Wireless Energy Transmission System only using PCBs

Hey guys how have you been!

So here's yet another crazy experiment based on the work of Mr. Nikola tesla.

My Edition of "WIRELESS ENERGY TRANSFERRING SETUP" was made entirely from PCBs.

The only difference between Mr. Tesla's version and mine was that my setup didn't work as it should.

All the joke aside, my setup does work but the problem is the efficiency.

Why it's not working efficiently?

Well because the design of the coil is a joke. I added many traces and didn't leave too much space at the center. also, coils were not thick enough.

Anyway, Let me show you guys how I made this project and how can we upgrade it to run properly.

CONCEPT

The wireless transmission project is not exactly new, it's been thoroughly studied and experimented with for many years. Right now we are using Wireless chargers based on this concept. they are less efficient than an average charger and require more power because of eddy losses.

This setup that I'm working on consists of mainly two parts.

• Transmitter
• Receiver

The transmitter is the driver part that converts the DC Input into magnetic flux by using a transistor which is controlled by a 555 timer ic setup in an astable multivibrator config.

Receivers pick up the magnetic flux with their coil and transfer the power to the LED.

MATERIALS

These were the things I used in this build-

• DRIVER PCB
• COIL PCB
• 555 TIMER IC
• 240 Ohms 1206 Resistor
• 3.3nF CAP 1206
• 100nF CAP 1206
• 10K 0805 Resistor
• 1K 0805 Resistor (didn't have 0805 so used 0603 instead)
• BD139 Transistor
• 12V Power Source
• Header Pins
• Breadboard

DESIGNING PROCESS

As for the design, I went with the classic approach by using a 555 Timer IC that generates oscillations by switching the transistor ON-OFF at 20KHz.

here's the schematic that I found online, I prepared the schematic file in my PCB Suite and prepared a neat small Driver board that could be put on a breadboard.

As for the Coil, I designed it manually without doing any calculation before.

(which was a bad idea)

I lay down the tracks in a square shape with 33 Turns and the track thickness is 0.127mm, both layers have the same tracks.

For driver PCB, I placed all the components in an evenly order on a rectangular board and connected all the traces.

GETTING PCBS from PCBWAY

After finalizing both PCBs, I uploaded their Gerber data on PCBWAY's Quote page and place an order for two PCBs.

After placing the order, I received the PCBs in a week and the PCB quality was pretty great

I choose RED Soldermask for coil board and YELLOW Soldermask for Driver board.

Both PCB quality was pretty high, especially the COIL board.

Really love the overall boards, you guys can check PCBWAY out if you need great PCB Service at less cost.

ASSEMBLY

After unboxing the PCBs, I started the assembly process which had the following steps.

• Solder Paste Dispensing
• Pick & Place Process
• Hotplate Reflow
• Adding THT Components
• TESTING

SOLDER PASTEDISPENSING

The first step is to apply solder paste to each component pad.

I used a normal Sn-Pb solder paste which has a melting temp from 140 to 270 °C.

PICK N PLACE

I then used an ESD Tweezer to carefully pick and place each component on their assigned place one by one which took like 30 Seconds tops but the result was a perfect PCB with all the components placed in their location.

HOTPLATE REFLOW

Then after doing the pick and place process, we carefully lifted the whole PCB and place it on the hotplate. I’m using my good old DIY hotplate which I made a few months ago.

Basically, in this hotplate reflow process, the surface heats up to the solder paste melting temp and it slowly melts. after a few mins when the solder paste completely melts, we remove the PCB and let it cool down for a moment.

ADDING THT COMPONENTS

In the end, we add THT Components to the PCB which are TRANSISTOR and header pins.

RESULT

Here's the result of ASSEMBLY PROCESS- a complete Driver board that is now ready for testing.

BREADBOARD SETUP

Now before setting up the breadboard, I added two header pins to COIL PCB and a 1uf 16V Capacitor to VCC and GND of Driver board.

( Capacitor is for my power supply, it have a noise issue so the capacitor will filter it)

I placed all the components according to this wiring diagram and plugged a 12V 5A SMPS as the power source for this project.

RECEIVER COIL

As for the Reciever Part of this project, my idea was to use a 1uH inductor as a coil and add LED with it. Because the Coil outputs AC Supply, we can add LED in any polarity.

TESTING

I placed the Reciever Inductor LED setup on the coil PCB and the led started glowing.

But here's issue #1, LED is glowing but the glow is super low and that is because of the design of the Transmitter and receiver coil.

What happened here is the coil overheating which it shouldn't, energy is being wasted and even so, the receiver coil is not a proper coil that receives energy efficiently.

It's heating to the point at which it could melt solder wire when I fed it 23V through a bench power supply.

By changing the design a little bit, we can increase the output.

I re-edit the COIL PCB and also made two Reciever boards, one has LED in the center of it and is shaped like a hexagon spiral, and another one is a square-shaped coil with huge space in middle.

My goal is to make this setup super-efficient, Output LED should glow at its fullest that's what I'm aiming for.

Waiting for new PCBs, will post another article about this project soon.

I hope this post was helpful in some way.

Thanks for reading the article and I'll be back with part 2 soon.

Peace