Desktop energy seed lamp

Technology

Our pal Jérôme Demers, maker of the ingenious Beetlebot project we featured in MAKE, Volume 12, and more recently here, on How-To Tuesday, has a new project, building an “energy seed lamp,” a sort of electronic plant that feeds on spent AA batteries.

Desktop energy seed lamp

10 thoughts on “Desktop energy seed lamp

  1. Mike says:

    Where, can i find toroid beads. I’ve taken apart countless radios but cant find any, please help me!

    1. jammit says:

      It’ll be difficult to find toroids of this type in commercial band radios. You may want to look in switching power supplies, TVs, or even old VCRs. You could pretty much use any kind of toroid because this is a low power circuit. Make: has had links to a device called a “joule thief”. Searching Google will give plenty of hits. You may want to prototype the transistor, resistor and LED so you can test various types of coils.

      1. Mike says:

        Is there a toroid stick in a AM/FM radio? Its rapped with copper wire. Thanks!

  2. justDIY says:

    neat! I really like the idea of the plates and foam spring for the battery compartment / holder.

  3. Chris says:

    What a great idea, I guess if they can run off lemons, then they must need very little energy, hence the spent batteries.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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