shake it like a tic tac!

8/12/2019 Shake It Like a Tic Tac!

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Shake-it-like-a-Tic-Tac!/

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Shake it like a Tic-Tac!by MrMunkion September 30, 2006

Table of Contents

intro: Shake it like a Tic-Tac! ....................................................................................................

step 1: Parts ................................................................................................................

step 2: Make magnet tube: ......................................................................................................

step 3: Wind the coil: ..........................................................................................................

step 4: Modify top: ............................................................................................................

step 5: Make mount for switch: ...................................................................................................

step 6: Glue switch in place: .....................................................................................................

step 7: Circuit: ...............................................................................................................

step 8: Solder it together: .......................................................................................................

step 9: Attach top to case: ......................................................................................................

Related Instructables ...........................................................................................................

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Comments ...................................................................................................................
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intro: Shake it like a Tic-Tac!Rechargeable led flashlight powered by magnets housed in the obligatory mints container.

step 1:PartsPARTS:

150 ft. 30 gauge enamel-coated magnet wire4 1/8" rare earth magnets4 rectifier diodes (IN4007 MIC)Resistor (22 ohm)White ledSwitchSome sort of small rechargeable batteries

Ballpoint pen2 plastic washers or doodadsTic-Tac containerHot glueEpoxy


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step 2:Make magnet tube:This part could really be made from anything (i.e. stiff paper), I used the pen because the magnets just fit inside the tube.

Cut your tube a little smaller than the length of the Tic-Tac box. Find some washers or plugs to use as end caps, these could also be made out of paper. Mine wereplastic gears with the teeth sanded off.

Stick all 4 magnets together and put them in the tube. Glue on your endcaps being careful not to get any glue on the magnets.

step 3:Wind the coil:Cut a slot down one of the endcaps.

Leave 3" of wire hanging out of this slot and begin carefullly winding the coil. Winding this coil is probably the biggest pain in the ass of this project. I had many failuresThere is a ton of information on the web about coil winding, but my best advice to you is go slow. The neater and tighter the wire is wrapped the more effective it will b

When you get to the end of the coil tape your wire off and leave about 3" hanging off the end.


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step 4:Modify top:Remove label from the Tic-Tac container and take out the top.

Cut off about 1/4" of the bottom leaving 1/8" lip. Save the scrap.

Drill a hole big enough for the led to poke through.


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step 5:Make mount for switch:Cut off enough of the scrap to make a plate for under the lid. Use little pieces of scrap to shim the plate so it is level.

Cut out a slot for your switch in the plate.

I used super glue to tack these pieces in place.


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step 6:Glue switch in place:I just hot glued the switch to the plate. I also glued the led in place at this point, but it's not in the picture.

step 7:Circuit:This is the circuit:

step 8:Solder it together:This is all free hand soldering, hopefully yours will turn out less messy than mine.


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step 9:Attach top to case:Now just slide the top along with the circuit into the case. I think it helps to epoxy the top on, but you could probably just superglue it.I ended up painting the inside of the case white for that crisp look, but I think I like it better clear.

Shake for 60 seconds and enjoy!


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Comments50 comments Add Comment view all 577commen

Capsfan09says: May 29, 2009. 5:49 AM REPsorry for the double post, or any thing I can get cheeply at radio shack that contains them"

Capsfan09says: May 29, 2009. 5:46 AM REPcan you use a 3/16" rare earth magnet I am having a load of trouble finding an 1/8"
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colin55says: Jan 5, 2009. 4:53 AM REPRealizing the "Shake It Like a Tic Tac" project will not work, I have designed a coil and magnet arrangement that will illuminate a white LED when a Tic Tacbox is shaken.The "Shake It Like a Tic Tac" project will not work as the coil is longer than the magnet and any voltage induced in the turns from the North pole will benegated by the flux produced by the south pole. The final result is zero. The only reason why the developer of the above project released the project was dto a small charge in the rechargeable cells leading him to deduce the project was successfully producing a current.It reminds me of the release of Cold Fusion by Pons and Fleishman, before they thoroughly investigated their results.I don't want anyone to waste their time attempting this project and being disappointed.Magnetism and electromagnetic energy is difficult enough to comprehend without the frustration of going down the wrong path.The small magnet used in the project above does not give enough flux to produce a worthwhile output.The magnet I have used is 20mm diameter and slides sidewards past two coils of 600 turns each and wired so that the voltages combine. In addition, theoutput charges two separate 470u electrolytics via single diodes so that you are not losing 1.2v from the generated voltage. The white LED taps across thetwo electrolytics (in series) - another clever innovation. The output is not very bright but it is the maximum obtainable from this type of arrangement. It is far

greater than using small magnets in a tube and bunching the winding so that it is as narrow as possible.

