Over at the Maui Makers hackerspace, member Ryan K showed up with a mess of Lilikoi fruit (also known as passion fruit). Using anodized bolts (source of zinc), some thin copper pipe, wire, switches, LEDs, and a capacitor, he built himself a battery from the fruit.
The Lilikoi vine produces a massive amount of fruit in Hawaii, often creating a nuisance for home-owners who own a plant. The fruit drop and have to be cleaned up, otherwise they rot and attract insects. Ryan tasted one and noticed it was quite acidic and might be a good candidate for a homemade battery.
The fruit charge a 6800 uf capacitor, and when the volt meter hits 3v, the switch can be thrown, letting the green laser emit a short pulse. For those curious, two days later the charge was down to 1.8v. Obviously this is a supply and demand issue they’ll need to sort out.
16 thoughts on “Tropical Fruit-Powered Laser”
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Cool project, but two factual inaccuracies: A) Passionfruit don’t grow on trees, they grow on a vine, B) You don’t bite into a passionfruit, you cut it in half and scoop out the insides from the inedible husk.
Duly noted. I’ve changed the post to reflect that. Thanks!
Lilikoi/Passion Fruit are a vine… but if you dont have a knife, you can bite open the fruit. Which is what he did…
Is there any instructions on making a device such as this?
I’d start here to get the basic concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_battery – and then start googling terms such as “veggie battery” to see examples that others have made. Explore, and find a process that works for you.
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