Joule Thief

[plengo]

Another thing I tried was putting a 25 watts LED in series with the input power and at 31v it runs extremely bright at around 1 or 2ma!!! And that is not counting the load LEDS on the secondary of the transformer (coil).


This circuit self-regulates the input current which I think is great, but off course any mistakes you cook your transistors.


I have to buy more transistor now, I burned all my 50 ones.

Fausto.

[NickZ]

  I think that the self charging ability is coming from the capacitors captret effect. But, just like with the captret, the batteries would always eventurally get totally discharged. This is because the capacitor(s) self charging effect could not keep up with more than a single led as the load. 
  Another possible reason of the capacitor's self charging is the capacitive link from your workbench, through your body, etz... and was why Dr. Stiffler always isolated the Exciter circuits from the work tables, and any other possible source of capacitive AC input. Although he did use the house AC wiring's ground connection, which in my opinion is not a good clean ground.  I can light an AV plug off of many things around my house, and also off of my outside earth ground. Could this not be the effect that some of the guys are seeing with this circuit... Yes, NO? The cap is being charged by this capacitive source, but won't keep up with the led bulbs draw, and discharges in a few seconds, or at most a couple of minutes time. So, TURN OFF the house AC breakers to test what happens with the circuit. This will eliminate that very common source of input into the cap, or batteries. There is practically no current in this source of capacitance link, yet leds will still light.
  I'm not saying that that is what LS is seeing, but just beware that this effect can be a source of  input for these circuits, if not isolated from this source of electrical interference.

  Since Lasersaber tested this effect last night at his shed, and is still obtaining some positive results, even without any outside external source of power, there is more to this than what I mentioned above.  So, what is the source of this input??? 

    NickZ

[plengo]

@NickZ,


yes I agree.


Fausto.

[TinselKoala]

TK,

No. The primary and trigger coil is twisted together. It's a normal Joule Thief.
I was just a poor drawing. I do not remember if I posted any coil instruction back then.
I posted this circuit back in 2011 because I wanted to try the two battery mode
to see how long I could run the circuit.

GL.

Ah, thanks. I wonder if it would work at all with the orange coil wound the way the picture seems to suggest, with the lower half wound one way and the other half wound the other way, with the LED windings in the middle. I'll have to unwind one of my toroids and rewind, to find out, I guess.
Thanks for your good work, again, by the way. Your schematics are great and have helped me a lot.

[TinselKoala]

Ah... even if I pull the house breakers, I still can't get more than about 30 meters from power lines. They are all around me, strung overhead and even underground. I might have to make up a "portable lab" and take a trip out to a more rural location.... they'll probably think I'm a spy or terrorist or something.....