Joule Ringer!

[flathunter]

Hi guys,

I had some good results today with my exciter on 1 AA in an emergency charger. I hooked my 10 000 microfarad cap which powers my flyback ringer to an av plug which i joined to a large aluminium toroid suspended above (but not connected to) the secondary of my exciter. When i turned the exciter on, the cap quickly charged and within 10 seconds a 14W CFL or 6 W xenon connected to the output of my ringer would be fully lit - I was very excited by this as usually i cant get the 6W xenon beaker to light with just 1AA in a charger (not with an exciter, or flyback oscillator). But what made me even happier was that i could light two other CFLs at the same time that stood by my exciter. So i had the xenon and 2CFLs fully lit with one tiny battery. On disconnecting the battery the 2CFLs would naturally extinguish, but the xenon continued ringing for the usual extra few minutes.

Lovely! Give it a go lads - hook your caps up to an av plug and connect it to a large metal plate/sphere/toroid hung above your exciter. Your caps will charge fast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH_cyX6pSt8

[hartiberlin]

Well done Flathunter,
maybe you can draw up a schematic diagramm of how you connected it all ?

Many thanks in advance.

Regards, Stefan.

[kooler]

well guys
i have tried a 2000 turn bifilar coil and a 1150 turn with no luck..
those were from my sweet builds..
so i went to my 700 turn.. no luck
400 turn.. just made it today.. no luck.. 30 awg
200 turn 30 awg ..nada
550 turn 22 awg.. big  0 ..
50 turn 26 awg.. nope
best yet is a 1 min run then it blinks for ever..
with just a resistor and cap across.. get the very same results..
the same shit we have been doing for way over 3 years now..
i am tired of over volting the small transistors.. and smoking them..
and then frying the transformers.. they arc bad at 10-12 volts..
this project was a total waste for me..
60 dollars in magnet wire .. and the cost camera's..
i never could get the long run time as lasersaber did..
if you use the fuji camera transformer from a aaa battery camera then it will take 15 volts..


robbie

[lasersaber]

@kooler

"if you use the fuji camera transformer from a aaa battery camera then it will take 15 volts"

I was never able to get much of an effect out of any other transformer other than the Fuji AA.  I have tried fly back coils, HV transformers, other camera transformers and every thing else you can imagine.  With the Fuji AA I was able to run the Joule Ringer from 1V to well over 100V input with no problems.  No my latest work has been in winding my own large E core transformer from scratch.  It's huge, took forever to wind and was worth every once of effort.  If anybody thought my last Joule Ringer videos were cool just wait until see the next update.


@Everybody

Thanks for sharing all your hard work on this.  I enjoyed all you videos and scope shots.

I have an idea for testing the efficiency of the Joule Ringer that should work pretty well.  On my latest unit I can drive it really hard!  It's transformer is really loud and screams and buzzes like it's the end of the world.  I actually find being able to hear this high pitched buzz great for testing.  It's so helpful to be able to hear the frequency loud and clear.  I had this unit driving a large load and pulling a lot of current off the batteries!  When i got it tuned correctly in this configuration I was able to to disconnect the batteries and let the circuit ring.  When tuned correctly It would run along at the same frequency for much longer then I would have expected.  Then after a little while you could hear the frequency change and drop all of a sudden and the lights would dim a little as it dropped out of this optimum range it had been running in.  This made me wonder if we could calculate the efficiency by just comparing it's current draw at a certain frequency while on battery versus it's run time at that same frequency with the same load while disconnected from the batteries.  If my load is half an amp at 30 volts while on batteries and I disconnect the batteries and it keeps ringing that load for any length of time on my 9000uF Cap then I should be able to come up with an approximant efficiency.  I know that technically the frequency will be dropping slowly during that given time but that is something we can easily account for.

[hartiberlin]

I studied some more the basics of capacitors and what we probably have here with the
Joule Ringer is, that the short discharge pulses are just recharged by dielectric absorption:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_absorption

Dielectric absorption is the name given to the effect by which a capacitor that has been charged for a long time discharges only incompletely when briefly discharged. Although an ideal capacitor would remain at zero volts after being discharged, real capacitors will develop a small voltage, a phenomenon that is also called soakage or battery action. For some dielectrics, such as many polymer films, the resulting voltage may be less than 1-2% of the original voltage, but it can be as much as 15 - 25% for electrolytic capacitors or supercapacitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_capacitor#Dielectric_absorption_.28soakage.29

Some types of dielectrics, when they have been holding a voltage for a long time, maintain a "memory" of that voltage: after they have been quickly fully discharged and left without an applied voltage, a voltage will gradually be established which is some fraction of the original voltage. For some dielectrics 10% or more of the original voltage may reappear. This phenomenon of unwanted charge storage is called dielectric absorption or soakage, and it effectively creates a hysteresis or memory effect in capacitors.

The percentage of the original voltage restored depends upon the dielectric and is a non-linear function of original voltage.[2]

In many applications of capacitors dielectric absorption is not a problem but in some applications, such as long-time-constant integrators, sample-and-hold circuits, switched-capacitor analog-to-digital converters, and very low-distortion filters, it is important that the capacitor does not recover a residual charge after full discharge, and capacitors with low absorption are specified[3]. For safety, high-voltage capacitors are often stored with their terminals short circuited.

Some dielectrics have very low dielectric absorption, e.g., polystyrene, polypropylene, NPO ceramic, and Teflon. Others, in particular those used in electrolytic and supercapacitors, tend to have high absorption.


http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondensator_%28Elektrotechnik%29#Temperaturabh.C3.A4ngigkeit

Kondensatortyp                                                     Dielektrische Absorption
Kunststoff-Folienkondensatoren, Polyesterdielektrikum    0,2 bis 0,25 %
Kunststoff-Folienkondensatoren, Polypropylendielektrikum    0,01 bis 0,05 %
Keramikkondensatoren, X7R                                            0,6 bis 1 %
Keramikkondensatoren, Z5U                                            2,0 bis 2,5 %
Aluminium-Elektrolytkondensatoren                                    etwa 10 bis 15 %


So alufoil electrolyte caps can have an automatic  recharge rate of 15 % due to
dielectric absorption !

So it really depends also on what kind of electrolyte capacitor you are using for the Joule Ringer circuit.

It must be a cap that has a high dielectric absorption !