3v OU Flashlight

[Hoppy]

on rigol scopes the ground is not isolated, so connecting one is the same as connecting both.  (and most inexpesnsive digital scopes)

This is not best practice and can give anomalous readings. I'll leave you to find out why, as I'm not here to enter into a discussion on how and how not to use a scope. I accept that its unlikely to make much difference in this particular case, given that the circuit is already full of anomalies!

[TinselKoala]

It was always obvious that a button cell powered boost converter can power two LEDs for a long time.

...but what was that thing at 8:30 ?!

Obvious to you and me perhaps, but evidently not so obvious to a lot of other people.

.... and haven't you ever seen a Naked Troll before? ....

[TinselKoala]

This is not best practice and can give anomalous readings. I'll leave you to find out why, as I'm not here to enter into a discussion on how and how not to use a scope. I accept that its unlikely to make much difference in this particular case, given that the circuit is already full of anomalies!

Very true all of that.

The circuit does have substantial HF components in the signal though, because of the fast rise and fall times of the output of the MC34063, and is radiating a tiny little bit of power in the RF, so for quantitative readings, and to assure isolation from mains pickup, the probes both should be properly grounded of course.

[TinselKoala]

I suppose I should explain the alt.snakeoil Video Report.

Stefan left a comment on the video and I replied; I'll repost it here just for the record.

Stefan said,

Hi TK, so where did you hide the battery ?
Where do you think Akula hides his battery in the Latern circuit as he shows at the end, that no capacitor contains a battery...hmm, do you think he has cut and pasted his videos and exchanged parts during the edits ? His last videos seemed to be filmed in one go though....hmm...so where do you think he has hidden something...?

And I replied,

It's a single CR2016 flat coin cell, just taped to the underside of the board and connected by short bits of magnet wire, making contact when the weight of the board presses them together. The battery is smaller than a US quarter dollar coin and as thin as a dime. The thing ran all night long with brilliant LEDs, over eight hours, on that little battery. It finally stopped running when the battery open-circuit voltage was about 2.6 volts. The MC34063 chip is amazing and very versatile.

In some of Akula's videos the board has several potentiometers, and two, but not all, of the pots have their cases soldered to the ground rail of the circuit, as Hoppy discovered. It would be very easy to put batteries inside the cases of these dummy pots, making contact with the case to the negative pole and running the positive out one of the three regular potentiometer leads or with a tiny wire invisible on the video..

Recently we have seen a video from someone else, who demonstrates power wires that are just very thin magnet wire. Smaller than #30 or #32 can't be seen in most video resolutions.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the precise waveforms he showed, with the spike train and the sinusoid. The chip in my build makes some strange waveforms, it is true, so maybe I just haven't gotten all the parameters right yet. I'm not ready to dismiss the waveform as fake. I think most of Akula's circuits work just as he has described and demonstrated -- they are proper Red Herrings -- and the only thing I think is faked is the running without outside or stored power.

Thanks for watching... and for not "dissing" the demonstration!
(The installed battery can even be recharged quite a bit, by hooking up the external power supply for a few minutes.)

[tysb3]

@ Tk
do it & show it. why you wasting the time in what you dont belive?