I will be adding the project to Instructables very soon, but in the meantime I can be contacted at:

TALKINGELECTRONICS.COMColin [email protected]

ReCreatesays: Apr 26, 2009. 4:30 PM REPWhat makes you think it does not work,can't you see the picture?Or did i miss something?

eric4435says: Apr 4, 2009. 9:51 PM REPI know exactly what you mean about the north and south pole working against each other. I t would generate a bit of electricity though as the magnet geclose enough to either end of the tube, not as much as it possibly could though.

Say the tube is 3 inches long and the collection of magnets is 1 in long. The coil should begin at one end, progress for one inch, stop, the wire shouldthen be parallel to the tube for the next inch, and coiled in the other direction for the last inch. Maybe I'll draw a picture.

agustsays: Mar 15, 2009. 4:26 AM REPI just built this a flashlight by exactly the same specs as shown in this project except I used a capacitor instead of a battery and it works brilliantly.

I can short the capacitor and then charge it up to five volts.

Colin you are wrong in you statement about this not working the statement is pompous and ill thought out.

colin55says: Mar 15, 2009. 11:31 PM REPHow many turns did you put on the coil?

agustsays: Mar 16, 2009. 1:14 PM REPI have no clue how many turns I did, I just fixed my pipe (I used a medical syringe with the piston taken out) to the sewing machine and slammedown on the pedal.

Colin I recoment that you build one of these so that you can participate in the discussion not only from the theoretical side. Be a participant andnot a spectator.

One point I want to tell everyone is that using Shotky diodes could be benificial because of their low voltage drop.

colin55says: Mar 17, 2009. 12:16 PM REPIf you don't know how many turns you put on the coil and your project worked, maybe you can answer all the emails I get from readers whodid not get their project to work.

agustsays: Mar 17, 2009. 2:23 PM REPOf course I can. So lets begin:

74% of your correspondents failed to burn or scrape the insulation of the copper wire for the coil. This can be remedied by burning orscraping the end of the copper and solder it back in place.

18% of them connected the diode bridge the wrong way round (boy is that embarrassing).

82% are using broken batteries (shorted or too high resistance) or too big batter ies (takes forever to charge). A capacitor is good duringdevelopment because its behavior is more reliable.

23% have a short in the coil or the copper is broken somewhere. Measure it and you will see if its broken. You could possibly measure tresistance to see if it is shortened but I do not really know what to expect from that measurement.

17% never actually tried but like socializing and theorizing online.

42% have analysis-paralysis and can not start without solving it in their head before beginning... like how many turns do I have to have othe coil? How much current can I generate? How big should the magnet be? Does the length of the pipe matter?
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6% have a cold soldering point somewhere.

100% of them are seeking help from someone that has not managed to get it to work in the first place. (kindling the cinder to a flame.)

Some people may fall into more than one category.95% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

ReCreatesays: Apr 26, 2009. 4:34 PM REPThats a total of 467%...Something is not right here

agustsays: May 18, 2009. 8:23 AM REPPercentages are like magic.

ReCreatesays: May 18, 2009. 11:27 AM REPAh...O...K?

colin55says: Mar 15, 2009. 6:03 AM REPObviously I have not seen your arrangement but bunching up the coil will make the whole arrangement much more efficient.

agustsays: Mar 15, 2009. 9:24 AM REPThat was not the issue. You claimed that this would not work but it does. It may be inefficient and impractical but it works brilliantly. You should it. Its fun.

Alcreionsays: Jan 26, 2009. 7:38 PM REPumm yeah... have you even made this your self to prove your statement? why would he ever bother to put the effort to post this and make a pdf?

colin55says: Jan 26, 2009. 8:11 P(removed by author or community request)

agustsays: Mar 15, 2009. 4:28 AM REPI have made this and could I please have 10.000 dollars?

silverbytesays: Jan 29, 2009. 9:24 PM REPIgnore Alcreion, he's obviously a young punk who doesn't know what he's talking about and is talking trash, you'de be wasting your breath if yodid.

that being said, im interesting in knowing the exact mathematics required to produce a device that can output lets say.... (i know this is a longshot) 5volts with 300mAh current.

I don't know how much 300mAh equates to microFarads in a capacitor but I have a device in mind which would require that much energy. Is thadevice possible in a 2inch x 2inch x 4inch coil ??

