Is joule thief circuit gets overunity?

[TinselKoala]

(snip) To maintain the recharging, I am doing the stupid manual procedure.  Watch the Battery Voltage – if it goes up, leave it alone.  If it goes down, take it out.  Let it rest and recharge another rechargeable battery.  Such a process works some of the time but no guarantee.....

In other words, I have not mastered the exact mechanism controlling the recharging or draining.  I sow seeds.  I observed the phenomena.  I shall let others do more research and find the answer.

It looks like more resources from Hong Kong and China are likely.

In other words.... you are not letting any experiment run its course, you are fiddling and fooling around.  Try this: use your boards to charge up a previously depleted battery "from 1.26V to 1.4V while lighting the LED." Then take that battery and a second battery, hook them both up to simple circuits made from an LED and a 1k resistor. See which battery fails (dim LED)  first.
The "second battery" should be a FRESH NEW battery of the same type, that you have prepared by _discharging only_, using a resistor + LED load, until it reads the same 1.4 volts open-circuit.

Here we are testing whether the "1.4 volts" attained on a Lead-Out-Charged battery represents the same ENERGY CONTENT as "1.4 volts" from a battery that is treated in an ordinary way.

Voltage is not energy, power is not energy, current is not energy. Energy is conserved. The others, not so much.

[TinselKoala]

(snip)
The current is really going in both directions as can be seen on the oscilloscope trace.  That is why I can demonstrate the recharging of a rechargeable AA battery for awhile – from 1.26V to 1.4V while lighting the LED.  However, the recharging can change to draining.  To maintain the recharging, I am doing the stupid manual procedure.  Watch the Battery Voltage – if it goes up, leave it alone.  If it goes down, take it out.  Let it rest and recharge another rechargeable battery.  Such a process works some of the time but no guarantee.....

(snip)

Say the battery is at 1.32 volts. Will it be charging, or discharging? How can the circuit tell whether to charge or discharge? The waveform at 1.32 volts "charging" is the same as the waveform at 1.32 volts "discharging", isn't it? Can you show any difference?

[TinselKoala]

For your amusement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFOhTU-bt0

[ingyenenergiagep]

"I've found that of the hundred or more of the conventional JTs that I've made, the average efficiency is between 40 to 70 percent.  I've not seen any above that.  OLn the other hand, my Supercharged Joule Thief is about double the efficiency of the conventional JT."

Yellow toroid with 4cm diameter, 90 turn coil, low loss BY299 diode, 2N3055 or BD241 transistor. 40mA, 95% efficiency on 12V battery. Higher amp, lower eff.

[ltseung888]

"I've found that of the hundred or more of the conventional JTs that I've made, the average efficiency is between 40 to 70 percent.  I've not seen any above that.  OLn the other hand, my Supercharged Joule Thief is about double the efficiency of the conventional JT."

Yellow toroid with 4cm diameter, 90 turn coil, low loss BY299 diode, 2N3055 or BD241 transistor. 40mA, 95% efficiency on 12V battery. Higher amp, lower eff.

How did you measure the efficiency?  Did you use a DSO?