Some Orbo Updates (Update #10: New Ophone Use Update, Q&As With Steorn)

UPDATE #10 (Feb 12, 2016)

A week 2 update from Rachel Wallace (ogirl) on her ophone use.

https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/10153527793007672/

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Some questions and answers between FB readers and Orbo on the above page:

Interesting Q&A on Facebook about the Ophone (latest update on its use here:https://www.facebook.com/theba… — which according to Steorn here uses a capacitor:

Michael Waskosky: I’m still unsure if this means that the phone is gradually charging the battery all the time or if it has to run out all the way to fully recharge. Or if it is from talking on the phone for a long period of time that causes it to drain all the way, in which case I wonder how long that period if time is?

Orbo: The capacitor that keeps the ophone charged is constantly being charged by Orbo. But during extensive use the capacitor may drain below the level that can power the phone. To fully recharge the capacitor can take several hours, however enough charge to power the phone back on can typically be achieved within several minutes.

Orbo: Hi Darren, the ophone contains a capacitor that directly powers our phone. During extensive use this capacitor may become discharged, however this capacitor is being constantly trickle charged by Orbo. So after a period of time the capacitor will be recharged and the phone will be functional again. In essence the phone is charging itself.

Darren: So the battery meter on the phone is a representation of the charge in the capacitor?

Orbo: Yes

Charlie Stout: How could the battery meter show a full charge after a power down and restart over a period of only a few minutes? If it came back up after a few minutes of trickle charge wouldn’t it only show a low charge?

Orbo: Hi Charlie – the charge characteristics of a capacitor are very different than those of an LI battery. The battery indicator on the ophone is designed for an LI battery, hence it can show fully charged even when the capacitor is not fully charged.

UPDATE #9 (Feb 10, 2016)

I received a copy of this email which was sent by Steorn to someone who had ordered an Orbo O-Cube

“Hello, firstly we would like to apologize for the delay to shipping your ocube. As we are sure you can appreciate, bringing the ocube to production has been a huge task for us all and we are grateful for your support.

We have shipped two ocubes and have received reports back that the lithium ion battery in the devices is charging to somewhere in the region of 8V, which is well in excess of the safe level of 4.2V. As a result, we have had to halt any further shipments while we address this. We are currently testing a new configuration with a battery charge controller; these tests are expected to take another several days. Once we are satisfied that the units are operating as they should we will provide another update concerning shipping etc.

We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to resolve this issue.

Best regards
The Orbo Team”

Many readers are aware that I have received an Ocube myself, but it is one that does not apparently have a Li-ion battery inside (it has a capacitor instead). I did not order that version, and Steorn says they will be sending me a Li-ion battery Ocube free of charge, but it looks like I’ll be waiting along with everyone else for it.

UPDATE #8 (Feb 5, 2016)

First one week update of Ophone use from Rachel Wallace:

https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/10153514200187672/

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UPDATE #7 (Feb 4, 2016)

There’s a new person who’s shown up on the Orbo Facebook page with a video testimonial of Steorn’s “never-die” Orbo Ophone. She’s Jen Roe, a manager of a bar in Dublin who’s been given a Ophone by Steorn to test. She says she’ll be giving weekly updates. Today is her first day of using it.

https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/10153513094212672/

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UPDATE #6 (Jan 31, 2016)

On the Orbo Facebook Page, there’s a video of Rachel Wallace (aka Ogirl) in the first of what she says will be a weekly update using an Ophone — Steorn’s Orbo-powered battery that they say never needs recharging.

https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/10153504632522672/

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Steorn CEO Shaun McCarthy posted this closeup photo of the Ophone on Facebook earlier this week.

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UPDATE #5 (Jan 20, 2016)

Readers here might be wondering what’s going on with Orbo Ocube that Steorn has put on sale (one of which I have ordered). The invoice I received said that the expected shipping date is Jan 24th which is coming up. Today on the Orbo Facebook page someone asked when the expected shipping date would be.

The response from ‘Orbo’ was: “Hi Hans, we expect to have shipping clearance by the end of this week or early next week.”

So hopefully it won’t be too much longer to wait now. I have been preparing for testing the ocube by assembling various items to charge and to measure with. I hope to document the process thoroughly to give an idea of whether Orbo is the revolutionary energy technology Steorn claims it to be. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ll be documenting use of the Ocube, so we should have a good body of evidence in the coming weeks and months.

UPDATE #4 (Dec 22, 2015)

Steorn’s Orbo webstore is now live at http://www.orbo.com. Currently they are selling just the Ocube and the Ophone, however the Ocube now says ‘sold out’.

