This guy is a backyard genius. To make something work on a shoestring budget deserves alot of credit. Million dollar companies cant even tie their shoes and this guy made something cool work in his back yard. Great job Mr. Wilkinson. Keep up the faith and good work.

This machine works the same way old clock mechanisms were used in European churches, they had to raise the weight every few days for the clock to continue working. The problem is LIFTING the weight every time you need it to run again. Some ideas to think about: 1) use a longer compound gear train to increase the amount of time to drop the weight, making it days instead of hours. 2) use solar power to charge up batteries to power a lift system to raise weight which should be fully charged by the time the weight drops. 3) Another idea (from the comments) was using the tidal system to raise the weight. This idea works, products like "GRAVITY LIGHT" which powers LEDS used for camping can power lights for 20 mins without any fuel. This is also being looked at seriously by Edinburgh company Gravitricity as an energy storage system in the event of blackouts in cities or towns, they just drop the weight and it runs for days. Very cool idea and I think it's worth looking at.

Hey there Dwight, keep it going. Your mind and your machine are one! The more people put your machine down is the weight which you are being propelled with new energy to keep Wilkinson Machine running. Thanks for your fresh mind and sharing your invention with the world.

Reminds me of the old grandfather clock we used to have, lift the weight, and it would run for days.

Genial amigo, había visto tu vídeo hace años atrás y después no lo pode pillar más, pero ahora por fin di con el, gracias, saludos desde Chile.

thats totaly awesome. nice job!

this guyz got something here o.o i'm impressed. Genius!

apperciated your work. i am doing research on it

I dig how you added the big sprocket to the cassette sprocket.

Nice work - I am also building a gravity driven electrical generation system . I use a larger amount of weight and I use a pendulum to regulate the spped at which the weight falls and I have a way to (somewhat automate ) the rewinding of the weights - since the device generates electricity I will be using a battery driven geear motor to rewind the weight . Nice post - Thanks, it has really encouraged me. God bless.

THANKYOU! Great design. You are very creative....

Thats actually a pretty cool Idea there bud!

Ever since I seen this I racked my mind with ways to convert gravity to electricity. I first thought of a generator head but quickly squashed the idea due to torque/weight ratio. Then I thought of a better solution. A car battery, flywheel, and starter - weight reaches the bottom and flick's the lever to engage the starter reeling the weight back up where it hits the other side of the same lever shutting the starter off. The generator head was replaced with several low torque wind turbines. Turn it on and walk away it will keep you running for the life of the parts used.

That is cool man! I want one!

Marvelous! :)

damn, im building the same thing in my garage, nice to know its possible

Nice work

Nice Work

good job, bravo!

Don't get me wrong; I commend your efforts, and I encourage you to continue working. That being said, I have to point out three major flaws with your design. #1; Obviously, the motion is not perpetual, it will stop when the weight reaches the ground. #2; By using so many gears to increase the rotational speed, you have reduced the torque to an extreme low. And #3; instead of the "Dwight Wilkinson" machine, you should have named it the "Leonardo DaVinci" machine, since HE actually invented it.

Mr. Wilkinson, I am very impressed with your machine. I see your prototype runs about 10 min before you have to reset the weight. I am certain you have already figured out that you can make it run loner by using pulleys to thread the cable through, utilizing the empty space with in your machines foot print. If it could be made to run 24 hrs before a reset, I think it would be a very useful machine. Thank you for sharing this with the world. Jack

Congratulation ! :)

Yeah it's just a gear box. What rastatekk is talking about is one of the many hydroelectric generators in the world where we let mother nature lift the water up and capture the energy as it falls back down in a river. Also anecdotally the london bridge uses steam engines to lift giant weights up so that they can release all the power at once to (using gears) lift the giant bridge so that boats can pass.

Useful in a MAD MAX, type apocalypse. Energy source for small devices.

I don't know if you know yet, but you'll be happy to know that a smaller version of this machine is being used to run lights in disaster areas.

Mr Wilkinson you like sooo many are beat down by these asses out there that have no vision. I commend your work and effort . Devices such as yours and others could easily change the face of the world , accepting for the limited sight of so many in power . If I could , I would grant you the funds to take this device to it's eventual ends and change the world.

