling the tree in any way. So I wonder if one could connect permanently to a plant without injuring the plant?
If so, next question - how many milliwatts?
And could one combine this with some nifty new stepup technology from Linear http://www.linear.com/pc/productDetail.jsp?navId=H0,C1,C1003,C1042,C1031,C1060,P90287
One would have to correct for any galvanic effects in the metal, so possibly zinc is out of the question for the moment. Possibly straight iron, and make sure it is iron for both the plant and the ground. Possibly gold or platinum?
Some intriguing experiments for the weekend?
Comments
Robert
Addit: power is 0.8 microwatts from a cactus. Maybe a bit low for the quiescent current for the step up converter. Possibly enough to run a microcontroller in sleep mode though.
It looks like trees can be used http://www.voltreepower.com/pdfs/ViasalaPressRelease_Jan2010.pdf