FREE Hidden Electricity!

Step 5 Test it Out!

After wiring the LED's in parallel, I plugged everything in and it worked great! It even powered off when the phone was picked up and flashed when it rang. While this won't power your new 60" HD Plasma TV, it will power small amperage electronics and could come in handy if the power goes out! Enjoy your FREE source of power.

Comments

[Vyger]

When there is a power outage the local phone company is usually affected also. They have banks of backup batteries that will keep them running for a while. If you, and other people, drain off their backup power they will go dead that much sooner and then there will be no phone service at all for anyone.

[msilva2]

Telephone companies are considered an emergency service and are mandated to have independent power backup systems. All the AT&T phone hubs I have worked at have battery back up systems like you mentioned but also have diesel generators to keep them up and running for an extended period of time. A few hackers using a trickle of power off their system will not take them down.

[NickIQ]

This usually isn't the case. There is usually a difference between commercial and residential power. True about the battery backup, though.

[Br4inFr33z3]

If the power goes out, who'll make phone calls from a landline?

[ibby]

What is the output voltage from the regulator circuit?

[Kipkay]

Th draw is 37volts @ 10ma.

[cproo12]

hi kipkay im brickboys806 @ youtube!

[DrDontDoDis]

That's not even half a watt of power! A hand dynamo will beat that by 10x easy. It may be free, but it will be MONTHS before it saves you a dollar on your electric bill, and that's with 24/7 use! Can't you draw more amperage than that without overloading the line?

[Silence]

I think If you draw too much you'll get a voltage drop on the line and it will look to the phone company like you took your phone off the hook.

[spittingisfun]

i want 5.5v to 6v out how can i do that

[faheemkhan_jadoon]

hi kipkay im very big fan of u.i want to say that i have 48volts in line therefore how much amphere of bridge rectifier i should use. and can i convert these48 volts to 24 volts dc and then use it to ups to generate 220volts.thanks plesae answer me ([e-mail])

[Yerboogieman]

what would you use to make 12v? different resistors?

[int1221233]

hi, i find it interesting and useful! i 've just tested my phone line voltage with a multimeter. it's 38volt. i would like to make a led lamp exactly as yours. but what is the maximum current that i can draw from the line? i also don't know what's the power consumption of white LED. there are many cheap (0.12USD/pc) 3.5mm white LED provided here. but i don't know what's their voltage and current. how many white led can be light up by the led? i want the maximum! but will the ohm of resistor changed? thanks for advice!

[mcgyver]

super bright white LEDs need about 20mA-30mA. Just compute for the resistor that has to be put in series.

http://noelbautista.com/blog/diy-solar-lantern-part-13/

It would also work if you use 38/3.4 = 11 LEDs in series.

[int1221233]

my email is [e-mail] thanks!

[jlmowery]

I found an error in your schematic.  A better one would be found at
http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM117.pdf
You are misconnecting the voltage-divider resistor network.   R1 and R2 (in series) go from output to ground with the adjust pin connected between them.  The output  voltage (and resister values) can be figured by:
Vout = 1.25v(1+R1/R2) + the voltage drop across R2.
R1 is output to adjust pin, R2 is adjust pin to ground (- voltage).
Ripple in the output is eliminated by use of a filter (electrolytic) capacitor between output and ground.  You might also put one input to ground before the regulator chip as well due to the extremely uneven input voltage

[Electronics111]

How much voltage does it supply?

[beehard44]

depends on your phone line cuz you need to adjust the resistor till your phone works...

[heacoxr]

Would it be possible to charge a laptop with this if I messed around with the resistors?

[beehard44]

too much amperage
 i can get a good 5 watts off a laptop charger...

[mhkabir]

No

[ocelot1633]

now this "conversion" is still DC power right? Would there be a way to convert this to AC power w/o using a "power inverter", even building one, for us creative techish people...I've done alot of research and such involving transformers 555chips mofest etc... was wondering if you had any input...

[electronic boy]

it is ac from the wall socket so you just take out the diode bridge rectifier.