If you made the diameter of the coil collection drum larger, the weight would exert more rotational force and apply that force through a system of pulleys you would have more travel time on your weight at the same 10ft height. Also if you used a 12v car attenuator instead of a coil and magnet array on that flywheel assembly. Your relative power generation would be substantially more efficient. Good luck in your progress.

This is the one I first seen.

Молодец мужик. Респект и уважуха.

amazing

This kinda machine, scaled up, and attached to a steel platform that can handle say, the weight of a car, would be insane. :D

Nice

very nice made ,

Nice work ...adaptable ,,,more dependable than solar ,,now if we could bypass the inverter needs for our 110 AC ...or go all DC ,,Thanks for the post and inspiration !

Buena máquina 🇭🇳👍👍👍

Dwight: You most certainly can drive a DC generator with the machine. Read my comments below about using a clock escapement mechanism. I would also suggest using some type of smoothing mechanism, perhaps an overload clutch, synchromesh, or a modified centrifugal clutch before final output to DC generator (rectified). The other approach is use an escapement mechanism only, but do smoothing in an electronic circuit via capacitors between the DC generator and batteries. Better is use both methods.

Whenever using gears (sprockets), torque is inverse to speed. So the faster the sprockets speed up (via hanging weight), the lower the torque becomes. Meaning the fastest sprocket at the end will not have sufficient torque to turn a small generator. And if it does turn, the generator will slow the sprocket down to a speed not fast enough to produce usable wattage. Again, much heavier weight and a means to steady the rate of drop is critical.

Good job. I would like to see you hook up an alternator and battery to this, with a motor that pulls the weight back up. Very nice work though. Alx

cool!

Congratulations for the nice project. How can I make one? Do you give your permission for me to make one based on your design? How long that weight take to get to the bottom? what size are the bicycle gears? Thank you for posting.

Thank you for sharing this video. This is a big help to me, because I want to build something, and gave me a very good idea. I would like to ask you a few things: How did you attach the drum on which the rope is wound to the wheels? How long does the weight take to get down to the ground? (From how many meters high?) What kind of power does the last wheel have? What do you think it would be able to make work? Your answer would help me a lot.

nossa essa máquina daria um ótimo gerador de energia.parabéns.um abraços aqui do Brasil.valeu my brother.

Actually Leonardo Davinci did build devices such as this to power self-propelled wooden "robots". Only his designs used a rope wound around a wooden shaft containing wooden pegs. The rope was wound back and forth around the pegs on the shaft so that as the rope unrolled, the "robot" could change speed and direction. Same basic premise, only DaVinci's was more advanced.

It takes more energy to lift the weight to the top than it produces coming down. Complete dead end.

I would think you could probably use a bucket water wheel design and collect rain water or use a low energy pump to pump water to the top into the buckets or even drive the pump from the device itself or harvest electricity after start up to run the pump to give you a constant weight to create the gravity which would make this design very very effective

Does J. required to lift the weight equal W. coming out of the alternator?

This is a nice demonstration of the use of potential energy. You had to work to get that dumbbell up there and you will never get out more energy than you put in. Another nice example of this principle is every weight driven clock. Your average weight driven clock dates back to the sixteenhundreds. (google weight driven clock)

Also, block and tackle is fine, but I would attach another bike frame with a seat and pedals, using gear reduction, so a person could sit and pedal the weight back to the top.

Why do you have to be so hateful, we don't see you making something and showing it off. At least this guy is working hard to share his work with the rest of the world, not just hiding behind his computer screen like you and talking bad about people.

i like it. charge a cell fone with it

Very good. Congrats. Can genaration energy??

Very true plus as you step up the speed you loose torque. Your 100% right. just look at what powers many clocks to this day

You also need a second chain conneted to the weight in case the drive chain breaks. The other end of it connected to a torque converter to control its fall. Needs safety, no weight should slam the ground.

One man with block and tackel can pull up thousands of pounds. A horse or truck even better.

