Selfrunning cold electricity circuit from Dr.Stiffler

[k4zep]

Dear Non-Classical Researchers,

Here is an example of a Thomas Driver operating 65 (out of 92 avaliable) very old LED's that have been soldered to a Radio Shack circuit board (Cat No. 276-170) elevated a full 3" above the bread board. The Ferrite Antenna Loop stick is elevated 1.25" above the bread board as well. The switching transistor is a 2N4101 (it gets hot). Feedback capacitor is Silver Mica 56pf. Starting Resistor is 220K. The "primary" winding is 9 turns of #24 AWG magnet wire. Using a 12 volt 6.2 Ahr Gel Battery decoupled with 1.0, 0.1, and .01uF poly capacitors. AV diodes are IN4148. Analog DC supply current 70 mA. (Take that reading with a grain of salt since this is a DC meter - RF meter coming) The 190pF collector to ground bybass capacitor has been omitted.

No claims of OU or effective operating power levels are made here, just that this circuit will illuminate several LED's without the complication of parasitic capacitance introduced by the bread board. Such was not the case with my early experiments with this technology just a few weeks ago. Apparently the Thomas Driver can provide a power level sufficient enough to swamp the observable effects of the distributed capacitance that were experianced in the past.

Submitted for your consideration,

Spokane1

[b

Nice work Spokane1, 

With different value capacatance feedback in the base circuit, it will pump a lot more power (and can be tuned for max output at a given voltage) than that but the stable low power circuit is great as a teaching/learning tool!  Above a watt, you need to use a heat sink. You can put a variable cap of say 20-250 pf in the base to gnd and it works like a variable power control as the 2 Caps act like a RF voltage divider.  More cap in the base, less power out.  With the PN100 transistor and correct value of cap, you can easily get the same output with 2-3VDC input!  It will work very well on ONE 1.5 alkaline battery.   It is very easy to boost power till you release all the silicon smoke in the transistor.........Oh, silver mica is most excellent as the Cap. in the base circuit. So much to tell, so much to learn and I am 700 miles from my 2X4
lab but the Punkin Pie was great just a min ago!.....

K4ZEP Ben Thomas][/b]

[plengo]

@EMdevices

...(remember the model is approximate.  There is what is know as distributed parameters, like in that link you posted on transmission lines, and that's what the transmission lines are.   However here we're operating at sub wavelengths so we don't have to invoke reflection coefficients just yet, but we're at high enough frequencies where interesting resonances can occur,  resonances which we didn't consider at lower frequencies)

Thank you so much EMdevices. Now I know I am talking to the right "mind". That is exactly what I thought is happening with my experiment. Some resonance because of stray capacitance in ONLY one wire and the spoll (or my body) is the sink where the electrons can flow momentarily because of the diapole generated by the FuncGen. I do not need to see the other "wire" anywhere, one wire is all that is necessary because of the high frequency being so fast allowing the electrons to move just enough trough the LEDs to light them up.

But here is my twist to the story: is it possible to decouple the signal from the FuncGen from its power so that I still could reproduce the experiment and know for sure that power would not be coming from the FG as a current of any amount and still have the LEDs light? In other words, is it possible to decouple the FG from the LEDs still using one wire and no current coming from the FG?

Fausto.

ps: I am NOT trying to deviate from Dr. Stiffler experiments in anyway. The reason I am doing this and asking those questions is because I am trying to understand Drs experiments and eliminate each variable so that I can know for sure what is what and how each part works. I believe that the one wire transmission is crucial for SEC to work as I can see all the LEDs after the secondary coming from one wire.

What I am trying to find out now what is that energy from the oscilator and could I reproduce it independent of its amplification without having to create my own oscilator thus using a Func Gen.

Second, is the source of the energy or power happening because the effect of this "Stray Capacitance - Resonance" or there is more to it?

Third, how amplification really works? So many variables. So I am eliminating one by one, trying to understand each one and them I will most probably be back where Dr. Stiffler is already BUT with much more understanding than just replicating his ideas.

[derricka]

As promised, I have now created a printed circuit drawing for the Thomas oscillator that you can use for your own NON COMMERCIAL USE.
This has not yet been reviewed, so if you are timid, do not build this unless you are willing to make your own modifications, at least until revision 1.
For those of you experienced with PCB layouts, please take a look, and let me know if you spot any problems, missing traces etc.
All artwork and an explanation document are contained in the file ThomasPCB.zip (attached)

Enjoy,
DerrickA

P.S. The drawing below will probably show up about twice the size of the actual circuit board. (2X)  This board can fit up to 80 LED's  (yellow circles).

[plengo]

@DerrickA
Beautifull work. Thank you.

[amigo]

I figured I should report some of my findings since I thought it is interesting and others might find it useful.

I have wound my own coil using the same ferrite stick like the original one from the AM radio. I found these ferrite sticks at an electronic surplus store, they did not come with any windings of their own. I am including numbers for those craving for them, heck I even measured current from the battery as a kick.

The primary  (L2 as per original schematic) is approximately 10' of 30 AWG with value on core of ~580 uH, on top of which is the secondary (L3) about 9 turns of 23 AWG with value of 5 uH. Secondary is wound snug but can be moved around (using your fingernails) and my photos will demonstrate why.

Sorry for somewhat blurry photos, I'm trying to do a quick and dirty job here, not do Vogue photography.

What's important to note is the position of the secondary (L3, 9T 23 AWG). If you observe in the second photo it is at the top of the coil, closest to the collector and as you can see LEDs do not light up at all. So let's start the tuning.

If we move it a bit towards the center of the coil, the LEDs start to light up, current drops a bit. We move it at the center and current goes up slightly and LEDs light up brighter as before.

So if you thought to stop there, don't, continue moving cause interesting thing happens. Next step is slightly off the center towards the bottom of the coil (+ feed) and the LEDs bright up even more while current dips down. Move a bit more and the LEDs are now really burning up in brightness while the current is at its lowest. Move further down and the current goes up a bit and LEDs ever slightly dim (so not as bright as in the sweet spot) yet pretty bright never the less.

I know you can't see this clearly from my photos so you'll have to take my word for it and try it on your own as well.

Please note that there is no HV effect in these tests - I do not get the neon lamp to light up at all. I believe that is because I have not reached necessary inductance in the primary coil similar to the original coil. I do not have a smaller wire available to me at the moment but I feel that if the primary is wound with ~33 AWG it could reach 800 uH or more and we might see those HV effects come back. That is my next step.

For now you got something to play with...