List of Dodgy Crowd Source Funded Projects

[McBryce]

And the power required for the electromagnets come from where exactly?? 
McBryce.

It is supposed to be a 2kW device, isn't it?

As long as electromagnet does not perform work (which is a standard property of a permanent magnet) the consumed power is zero (apart of ohmic losses that can be made arbitrarily small by design).

If the magnet wasn't performing any work, why would it be needed in the first place?

McBryce.

[kalleboo]

"Battery with Unlimited Power for your mobile Phone": 1,500,000 mAh mobile battery https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/battery-with-unlimited-power-for-your-mobile-phone#/story

[v8dave]

"Battery with Unlimited Power for your mobile Phone": 1,500,000 mAh mobile battery https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/battery-with-unlimited-power-for-your-mobile-phone#/story

This uses alien technology. Dave should don his metal foil hat and do a teardown of this one.

[anujdeshpande]

"Battery with Unlimited Power for your mobile Phone": 1,500,000 mAh mobile battery https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/battery-with-unlimited-power-for-your-mobile-phone#/story

1000Ah.
Yeah we just need a small 'm' in there somewhere.

[McBryce]

If they've packed that much energy into a package that size (which they haven't), they should be targeting the electric car market and not mobile phones.

McBryce.

[crispy_tofu]

Similarity? 

Copied and edited off a Mophie 2100mAh battery pack...

[AmbientSix]

The schematic has a bunch of nonsense in it.  I got a belly laugh out of the "clock" in the circuit...

[Marcel_X]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

 

[Howardlong]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

 

Their company, SciCorn Technology, was dissolved on 24 November 2015. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search/companies?q=Scicorn

You can buy companies off the shelf for a few quid in the UK. There are over 1,000 companies listed at the registered address, which is a small townhouse converted into offices.

There's no doubt this is a scam, and they know it, they're not even deluded. The $30k might just about pay for CE and FCC certifications, but as there was never going to be any product anyway, wondering what 30 grand will get you is perhaps rather irrelevant.

[PlainName]

They are flexible funding - surely  it would make more sense to go for a really high figure to ensure it's not met, then they can just say they didn't raise enough funds and walk off with the rest. As it is, they might achieve funding and then be actually in the poo.

Thought maybe if the figure is too high it will scare punters off, but a good PR would explain all about the costs of FCC etc and make it sound reasonable and workable . I wonder if there is something around $30K which turns them into serious criminals where a lower figure just makes them naughty boys.

[FrankBuss]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

They should have at least faked the research papers. The first paper they linked, "Design and Construction of Wireless Power Transfer System Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling", shows a graph on page 4 where transfered power goes to zero for distances greater than 20 cm. The second paper has no experimental data at all, and I stopped reading the 3rd paper, which is an article of Tesla with his experiments where he claimed it is possible to distribute energy all over the world without wires. So why does the campaign limit it at 30 feet? It could charge your mobile phone within miles radius of the charger

[Marcel_X]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

 

Their company, SciCorn Technology, was dissolved on 24 November 2015. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search/companies?q=Scicorn

You can buy companies off the shelf for a few quid in the UK. There are over 1,000 companies listed at the registered address, which is a small townhouse converted into offices.

There's no doubt this is a scam, and they know it, they're not even deluded. The $30k might just about pay for CE and FCC certifications, but as there was never going to be any product anyway, wondering what 30 grand will get you is perhaps rather irrelevant.

I didn't know that. According to one of his posts, he also has an office in San Fransisco...
But yes, the $30K should be enough for a new car...

Anyway, I got my $1,- pledge back today. Even without asking ;-)
I guess they don't want me to post anything anymore... 

[Yansi]

yeah... typical group of high-end engineers for the job...

https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_limit,w_620/v1442409412/rqke1qbcrwz7fclvlyke.png

 

[Marcel_X]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

They should have at least faked the research papers. The first paper they linked, "Design and Construction of Wireless Power Transfer System Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling", shows a graph on page 4 where transfered power goes to zero for distances greater than 20 cm. The second paper has no experimental data at all, and I stopped reading the 3rd paper, which is an article of Tesla with his experiments where he claimed it is possible to distribute energy all over the world without wires. So why does the campaign limit it at 30 feet? It could charge your mobile phone within miles radius of the charger

Haha, indeed :-) And if you search for the word 'distance' in the other documents, you'll find roughly the same value.
Unless you use a 1m diameter coil...
And there's no mention at all on how to position the receiver coil towards the transmitter coil.
Perpendicular? Parallel? It all seems to work ;-)

Bogus...

[cenar]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

They should have at least faked the research papers. The first paper they linked, "Design and Construction of Wireless Power Transfer System Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling", shows a graph on page 4 where transfered power goes to zero for distances greater than 20 cm. The second paper has no experimental data at all, and I stopped reading the 3rd paper, which is an article of Tesla with his experiments where he claimed it is possible to distribute energy all over the world without wires. So why does the campaign limit it at 30 feet? It could charge your mobile phone within miles radius of the charger

Haha, indeed :-) And if you search for the word 'distance' in the other documents, you'll find roughly the same value.
Unless you use a 1m diameter coil...
And there's no mention at all on how to position the receiver coil towards the transmitter coil.
Perpendicular? Parallel? It all seems to work ;-)

Bogus...

They recently posted an image where you can see a simple solenoid inside the transmitter Way to make it work at each angle.  Also I wonder how could you prevent 100 cellphones harvesting energy from the system?

Uh there are so many hilarious details but I want to share something different with you. If you scroll down the comments section, you will see a guy named 'Evgene Ilchenko' commented on the project. Also, if you look up for scicorn ltd. from this site:

http://www.checkcompany.co.uk/company/08894073/SCICORN-TECHNOLOGY-LTD

You will see that Evgeny Ilchenko is the manager of this company. What a coincidence. If you go to the Evgene's indiegogo profile:

https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/10543643/campaigns

you will see another bogus project named smart cardio, with the campaigner name 'Ravel Banshin'. Tesla Charger's campaigner is 'Pavel Yashin'. Wow this is just shameful. Also Scicorn ltd shows a connection with Impasto ltd on the same site, which has office in seychelles. Seychelles? They use this islands for money laundering.

I emailed indiegogo about this, nothing but copy-paste response.

[meeder]

And to counteract the wireless chargers we have this :-)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shieldapparel/shield-the-world-s-first-signal-proof-headwear.

[dmwahl]

And to counteract the wireless chargers we have this :-)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shieldapparel/shield-the-world-s-first-signal-proof-headwear.

At least it looks better than a tin foil hat.

[Howardlong]

Found another one:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tcharger-the-next-generation-wireless-charger#/story
Wireless charging over 30 feet at 2Amps...

 

Their company, SciCorn Technology, was dissolved on 24 November 2015. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search/companies?q=Scicorn

You can buy companies off the shelf for a few quid in the UK. There are over 1,000 companies listed at the registered address, which is a small townhouse converted into offices.

There's no doubt this is a scam, and they know it, they're not even deluded. The $30k might just about pay for CE and FCC certifications, but as there was never going to be any product anyway, wondering what 30 grand will get you is perhaps rather irrelevant.

I didn't know that. According to one of his posts, he also has an office in San Fransisco...
But yes, the $30K should be enough for a new car...

Anyway, I got my $1,- pledge back today. Even without asking ;-)
I guess they don't want me to post anything anymore... 

Another hit and run. I doubt anyone will hear another word from "Pavel" now he has his money. Flexible Funding == Scam.

[snoopy]

As soon as they mention Nikola Tesla it's another case of PT Barnum - a sucker born every minute

[station240]

Can someone check this project : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janulus/trinity-portable-wind-turbine-power-station

It's a portable wind turbine... I have no doubt it would generate electricity but in how much time ? There is no specification of how much it generate under what conditions and I have hard time visualizing what a 2 m/s wind is ?

Thanks ! 

Funding for this project was suspended by Kickstarter on October 27

1 Day after the project finished, Kickstarter shoot it in the head.
Looks like it fell foul of the basic rule that you cannot have multiple Kickstarter projects for the same product.

[Kean]

Funding for this project was suspended by Kickstarter on October 27

1 Day after the project finished, Kickstarter shoot it in the head.
Looks like it fell foul of the basic rule that you cannot have multiple Kickstarter projects for the same product.

That's the first time I've seen a KS project suspended *after* funding.  At least with the 2 week period before KS would normally disburse the funds to the creator, they have the ability to process refunds.  Hard to tell if that happened as there are no recent comments - but it could be assumed that lack of recent comments points to refunds having gone through.

[Howardlong]

Yeah, really. He's taken your money and pissed it up a wall already mate.

[sk2593]

How about this one ?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/the-top-10-crowd-funded-projects-people-have-been-duped-by/msg852326/#msg852326

[nwvlab]

Hi there!

look at this!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zero-illuminate-without-consuming-energy#/

"Without consuming energy". Yep, but you have to leave on a 100-W lamp to light up a led string of maybe 100 mW (total) ...

Cheers!

[PlainName]

Looks to me like it taps into energy that would otherwise be wasted. In effect it makes the 100W lamp a tiny bit more efficient since a tiny bit more light is usable. There is a huge imbalance between the cost of the energy you re-purpose and the cost of the kit, but often the weights on the scales are not solely financial ones.

It is far far less dodgy than perpetual motion and other free energy scams

I think they've missed a trick, though - it would be much cooler and possibly more effective if they could use fibre optics to provide smaller but brighter bauble lights.