It's like a gravity battery! Use a couple ton weight and have solar cells and wind generators drive a motor to lift the weight and store energy. At night use the same motor as a generator to generate electricity as the weight is allowed to slowly fall. I wonder if this would be more efficent then using batteries, should be cheaper to build, maybe last longer too. Just keep it oiled, should last for years.

Takes more energy to lift the weight up than you will get out of the weight dropping. Energy is lost in the friction in the drive train and cable. Torque is reduced in proportion to the rpm difference between the cable drum and final sprocket.

I know this was posted a long time ago but I have questions about this. With only the few sprockets that there is I don't see what is keeping the whole thing from just spinning out of control and the weight coming down fast, also I don't see how any work could be done because there is not enough torque. The rope would need to wrap around the bike rims not the axle for good torque. It takes quite a bit of power to turn a generator or a PMA under load.

Millions of clocks used that power since they were invented

Why haven't we ever seen a newer video I thought about this system quite a bit and I would make the falling weight a liquid and a pump to recirculate it back to the top

what if tides were implemented to raise the weight up every 12 hours on the end of a dock.

Hey this is really amazing, I'm Mechatronics Engineer and I think and as a proffessional that your machine is one of the things that the world need to realize that everything can be useful, actually I would like to ask you for some of your blueprints or something, I know that using wheels we can reduce or increase speed but I have a lot of ideas to prevent to keep lifting the weight every time after the cycle is complete, if you are interested just contact me or post an specific plans for it

Mr. Wilkinson, yes, you discovered something already made before but you did it on your own, that is still a huge thing. The air pressure trompe is another device which has been re-"discovered" many times. I would think of re-doing this video as an update but instead of "free energy " I would show it as a super efficient device that can be used to power other things like an air bellows for a fallout shelter or other things. I couldn't make this on my own and I encourage you to keep studying and making things. You may also want to watch the YT channel of Robert Murray Smith, TnT.

Dwight, gravity is a great source, but the weight is accelerating the entire time it falls. Accelerating approximately 32 feet per second squared (32 ft/sec2). So, 1st second it's accelerating at 32 ft, the 2nd at 64 ft, the 3rd at 96 ft. You must control the weights descent or the volts/amps will be unpredictable as the torque drops off.

I like to build a small one in my garage to charge my 12v batterys

Very interesting, this can be used as a battery.

Hmm, how do you get the weight up again ? It takes probably more energy to get it up again via another motor, cause you have many losses in the gearing... What did you run on the last fast turning wheel ? This will probably have not much torque, so you can only run low torque generators on it. Okay, if you lift the weight manually you have to do it every five minutes or so ? Many thanks. Regards, Stefan.

@MrDwight1959 In the Middle Ages-driven clocks were built that way.

he must be the smartest most intelligent person ever

@optym82 your right - is a simple physical law

This machine and add a spring that tightens when this falls to the ground and add a small motor that pulls the weight up when you fall down so you will have more energy than potrošnje..pozdrav prof.Savić Serbia

Dude, clocks have been using this for centuries.

adimiro vc não exclui os comentarios que te criticam voce parece ser um homem de caracter parabens e continue com seus estudos vo tentar rezolver o enigma do moto continuo acredito que é possivel

This machine stores energy. If you put a small electric motor powered by a solar panel on the high speed side to lift the weight back up over a few hours you can use the stored energy at night. The advanage of this machine over a battery is that it will not lose the stored energy over time and it may also lose less of the input energy as heat than a battery would.

You have made a giant watch. That is really cool. You now need to experiment with generators you do not realize how much torque lots and lots of torque lots of torque is required for a generator to make electricity. Also a lot of energy it takes to get the weight back up to the top in the reset position. What energy it takes to return the weight to top could be used to generate power. Do listen to their doubts because within them is your solutions.nothing is impossible there are only obstacles.

It is not free energy because You must add MORE energy from outside to lift the weight. It is simple gravitational energy accumulator.

Mr. Wilkinson, what were some of the chalenges, if any, that you experianced when asambling your machine? what was the greatest chalenge with the components?

