Single AA battery to light WHITE LED for long-long time

[turbo]

I knew I should've bought a microscope long time ago...now that this micro-spark gap is needed it would've come handy. Though I think we need a metallurgical microscope instead of biological one (which I was looking to buy).

What kind of material should the spark gap be made from and should it be encased in an evacuated capsule?

Feynman, sorry to hear about the drive crash, I hope you didn't lose any important data...

Hi,

I usually use the fillings of pencils.
You can buy them in diffrent diameter and i believe they are graphite.
You can also use normal pencils but the refill pencil fillings work best.

As i remember the miniature spark gap is located across (neon) or behind (led's) the load and it is connected to a long arial.
You also need to switch in some diodes to prevent the current from flowing back, splitting the positive.
When you use a cap de discharge rate goes down but the voltage goes up.
You can charge the cap via the A-plug or just in a closed loop.
I do not know what is so special about the Stiffler circuit and why it is called like this because these things are known for 100's of years.
The more fine turns you use ,the better the result.
This is because the inductor acts as accellerator and raises the voltage,
You can see dramatic improvement when there is a spark in the circuit.
The lights will become brilliant and i always notice they are lighting up diffrently as in more beauty.

M.

[Feynman]

Marco's idea is great.

I just tested the resistence of No. 2   0.7mm graphite from a mechanical pencil, and the resistance is much less than 10 Ohms per cm.  Probably closer to 1 Ohm per cm or less, but my test equipment doesn't go that low.   I effectively see zero resistance, so mechanical pencil graphite is like wire more or less.


Btw, hard drive is back up.  More to come soon on weekend experiments.  I will post the 555 timer program tonite.

[amigo]

Thanks for the tips marco, hopefully we'll be able to put them to use.

The long aerial might be a problem for me though, living on the top floor of an apartment building I am not sure my landlord will appreciate me stringing wire across the building. It even might not be safe during thunderstorms...hehe I can already see the headlines "Apartment building burned down - wannabe mad scientist apprehended."

[amigo]

I tried using the AM radio coil from the Stiffler experiments and the circuit works with it as well, oscillating at 500KHz+. Actually I had it going at 2.1MHz or something like that, but that could've been a harmonic as well. LEDs did not light up at 2.1MHz though and looking at the 500KHz they still do not look as bright as with my other circuit where I use the tiny ferrite bead and a N-FET. Definitely something to do with N-FET boosting the output...

[zon]

My latest trial circuit revision 05, quite bright, quite longer lit

It's different result between circuit with antenna-ground to earth and without antenna-grounded.
Circuit with antenna-ground to earth, battery drain slowest than circuit without antenna-ground to earth.
For the first four hours after attaching antenna-ground to earth, infact the battery increase voltage in milivolt, after that batttery drain very slowly
Anybody,  have the reason for this phenomenon ?

zon