I would love to see your project if you every do publish it here. I recently watched some college classroom videos on the Induction motor and Iunderstand alot more today than i did one week ago how electromagnetism works.

jlynn2says: Feb 21, 2009. 1:17 PM REPHow many bottles have you drank so far ?

ReCreatesays: Apr 26, 2009. 4:35 PM REPlooks like he drank 5

Alcreionsays: Jan 29, 2009. 2:21 PM REPumm lol? if your so smart then why dont you stop wasting your time commenting and posting an instructable on your model?
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imrobotsays: Jan 26, 2009. 5:58 PM REPummm it obviously works if theirs a picture of it working!!

awang8says: Jan 26, 2009. 10:19 PM REPBut... There isn't a picture of it working!

Or is there? If there is, then I have been mistaken, I didn't not see it.

imrobotsays: Jan 27, 2009. 8:45 AM REPlast step 5th picture

colin55says: Jan 26, 2009. 11:25 PM REPThere is no picture of it working. The only reason why the author of the project thought the device was charging the battery was due to him usina battery that was already partially charged, and therefore he could not tell if the coil/magnet assembly was functioning.

imrobotsays: Jan 27, 2009. 8:46 AM REPehem! last step 5th picture

awang8says: Jan 28, 2009. 9:44 PM REPThat's not it working. If it was working then the light produced would be ridiculously small, which would make this project, despite the facthat it works.

Notice the "If". I agree it doesn't work.

PS: Eric showed the guy this Instructable on lunchmeet.

moepsays: Aug 10, 2007. 10:22 PM REPthis diagram is actually really well drawn, for those who still don't understand because it is not a circuit diagram it looks like so...I may have messed up direction of LED in diagram so just make sure you put it in the correct way :)

Circuit Diagram

gopher72says: Apr 9, 2009. 1:08 PM REPi thought it was hard to read at first, but after looking at the one you had, it was a whole lot easier to understand.

Xyndicatorsays: Aug 17, 2007. 10:53 AM REPThe diodes on the left side are incorrect. The solenoid (wire coil with the magnet inside) will produce AC and the bridge rectifier is used to change AC tDC. In your case, the diodes on the left side will cause your battery to "recharge" in the opposite direction, which will damage your battery.

kill1234says: Dec 5, 2008. 6:06 PM REP

HOw in the $@$* world can I get a rare earth magnet that small?!

radiochemistsays: Apr 4, 2009. 11:42 PM REPhttp://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/SearchResult-CategoryID-34.htmlgo there, you'd be surprised how small they come

stooberssays: Dec 29, 2008. 8:53 AM REPI got a bunch of them from the tips of magnetic darts (magnetic dart and dart board). They are around, you just have to keep an eye out for them.

awang8says: Jan 28, 2009. 9:45 PM REPThey're not rare earth... They just... Ceramic?

stooberssays: Jan 29, 2009. 10:51 AM REPSame thing. "Rare earth" magnets are embeded in ceramic like normal magnets, with some kind of chrome plating. Smash a hard drive magnetand see. They crumble, too. They are just super strong.
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awang8says: Jan 29, 2009. 11:46 PM REPOh. Thanks for the info. (Why would you embed powerful magnets in ceramic? Powerful magnets are better)

stooberssays: Jan 30, 2009. 8:36 AM REPYou don't actually "embed" powerful magnets in ceramic. You glue metal flakes together with ceramic (cement is probably moreaccurate), then "energize" the whole thing. That way, you can shape them into little donuts, elbows or hockey pucks. Energizing themagnets just means to force the magnetic poles of the molecules to line up. I don't think they don't actually increase in energy.

Embedding the metal in ceramic doesn't make the magnet less strong, as they aren't even magnetic to start with. The ceramic allows thmagnets to be "cast". Sometimes they are even injection-molded.

Several metals can be magnetic, but the "poles" are not lined up. As far as I know, all modern magnets are ceramic.

Few magnets occur naturally, with their poles lined up. Normally, you take some epoxy, or ceramic (cheaper) and a bunch of iron flakesand mold them into a cake, or maybe sinter them. Then, you heat it up and "expose" this chunk to an extremely strong artificial magnetifield. The magnetic field in the iron bits line up w/ the field. You can actually use a chunk of steel, iron or cobalt-steel too (you can getcobalt steel from Canadian coins.)

Don't think of these "rare earth" magnets as pure. The ones I've seen are just some ground up powdered metal, pressed into a cake -that's why they crumble and crack. Then they are nailed with a severe field. Don't quote me on this, but I'll bet most "rare earth" magnetsare mostly iron, with some crazy metals mixed in to heighten the effect (diluted). I'm going to test this, by seeing if I can get one of thesemagnets to "rust".