[ocelot1633]

So, the phone line power is AC, and not DC?

[electronic boy]

yes/ and a big tip plug your test meter into it and turn it to DC on the control dial , if their is no reading but a reading on ac then the line is ac, PS do not put fingers on wires it hurts!!

[beehard44]

touch 1 wire not grounded: nothing
                             grounded:slight twinge
touch both grounded or not grounded: not cool

[ocelot1633]

Hahaha, I know that one 2 well, I just hooked up a Wireless unit outside and made a makeshift outlet outside, and I went to unplug it to bring it inside to reconfigure and I grabbed the entire Outlet and I couldnt feel my arm for the next half hour... just glad it wasnt 220, buddy went to the hosp for that, but I know what your saying.... Test with DC with a Multimeter and if no power, then try AC.. but then how would one convert this 50 - 70 VAC line to 110, or down to 12VDC and use an Inverter and bump it back upto 110VAC?

[megavolts61]

This is an ancient thread, but why not simply make an auto transformer. It could be air core, ferrite core, over even regular transformer steel at 50 to 60 Hz, so it would not matter. The only thing I'd suggest is to use about 28 awg magnet wire to not make it looke like a dead short to the input and then add the necessary resister to the input to not cause phone troubles. Do a google search for autotransformer and you'll see how easy one would be t omake.

[electronic boy]

you couldent use an inverter because the amps would be too low but to get 12 volt at low ampage you can use a L7805cv voltage regulator, and sorry to hear about you and your freinds misfortune

[chiajoe]

Can the items in the plan given be used if instead I want to use the power from the phonw line to light up 12 V car bulbs during a black out ?. If not can any one advise on the changes that need to be made ?.

[amoeba_pao]

i already made this but what i got is 41v. can somebody help me what i need is only 12v. email me at [e-mail]

[Orangutanlibrarian]

What are you powering off this? Without a smoothing cap dont you get a lot of ripple on the out out voltage?

[zuriknet]

Man back in the day this was the "Hackers day-dream" sitting down at the end of the street using alligator clips and a black box with free Internet. If you want to do this in your home...I would recommend not using it for more than a 48 hour period. SEE BELOW! If you have DSL or ADSL on your line you can still use it but your Internet modem has to have enough juice to make a connection and every appliance (phone, answering machines, modems, speaker-phones) you have plugged into the sockets draw a charge from the line. You are only given so much and the less electricity through the line, the less reliable the line will be. BE CAREFUL. Build in an emergency switch or literally "pull-the-plug" every 48hours because each telcos. monitors the volts of electricity the trunk or "Big grey box" is pulling at the end of your block. Now days they can be checked at the hub and can narrow it down to the house by using software or dispatching a lineman with a Lineman's handset.

[ocman]

Hi! I have an internet conection running through the phone line, so a 2wire DSL filter was needed to split both signals. Do you think this would still work without any interference to any of the two services?? Also, which is the final output of your device? I would like to power up something more than a led lamp (which by the way I don't have...). I don't know much about electronics, but I sure can put my hands on to anything with instructions. Can this be used/adapted to say, maybe recharge my cell phone or something like that?

[zuriknet]

There is a spike when the ring comes through. That is why the volts jump when then phone rings. I wouldn't recommend it for your cell battery, unless you can charge the battery while the battery is out of the phone especially without knowing what resistors to use for your specific needs.

[zen4unow]

What about trickle charging a battery of some sort to be used in case of a power failure.

[lukeyj15]

I have 47 Volts and 4 leads. Red, Black, Blue and White. Will this work in Australia?

[ocman]

Did you use a voltmeter to get that number? Can't you use it as well to see which lead is running power? As far as I know, phone lines use only two wires, and when connected to a bigger jack the technician places the working ones in the middle.

[bombmaker2]

Maybe Black & Blue after all they're the middle ones

[wupme]

It should work in most countries i think. Of the 4 wires you got usually only 2 are really used/needed. I think it should be red and black, but don't take my word on that, i don't know that much about the color codes for phonewires in other countries then Germany.