Joule Thief

[nievesoliveras]

.
.
.
Jesus:

That sounds like a very interesting circuit.  Do you have a schematic you could post of your idea?

Bill

I modified the cfl original circuit on the graphic. It shows the idea I have been trying to implement.

Jesus

[Pirate88179]

@ All:

I found this over on hackaday.com.  It is a pcb board project without the board.  I think this idea might help us get the Fuji circuit as small as possible.  If anyone is interested, I can come back and add the link but it is over on their site.  ***EDIT*** Link:http://hackaday.com/2011/03/31/pcbs-without-any-substrate/

@ Jesus:

Thanks.  That looks to be very interesting.

Bill

[nievesoliveras]

Jesus

I hope that you post more about this circuit

gary

The other circuit that converts 1.5v to 12 volts is on the feedback to the source topic.

Jesus

[nievesoliveras]

@ All:

I found this over on hackaday.com.  It is a pcb board project without the board.  I think this idea might help us get the Fuji circuit as small as possible.  If anyone is interested, I can come back and add the link but it is over on their site.  ***EDIT*** Link:http://hackaday.com/2011/03/31/pcbs-without-any-substrate/

@ Jesus:

Thanks.  That looks to be very interesting.

Bill

Very cool!!!

[electricme]

@Protonmom,

use instead a Variable Resistor and adjust for brightness vs amp draw and find the sweet spot.
/quote]

Bills right too, remove the resistor that is on the base of the transistor, for arguments sake lets say it is 1000ohm, then get a 5000 ohm pot or Tpot (miniture pot, adjustable by screwdriver) solder the base leg of the transistor to the center leg of the pot, and solder one of the outer legs of the pot to the other end where the resistor used to be going to.

If the results are dissapointing, use a 2.5k pot, you might find you would need a much higher resisterance pot.

Once you have it working, and know the resistance which is to your satisfaction, measure the resistance with the multimeter, and substitute the pot for that value resistor, later on you could put in a 3 position switch and use it as a on/off switch, Low to Hi brightness, lots of possabilities there.
 
To get the "sweet" spot as Bill calls it, rotate the pot shaft up or down a few times until your CFL is at the brightness level you want, at the same time look at the current draw from the battery, it will probably be a bit of a compromise between current and CFL brightness.

jim