You can make your own magnets. There is book on i t, which is really really good. It is written for the layman, but also has a few pages otheory (a nice mix). The book is called: Build a Magneto Magnetizer, by Dave Gingery. I think Dave makes the magnets with iron blocks

Here is a link:http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/magneto/index.html

awang8says: Jan 30, 2009. 8:58 PM REPI don't think all magnets are ceramic.

"They're not neodynium, they're just ceramic" "That's what I thought, but everyone says they're neodynium."

Neodynium magnets and ceramic magnets... What's the difference?

kingalexlsays: Jan 30, 2009. 9:35 PM REPhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium

Neodymium is an element. same basic principal as the ceramic magnets though. except with less ceramic and there magnetismstronger. still coated with nickel.

awang8says: Feb 1, 2009. 3:20 AM REPAlright, thanks.

amando96says: Feb 1, 2009. 5:41 AM REPhey i found one that small in a cereal box sponge bob fridge magnet :)

porcupinemammasays: Mar 28, 2009. 6:26 AM REPI went online to see where earth magnets could be purchased. There were a few listings, one of which was at http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/index.htm?g&gclid=COXNrZHcxZkCFSMgDQodBkIbtwI don't know if this would help, but it is a suggestion.

colin55says: Jan 2, 2009. 2:13 PM REPLet me say a few things about the design of the coil.

The coil should be no longer than the length of the magnet. In fact it should be slightly shorter to get the best efficiency.For this, we are assuming the magnet is a bar magnet (round) and is not segmented. If it is segmented, the coil should be no longer than one of thesegments.If the magnet is short, heap the coil with as many turns as possible in the shortest distance so the f lux cuts as many turns as possible as the magnet passethough the centre of the coil.

Colin [email protected] you don't do this, the voltage produced by parts of the coil will be of reverse polarity and will cancel the voltage produced by other parts of the coil. The nresult could be a low as zero output.
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porcupinemammasays: Mar 28, 2009. 6:22 AM REPColin55 Perhaps you should do your own Instructables. Maybe even write a book with fun projects and brief explanations. Instructables is a site wherewe respect each other and encourage people and share our creations. I applaud the author for giving his time and offering his idea. I do not believe heintentionally steered readers in the wrong direction. Diplomacy and encouragement are key in this community.

seaplusplussays: Sep 19, 2008. 8:09 AM REPcan i use 2two 10 ohm resisters isntead of a 22 ohm?

BOOJANsays: Mar 18, 2009. 4:20 PM REPyes you can...

json12795says: Mar 15, 2009. 11:37 AM REPso wait does it work or not work cuz i dont want to waste my time

jlynn2says: Feb 21, 2009. 12:36 PM REPI ca'nt tell from the pictures where the wires connect or go and the schematic drawing is even worse can you help me out ?

colin55says: Jan 27, 2009. 11:28 AM REPA lot of questions have been asked on Shake i t like a Tic Tac" and this discussion will clear up a lot of queries.

Firstly, a magnet produces flux and we call this flux magnetic lines or magnetic lines of force. We draw these lines coming out of the North pole and

entering the South pole but this is just a simple way to show the presence of magnetism.These magnetic lines are stationary and we draw more of them closer together, to represent a stronger field.If we take a long rod (it can be round or square) with the North Pole at one end and South at the other, the magnetism from the middle of the magnet (takelongitudinally) will be almost zero as the lines of magnetic flux come out one end enter the other end (diagrammatically). We also draw magnetic lines arouthe outside of the bar magnet as though the flux is moving from one end to the other, but this is not true. The magnetic lines do not move. If the lines movewe could produce electricity with a stationary magnet. The fact that electricity is only produced when the magnet is moving indicates the magnetism isstationary.The only thing you have to remember is magnetism comes out the North face and enters the South face, (if this is how the magnet has been produced) whcreating a magnetism drawing.

You need to know these facts to be able to make a successful generator. This way you will see why previous projects will not work.

Next, you need to know how a voltage is generated in a coil of wire.We will take a single loop, to make it easy.When the magnet is moved towards the centre of the loop, it sees an increasing magnetic field and a voltage is produced by the loop. The voltage keepsincreasing until the face of the pole is aligned with the loop.When the magnet continues through the loop, the voltage gradually decreases. When the magnet is half-way, the output of the loop is zero as the centre othe bar magnet produces no magnetic lines.

As the magnet continues, the voltage produced by the loop is generated in the reverse direction and is a maximum when the face is aligned with the loop.Further advancement of the bar magnet makes the voltage decrease to zero.

