Just dropping in to thank Steve and Chet for setting up this fundraiser...plus Matt and the person from Europe.
Quite the start !
I agree with the question of what would it be used for right away.
Short term specific research with the scope would be directed to energy harvesting. RF sources, such as radio, house mains, WiFi and Smartmeter emissions that permeate the house, need to be matched with receiving circuits. There is a need to know what is happening where, how circuit changes impact results, to demonstrate with provable data.
I know right now that a Dickson multiplier is not as effective for CFL bulb emissions collections as the circuit popularised by Inventor3 on YouTube..but why ? what is it doing ? how can it be improved ? what is happening to the 60Hz feed ? is there only 60Hz within the input to the circuit ?
One big drive is to run small circuits that remove electrosmog (now a fave term - thanks TK). Charge batteries with it, remove the need for batteries in TV remotes, run wall clocks, supply tick-over current to microcontrollers for home security sensors and for other practical uses.
Scope shots themselves go a long way to proving out anything demonstrated, any device standing a much better chance of being replicated and then become widely useful to others.
Included near term research includes the furtherment of low input wireless electricity systems for energy transfer within the home. The 'Centurion' tank circuit wireless energy system will run from an upside down solar garden light solar cell on the workbench. But what is the system doing ? what and where are the peak and minimum energies ?, what does the waveform look like ?
Also, if The Internet of Things (IoT) is to come about as a positive, then in my opinion, it has to be as widely Open Sourced as possible. Our own systems and our own research can deliver trusted integrations and solutions.
On the subject of Crystal batteries, they have been a strong interest for a few years. Anyone interested could try a great introduction rechargeable cell capable of 70mA when solar charged, in the form of C/Pb. A washed Carbon electrode from a depleted 'D' 1.5V battery, slice of lead from a junk car battery (negative plate) or car wheel weight, electrolyte is rain water and Alum. Output is always 0.8V at several hundred uA even after a year of non charging and it will run an LED blocking oscillator 24/7, for example. Mine is a couple of years old now, always in use to the point of forgetting about it and shows no degradation of either electrode...there's no sacrificial metal on the positive !
You could say, the scope of my own research would be greatly expanded
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Topic: Let's get Slider (aka Mark Vaughan) a nice 4-channel DSO with math functions! (Read 65650 times)