UPDATE #3 (Dec 9, 2015) Shaun McCarthy has posted a new video on the Orbo Facebook page in which he does a more in-depth demonstration of the Orbo powerpack using an oscilloscope showing that as Shaun McCarthy claims: “Orbo really is is an energy generation technology”

https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/10153398806872672/

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Transcript courtesy of Esa Juhani Ruoho on Vortex-l here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg106369.html
Here’s an excerpt:

“Probably the most interesting aspect to demonstrate that the Orbo power cell is not a traditional battery is that if you short out a traditional battery for an extended period of time, ultimately you drain all or virtually all of the electrochemical energy that’s stored in it. And so, if you short it out and leave it for an extended period of time, remove the short and then measure it, you’ll find that the voltage is either significantly below it’s inherent voltage, or if it’s left long enough, it will be zero. So, in order to demonstrate the fundamental difference between an Orbo power cell and the traditional battery, what we’re going to do is short it out, and we’re going to leave it shorted out approximately 30 minutes, and then demonstrate that the voltage in open-circuit immediately bounces back to this 2.5 odd volts.”

UPDATE #2 (Dec 9, 2015): A project has been announced on a Finnish website called mesenaatti.me (Shadow Camera) to get hold of an Orbo Ocube (purchased through crowd funding) and try and find out how it works.

In an article on their site they state: “We are looking for a funding to our research project. Our goal is to find out how Steorn “free energy device” works. We are collaborating here with researchers from Aalto University, Finland.” https://mesenaatti.me/en/steornin-ikiliikkujatekniikan-tutkimusprojekti/

The research team involved is listed:

Shadow Camera: Timo Tahvanainen, Founder of Shadow Camera
Shadow Camera: Jukka Lantta, Science Editor
Esa Juhani Ruoho: Free energy specialist
Jyrki Kasvi: PhD in Engineering from the Helsinki University, (http://kasvi.org/?page_id=75)
Mikko Möttönen: PhD at Helsinki University of Technology, Postdoc at UC, Berkeley (USA) and UNSW (Australia)
Tapio Ala-Nissilä: Professor Aalto University Department of Applied Physics Multiscale Statistical Physics, Science Department of Applied Physics

It looks like their goal of raising 1200 Euros has been exceeded.

Here’s a trailer produced for the project accompanied by the Camembert Quartet playing “Steornhemian Rhapsody” (from 2006):

UPDATE #1 (Dec 8, 2015): An new article has been published in the Dublin Inquirer here, an online magazine featuring Dublin news, which includes an interview with Shaun McCarthy about the latest developments with Orbo. Here are a few quotes from the article:

SM: “If I was looking from the outside in, I’d say it was absolute horseshit,” said McCarthy. “I’m a trained engineer and if I wasn’t involved in this, I’d say it was total rubbish . . . I know that there has been a lot of stuff written about us on the internet, but that’s just a part of it,” McCarthy says. “This whole thing will be a self-resolving controversy. When the products are out there – it won’t take people long to say whether they work or not.”

SM: “I think what might be happening is that we are splitting time. I know that sounds absolutely nuts but I think that we are using the differences in the magnetic fields to manipulate time and that is leading to the creation of energy.”

“There was one guy working on a steam-cleaner which, McCarthy says, is actually part of a completely separate company called HephaHeat, which is licensed to use Orbo technology in the heating sector.”

SM: “I’d be the worst scam artist in the world,” he says. “I’m always either here in the offices or in Slattery’s. I’d be too easy to find.”

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I have been keeping an eye on the Orbo website — which is actually the Orbo Facebook page — mainly watching the questions and answers that are going on there between readers and Orbo staff. There’s not a huge amount of activity there, but there does seem to be some interest, and unsurprsingly to be quite a bit of incredulity among people who are reading Steorn’s claims about Orbo technology.

In some of the responses from ‘Orbo’ (an unnamed Steorn staff member) there are a few new nuggets of information about the technology. Here are some examples.

Q: Could you put the Orbo tech into a flat form-factor and incorporate it into a smartphone case?

A: Currently Orbo does not have the power to volume ratio to support smart phones, we expect to have a smart phone in the market towards the end of 2016

Q: Does this phone [The Ophone] come with a camera? A microphone. Those would be nice.

A: Nope, just basic call and text functions

Q: Hey! What’s the reason ? That it will never die? Or never need to charge?

A: You will never need to charge an ophone

Q: Why? What’s the reason behind it?

A: Orbo is a completely new type of battery based on the electric field rather than traditional batteries that are based upon chemical release of energy.

Q: Why are you making it so difficult to make a purchase?

A: Hi Joe – a web store will be opened in the next couple of weeks. Until this time orders will be taken via [email protected]

So Steorn is not watering down its very bold and unusual claims, and now they have entered the commercial phase you would expect that any rational company would have to be confident in their technology to make such claims publicly while they are offering products for sale.

So far there are no user testimonials on the Orbo FB page, but as the technology starts to get used, I am sure there will be. As for my own Ocube order that has been generously supported by some ECW readers, there has been a delay in getting payment and shipping information from Steorn, but I have finally received an invoice today, and I hope that I will be able to place an order this week.