The only problem is when you draw power from it the resistance is more than the torque and it will not spin. If you reduce the resistance it won't put out enough power to pull the weight back to the top it will only make it a portion of the way up and eventually stay at the bottom and have to be pulled up manually.

lol nice work there man :) Just, why you can't use generator with this thing?

Hi Dwight I like your machine. I can see it would be good for charging batteries or running bright LED lights. You mentioned you would use stored energy to raise the weight back up? Unfortunately that is not possible. There is always a loss. In this case the biggest loses are, friction, heat and noise. I do believe your idea has merit for a small charging system or lighting.

can you please give me the computation of the gears/sprocket/wheel? i need to use it for my thesis. thank you

like a grandfather clock

You beat me to it. I like it. Kick ass man. Get away from bicycle parts. Look for industrial grade sprockets and chain. Mount them on an I beam. Four tons should power an altenator for many months 24/7. When tge deep cycle batts are charged, you need a locking system to keep the weight in place.

The second law of thermodynamics forbids what he is suggesting. There is no way that the mechanism (what is essentially a very simple piece of clockwork) could produce enough power to lift the weight all the way back to the starting position. That would be perpetual motion and impossible.

Now if you could put another chain to the other side of the wheel and connect it to another wheel then hook another wire to the bottom of a tank filled with water by a pully and have a flotation device that pulls the weight back up with a trigger to unhook the flotation device you could get more power.

Discgolfguy1975: Take a look at the video from 0:43 to 1:01, count how fast the white tape on the sprocket is going around, maybe it's once per second. Now look at the video from 3:26 to 3:57, you'll notice immediately the same sprocket is moving so fast you can't even count how fast the white tape is moving. At 3:40 we begin to see wobbling, the increased speed is affecting the stability of system. It should very evident that speed has indeed increased.

Mr Dwight ,...have you thought of a reload system for your device ? Something that allows the weight to be "reloaded" with out the use of electricity ? Another question . Do you know the torque that your device creates . I ask because a standard generator requires lots of torque to work . I would like to see your device attached to a home windmill generator . They normally require less torque and lower speed . 750 rpm is very good .

The goal is not be perpetual motion. We want to extend the time the hanging weight falls as long as possible, but still translating into sufficient wattage (volts X amps) on the last sprocket. A human burns calories to lift the weight (via gear reduction), we don't want to just let it free fall, releasing stored energy to quickly. How long does it take for a human to lift 400 lbs 10 feet? I'll trade 5 minutes of work for 15 minutes of energy any time. An escapement mechanism comes to the rescue.

maybe some day there is a car with chair thrower, push the weight and go

cool potential energy engine but hardly the first of its kind.

That is how old clocks with weights work, nothing new

It's a grandfather clock mechanism.

nice job man.. filed any patent rights? can i use it?

Saw the vid with it hooked up to a generator. WORKS! Vid probably wiped

So its true that the energy is not free; its from whatever put the weight up there. However, as others have pointed out, if you could do that with tides or another source it would work well. You could also use a horse to put the weights up there; there energy would be indirectly from the sun; so its a weird gravity/solar hybrid system.

thanks for the idea mr wilkinson.. have you patented it?

Could be useful use rainwater harvesting as the weight

Discgolfguy1975: I'm not suggesting Dwight has a bad idea, because actually it's very good. I use a similar system. He just needs to have the weight fall in small intervals, not continuously, so the speed and torque output will be predictable, thus usable. The way to accomplish this is the tried & true method of clock escapement mechanism, dated to 13th century. Additionally, a smoothing clutch device is advised, so output will nearly be continuous, though input will be segregated intervals.

So couple this to your standard 'Human Powered Bike generator' system, and much less work will be required for a higher energetic output.

You cold go up on stairs and use your body weigth to move masses and let the machine running for a long time without wasted a lot of energy. (sorry about my bad english)

THE MACHINE OPERATE IN A CONTINIUS WAY TAHT IS PERFECTLY ENOUGHT TO GENERATE AS MORE ENERGY AS YOU NEED SINCE JUST MAKING THIS MACHINE BIGGER WILL WORK 5 TIME BETTER THAN THE BEST HOUSE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM.