A few minutes ago the Radio Shack piezo element, part number 273-073, flashed the red LED again.
People who want to make their own unit that will flash an efficient LED about twice per day please see the home page. Please remember to not disturb the piezo with loud sounds & vibrations.
After you build this simple & inexpensive test, go ahead and see if it flashes the LED inside a pitch dark room. Give your eyes about 5 minutes to adjust. If it does not, then it's needs recovery, so give it 24 hours before retesting. If the LED does not flash on the 2nd attempt, then give it a few days to rest. Although I cannot say if the Radio Shack piezo is recovered enough right after buying it from Radio Shack, I can say that mine produce over 400 mV the moment I got it home. It was probably at least a few volts, but it saturated my meter. Note, you need a special meter with giga ohms input resistance to detect the voltage.
Created on 2009-09-23 15:34:08 by EnergyMover