Joule Lamp

[NickZ]

   I've really really miss this thread, as it has gone dormant.  I'm still working on my Solar Exciter Joule Lamp circuits, now lighting several 65 watt Cfl bulbs. I'll upload some pictures soon.
  But, I came across these Led bulbs today at Ebay, at only $1.42 each, 262 Leds in them, and I thought,  what a deal. They produce 650 lumens, so I think that these are the best bang for the buck, that I've seen yet.
  Check them out:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/E14-E27-G4-13W-263-LED-Warm-White-Cold-White-110V-220V-12V-Light-Bulb-Lamp-/110915987877?_trksid=p4340.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D7%26meid%3D2285308848695520876%26pid%3D100010%26prg%3D1004%26rk%3D4%26sd%3D300722284830%26
 
  Edit.
  It seams to be a price error, as they are really about $10 each, so not a great deal as I had thought. Anyways...

[Pirate88179]

Nick:

Still not a bad deal at $10 as far as I can see.  650 lumens is pretty good.  I have a 700 lumen led new tech. type bulb that cost like $30 us.  I am almost afraid to play with it as it is very bright on mains juice.

Bill

[NickZ]

  I think that having an led bulb that can replace the amount of light brightness or lumen that we are used to having, but that uses much less current is still worth going for.  It's just that most led lights really don't do the job. Unless like to mentioned you pay $30 for them.
I'm hoping that within another year or so led lighting will be much more affordable. So far though, the Cfls are much cheaper for the same amount of light they provide, and when gutted they can be dimmed, and also come in warm white, plus they spread the light out evenly with no shadows.

[Lynxsteam]

Nick,

LaserSaber showed a JR 3.0 where instead of connection to the emmiter from the bulb swap it to the collector.  I tried it on my LJL and it works just fine.  I can't believe with all the crazy stuff I tried I didn't accidentally do that.  Some months ago another experimenter showed this and I can't remember who it was.
Anyway, I can light CFL bulbs and incandescent bulbs fully bright and beyond off the aircore, whereas before it pushed the reversed biased transistor to its limit.  The transistor would get too hot with these bulbs.
Not sure lighting Incandescent bulbs this way makes sense, CFL bulbs I can understand because they are so low cost and consume very little power.
Nothing wrong with the ferrite rod, just good to know the aircore will work too.
I may try a mini aircore to see what it will do with the circuit.  I'll design for one spool of Radio Shack 30 awg and some common bell wire and see if it wont do the job.
The Big aircore I made is a beast and will turn bulbs on like a blaze.  But no-one is going to want to build something that big.

Nick, one other note.  To light the CFL fully bright with the turns I use I needed to up the voltage to 18-20 volts DC.  If you purpose wind the aircore for CFLs you can design for whatever voltage you want.  Just drop the number of primary turns or increase the secondary turns.  There you go, fully bright CFLs.

[NickZ]

   The hang-up that I have lighting Cfls to full brightness, is that my transistors will not take even 12volts without overheating.
If I increase the turns on the primary, the light output drops. I already have about 600 700 turns on the secondary. And instead of going more turns, I'm looking for a much smaller transformer, or inverter set up.  Ferrite is the answer in any case, as without it the coil has to be much much bigger. 
  Radio Shack here does not have the 2n3055, so I bought a couple of their smaller TIP 3055 which are actually MJE 3055T instead. I could not get them to give a wireless output on my Exciter circuits, although they will work when they are wired to the Cfl. But, I'll give them a try with my version of a smaller 3 inch ferrite rod wound similar to what LS is showing.
  The advantage of going with the incandescent bulbs is their quality of light, which to me is much nicer than what leds or Cfls give off. Yes, it costs more to produce good brightness with those bulbs, but if it's a free source of power coming from solar panels, doesn't matter, much. I'd rather had less light of better quality, than brighter obnoxious lights.  Warm whites are easier to put up with, in anycase, and bugs aren't as attacked to them,  like they are to bright florescent bulbs or leds.
I've got lots of Cfls of all sizes up to 65 watts, so I'm trying to find a way to light them, wireless Exciters have been fun and different,  but I don't see them as better or more efficient over all.  yet.   I was hoping that many bulbs could be feed off of one big exciter, but there are also limitations with each additional bulb added to the circuit. I'm still hoping to find the way of getting more light with each added bulb, like the Doc had mentioned when using Leds, instead of less getting less light with each additional bulb, as is happening now.

  Lasersaber's  last 3.0 version is a winner,  cheap to build, only one component, one ferrite coil, no noise, and it can be made bigger, or down sized, also.  Hard to beat.
  Thanks, Lasersaber.

   And LynxSteam,  good to hear back from you again.  Really been missing your input and tests, lately.