potato battery (thanks mikey and boomstick)
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=15yn4i&s=7
mostly a success. even though we generated more than enough wattage to power a 3v device, the device would only turn on (beep) for a brief second. using the multimeter i took readings as the device was turned on and the draw was so much that the reading of 4+ watts would drop to around .350 watts. I think this is the other reason for the instructions saying to use a 1w clock. Try finding one of those now days. We never did.