Lidmotor's Penny circuit help needed.

[TinselKoala]

By the way... the silly thing is _still oscillating_ although the LEDs have long gone out. The battery voltage (cheap AG3/LR41) is indicating 0.340 V and the peaks of the collector waveform are at about 1500 mV, and a frequency of 522 kHz. The duty cycle has increased to about 20-25 percent HI.

EDIT: Sorry about that... it's 0.340 VOLTS or 340 mV.

[Legalizeshemp420]

   Now if we could only tap into those oscillations to do something with.

[TinselKoala]

Hmmm..... Still oscillating......
Collector peaks 1540 mV, frequency 520 kHz, duty cycle 18 -20 percent HI....
battery voltage 0.341 V ..........

EDIT: Sorry, I meant VOLTS, 0.341 V not mV. My bad, not enough coffee....


Too bad the LEDs aren't lit. The only "output" is some very weak RF, and there must be a tiny bit of dissipation in the resistor, capacitor and transistor.

[Legalizeshemp420]

Man, I need the rest of my tools so I can breadboard up the thing so I can see what you are seeing.  I have all of the parts just not the inductance meter and probably will not have for a month.  Once I get everything I need to see what can be done with those oscillations.  If you want to continue on with the research please do because, as I said, I am hog tied at the moment.

My biggest question about this is what would happen with the 1.2nf cap if it were still in it?  Don't touch it and lets see how much longer she runs but with the removal of the cap I am unsure what that did if for better or for worse.

[TinselKoala]

Just grab a toroid or ferrite bar and wind 20+20 turns on it. You might not get exactly 520 mH but you will at least get something that you can fool around with while you wait for your meter to arrive.

It's still oscillating.
Collector peaks 1520 mV, 502 kHz, 19 percent HI
Battery voltage back down to 0.340 V. (Measured with the Simpson 464 DMM, pretty accurate)

EDIT: I had "mV" here, of course it's Volts, 340 milliVolts or 0.340 V.

How I found the right winding: I had that toroid, wound with some 22 gauge magnet wire, but it measured over a milliHenry. So I unwound it, measured the wire length, and then rewound it, and measured its inductance turn-by-turn by scraping off bits of the enamel so I could get a contact with the meter probe clips. Then when I had the right inductance I took the wire back off the toroid, measured the same length of the green plastic insulated #22 solid, doubled it, and wound the two windings at the same time onto the toroid. I had to trim an inch or so at the end of the process to get to exactly 520 uH per winding -- and it turned out to be 20 turns each winding, and they filled the toroid's inner diameter exactly. Coincidence?