PIEZOELECTRIC SHOE

Step 1: PARTS AND TOOLS

The following lists are divided into 2 categories. The first category consists of things you NEED
to complete the project, while the other list consists of things that are very HELPFUL.

Things that you NEED:

1. Shoes
2. Piezo electric elements (x14)
3. Rechargeable battery pack w/ charger(x1)
 4. Hot glue gun w/ hot glue
5. Soldering iron + solder
6. Foam/cardboard/anything you can squish
7. Access to a 3D printer
8. 1n4001 - 1N4007 Diodes (x4)

Things that are HELPFUL:

1. Dremel tool
2. Helping hands
3. Velcro strips (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
4. Multimeter
5. heat gun (if taking apart CFL bulb)
6. ruler/caliper
7.

Step 2: HOW DOES IT WORK?!

In order to fully appreciate the science behind this project, it is helpful to understand how it
works. Essentially, the main power source that makes this project possible is something called a
piezoelectric transducer (I know, its a mouthful). Piezo electric transducers, or piezo elements,
are comprised of materials such as crystals and certain ceramics that have a special property
which allows them to convert physical energy into AC electricity. Fortunately, we can take
advantage of this special property by putting piezo elements underneath our feet in such a way
that every time we take a step, we are using our weight to push on the piezo electric elements-
which then in turn convert that energy into electricity. The only issue with this, however is that
we need DC, not AC in order to power our stuff. We can solve this problem by creating a bridge
rectifier with diodes to convert the AC power to DC power we can use.

Step 3: MEASURING YOUR SHOE AND PRINTING THE

FILES
Step 4: GLUING THE PIEZO ELEMENTS
Once we have finished creating the base for our piezoelectric generator, its time to hot glue them
on. I found that the best technique to glue the elements to the board was to apply a thin layer of
glue around the edge of the hole in the plastic, then quickly pressing the piezo element onto the
glue before it cools. Be careful not to apply too much glue, or else you may restrict the foam
pads (which will be glued on top of the piezo elements) from fully compressing. Also, make sure
the glue does not cover the contact points of the black or red wires, because we will be soldering
to these points soon. Make sure you glue piezo elements on both sides of the plastic. If you have
a multimeter, you can ensure that your piezo elements work by setting the multimeter to AC
volts and pressing on the piezo. After you have glued all of the piezo in their appropriate spots,
you can then glue the foam/cardboard pieces onto each piezo element.

Step 5: SOLDERING THE PIEZO ELEMENTS

TOGETHER
Although piezo elements generate plenty of voltage, they do not generate many amps. We can
solve this issue by wiring the all the piezo elements in parallel (in other words, the positives are
always soldered to each other and the negatives are always soldered to each other). In this way,
we will be able to increase the amount of amps and consequently charge our devices faster. In
order to prevent wires from braking off of the solder joints, use hot glue to fasten part of the wire
in place so that the stress on the wires is not enacted upon the solder joint. You can connect the
piezo elements from one side of the plastic to the other by threading the wires of one of the piezo
elements through the holes so that they can be soldered in parallel to a piezo on the other side.
Once all of the piezo elements on the heel piece are wired in parallel, solder the last piezo in the
chain to one of the piezo elements on the toe piece, and continue to solder the piezos in parallel
until all 14 elements are connected.
Step 6: TAKING APART CFL BULB FOR PARTS
1. Go outside with a screwdriver or some sort of tool capable of prying things apart, and sit
in the grass or some other soft material. By doing this, you can significantly lower your
chances of braking the glass tube, which contains poisonous substances that you don't
want to mess with.
2. Locate the seam by which the two plastic halves of the CFL bulb are connected, and
begin to carefully pry the two pieces apart with your screwdriver.
3. Once the bulb has split apart, you will notice that the PCB inside is being held back by
two wires connected to the lightbulb's metal base. You can either cut these off like a
civilized person or do what I did, which was to continually pull until the wires broke off.
 4. Most likely, your CFL bulb will contain 6-8 round, black diodes with gray stripes on
them to indicate their positive ends. However, if you are like me, your diodes are
rectangular prisms, not round, and have engravings on one end to mark the positive side.
5. Once you have located the diodes, you can take them off by heating up the solder with
your soldering iron and pulling the diodes away. If you have a heat gun, you can take the
diode off much easier by applying heat all around the diode so both sides of the diode can
be pulled away at the same time. Remember, you only need to get 4 of the diodes in order
to create our AC to DC converter.

Step 7: BUILDING/WIRING THE BRIDGE RECTIFIER

BUILDING THE BRIDGE RECTIFIER:

Ok, so for those of you who do not know how to read a circuit diagram, those 4 line segments
with arrows on them represent diodes. The arrows always point to the side of the diode that is
marked, also known as the positive side. If you have small, rectangular diodes like me, the
positve sides are not marked by coloration, but rather small, engraved lines/notches. By
following this diagram, you should be able to create the bridge diode.

WIRING THE BRIDGE RECTIFIER:

1. Wire the piezo element wires to the bridge diode according to the circuit diagram. Since
the current is AC, the position of the wires are interchangeable, as long as they connect to
the correct diodes in the diagram.
2. Strip the usb charge cable that came with your battery pack to reveal the internal wires.
3. For the purpose of this project, we will only need the red and black wires, so strip those
as well.
4. Twist the frayed wire strands of each wire, and tin them with solder
5. Solder the wires to the bridge diode accordingly. Be sure to check polarity since DC
voltage has positive and negative terminals.
6. Hot glue the connections to prevent the wires from breaking off.

Step 8: INSTALLATION AND FINISHING TOUCHES

Once we have finished wiring the piezoelectric generator, we are ready to install it! All you need
to do is slip the plastic piezoelectric generator inside of your shoe, then insert the original sole on
top of it. Take the USB cable wired previously and thread it between tongue and the outside of
your shoe as shown in the pictures above. In order to mount the battery, stick it between the
tongue of the shoe and the laces and tie your shoes tightly.

X
SIDDHARTH SHANKER
TECHNICAL HEAD

September 4, 2019