Fan manages to run DOOM thanks to the power of hundreds of potatoes

YouTube user Equalo proposed a project to run DOOM on a Raspberry Pi Zero, a small computer made up of a memory unit, a processing unit, some input and output ports, among other features. In short, it is capable of running DOOM by connecting on a screen.

This had already been achieved before, but the interesting thing is that the user would enhance this device with potatoes, something apparently never done before. In case you don’t know, potatoes contain phosphoric acid, so when it comes into contact with any material that contains zinc, it will start to undergo a chemical reaction that produces energy that is normally dissipated in the environment. However, the potato also contains electrolytes and potassium, which makes the energy flow throughout the tuber.

Equalo thought of a Raspberry Pi Zero, since it only uses 100 to 120 mA and 5 V to work and taking into account that potatoes do not provide as much current. To achieve maximum performance, the user spent about 1 full day cooking potatoes.

Later, with the help of his wife and a friend and after several days, Equalo managed to connect in an arrangement around 200 potatoes or 700 pieces that had their own zinc nail and a copper terminal.

Unfortunately, the experiment did not work as the potatoes apparently did not give the required current to display DOOM on the screen. Equalo was disappointed, because all the work would literally go to waste soon, because the potatoes were spoiling and he could not find a solution. After almost 5 days he thought about using a graphing calculator instead of a Raspberry Pi Zero, as it would use less power.

Finally, even though the potatoes were in a major decomposition phase, the user managed to run DOOM on the graphing calculator powered by almost 200 potatoes and you can check the results below.