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Re: Mystery Flashing Superball

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In article <KfadnQMRqZIfH0LHnZ2dnUU7-VOdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
Jon Elson  <elson@pico-systems.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 18 Apr 2018 01:40:09 +0000, Pete wrote:
>
>
>> This behaviour is entirely consistent over several repeats, so I'm
>> wondering if it could possibly be an ultracapacitor and some kind of
>> piezo charging circuit. The relevant voltages and currents seem all
>> wrong for this though.
>Most likely it has a magnet and a coil that can generate a lot more 
>energy than piezo components.  There are "eternal" flashlights that have 
>a free magnet inside a solenoid coil, you shake them to charge a cap.

Yup -- I have one of those...  It lasted about a day! (:-/)
It does have an ultracap, and it seems the designers forgot that such
a beast needs overvoltage protection.  A few extra vigorous shakes,
and bye-bye storage!  (It still happily lights during the shake itself.)

I don't think there's room inside the ball for any magnet/coil assembly.
The visible module is about 1/2" x 5/8" as best I can see.
>
>Also, your ball more likely has an ordinary battery rather than an 
>ultracapacitor.

That wouldn't match observed behaviour (unless there's severe leakage
that completely drains the battery after a couple of days). After a
few days' rest, it consistently needs a few thumps to get to full
brightness.

If anyone's interested, I've put images of the thing online at:

   http://goodeveca.net/misc/FlashBall.jpg

	-- Pete --

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Mystery Flashing Superball neverland@GoodeveCa.net (Pete) - 2018-04-18 01:40 +0000
  Re: Mystery Flashing Superball Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> - 2018-04-24 14:16 -0500
    Re: Mystery Flashing Superball neverland@GoodeveCa.net (Pete) - 2018-04-25 02:15 +0000

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