The output is called a sinewave and starts at zero, increases to a maximum, decreases to zero, then moves in the negative direction and finally movestowards the 0v line. This is called an AC signal.

Remember, we have a single turn. The amplitude of the voltage depends on how fast we move the magnet through the coil. It also depends on the strengtof the magnet and the closeness of the coil to the magnet.The current produced by the coil, for any particular combination of the above, depends mainly on the thickness of the wire. Thick wire allows more current be produced.

But thick wire takes up more space and some of the turns will be a long way from the magnet, and get little induced voltage and thats why a compromisehas to be made.

Now we look at generating a voltage by sliding a magnet past a turn of wire.This is equally effective as passing the magnet though the turn providing the coil is larger than the diameter of the magnet to make it equivalent to thesingle turn above.Even though we have only a North pole near the turn, the coil sees an increasing magnetic field when the magnet is approaching and a decreasing magne

field when the North pole is receding.In other words, a receding North pole is equivalent to an advancing South pole. The single turn will produce an AC signal as before.

When the output of the turn is connected to a load, the current delivered to the load uses up some of the magnetic field and thats why you cannot keepadding an infinite number of turns.

With this information we can design an AC generator.

By using a rare earth magnet we will not run out of flux and if we make the coil larger than the diameter of the magnet, we will generate the maximum outp

The circuit is a voltage doubler. It also incorporates another clever feature. Only one diode is used in each direction to charge an electrolytic, thus we loseonly 0.7v on each charge-cycle.

Each half-cycle charges a 470u electrolytic and it is designed to smooth out the pulses slightly. To get constant brightness you would need a super-cap ofabout 0.1F or 100,000u about 200 times larger than the electrolytics we are using.Each electrolytic charges to about 2v, making about 4v available for the white LED. A resistor can be placed in series with the LED but it is not needed. Th
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coil has such a large resistance that the output current is limited to a value that will not damage the LED.

The LED does not illuminate until the combined voltage across the electrolytics is above 3.2v and i t is only the energy above this voltage that is passed tothe LED.The LED has a characteristic maximum voltage of 3.6v and any energy above this voltage is passed directly to the LED.The LED continues to illuminate until the voltage falls to 3.2v.This is how the electrolytics provide some form of brightness-continuation.

The diodes used in the circuit are 1N4148 signal diodes. These will handle up to 70mA and are ideal for this application.Any silicon diode drops about 0.7v while a germanium diode drops only 0.2v to 0.3v. This will give the circuit an additional 1v and make it much moreefficient. You can use a 1N4004 silicon power diode or any other type of diode.

As the magnet moves from one side of the coil to the other, a positive maximum voltage is produced when it is exactly over the wire and falls to zero whenis in the centre of the coil. During this t ime one of the diodes conducts and charges one of the electrolytics.As the magnet moves from the centre to the other side, a maximum negative voltage is produced when the magnet is over the winding and the other diode

conducts and the other electrolytic is charged. The output voltage gradually falls to zero as the magnet moves away.The same AC waveform occurs when the magnet moves back in the other direction. It is firstly positive then negative.

But exactly the opposite happens with the coil on the other side of the magnet as the South pole is creating the output. But we can connect the wires fromthe coils so the voltages combine to produce a maximum positive voltage.This has been done to keep the turns as close to the magnet as possible.You could wind a singe coil of 1400 turns to get the same ef fect.

The final requirement of the coil is this: The coil (made up of two separate coils and combined in series) needs to produce a voltage above 1.6v + 0.6v = 2.(half the minimum LED voltage plus the diode drop). Our set of coils produces 2.5v and this is sufficient to illuminate a white LED.

HOW THE CIRCUIT WORKS

In the diagram above, it looks like the coils sit on the table while the magnet has its edge on the table. This is just a diagram to show how the parts areconnected.The coils actually sit flat against the slide (against the side of the magnet) as shown in the diagram below:

The output voltage depends on how quickly the magnet passes from one end of the slide to the other. That's why a rapid shaking produces a higher voltag

You must get the end of the magnet to fully pass though the coil so the voltage will be a maximum. Thats why the slide extends past the coils at the top anbottom of the diagram.

The circuit consists of two 600-turn coils in series, driving a voltage doubler. Each coil produces a positive and negative pulse, each time the magnet passefrom one end of the slide to the other.The positive pulse charges the top electrolytic via the top diode and the negative pulse charges the lower electrolytic, via the lower diode.The voltage across each electrolytic is combined to produce a voltage for the white LED. When the combined voltage is greater than 3.2v, the LEDilluminates.The electrolytics help to keep the LED illuminated while the magnet starts to make another pass.

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