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Dropped $200 on a zinc-air battery prototype for off-grid living. I mean, it puts out steady voltage but the recharge cycle is basically impossible without lab equipment. | Rogue Science Corner - Free To Speak

carter.joseph•2mo ago

Dropped $200 on a zinc-air battery prototype for off-grid living. I mean, it puts out steady voltage but the recharge cycle is basically impossible without lab equipment.

I figured DIY free energy was just poorly understood physics, but after 3 months of tweaking this thing I've gotten maybe 2 hours of usable power total. Has anyone here actually gotten a zinc-air setup to work reliably without a chemistry degree?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_max2mo ago

That whole thing reminds me of how people get obsessed with making something perfect that just isn't practical yet. It's like watching someone try to build a working flying car in their garage when there's a reliable bike sitting right there.

keith_bennett2mo ago

Man, you've got more patience than I do. I get the appeal of tinkering with stuff but dropping that kind of cash on a dead-end prototype sounds like a rough deal. At some point you gotta ask if the juice is worth the squeeze, and 2 hours for 3 months of work is a pretty clear answer.

gray8752mo ago

I finally gave up on a similar project last year, a custom drone build that cost me around $400 and about 4 months of weekends. I got maybe 3 good flights out of it before a motor burned out and I realized I was just throwing money at something that never really worked right. What actually worked for me was stepping back and applying that same tinkering energy to something I knew would get used, like fixing up an old lawnmower for my neighbor. That thing runs like a champ and I get a full season of use out of it for half the headache. Did you ever try redirecting that prototype energy into something you could get a return on, or was the build itself the main goal?

the_brian2mo ago

Take what grays875 said about that lawnmower and run with it. I bet if you stripped that zinc-air thing down for parts and rebuilt a simple backup power setup for a shed or something you'd feel way better about the whole deal. Sometimes the best use of a failed project is just cannibalizing it for something boring that actually works.

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