Joule Thief

[drodenbe]

Every one.  I apologize  if we got a bad start.  I agree about the skepticism.  I will address your question on the angry bit.  I have been in this field since I was twelve.  Had my ham radio license at that time and then my 1st class radio telephone license then several tech schools then collage and my BSEE.  Not saying all this as to gloat but just to let you know some back ground.  You came across to me as I was a young man just entering the field and you were putting your arm around me and going take me under your wing.     I have built a great many circuits from youtube and the like only, to find no success.  I have watched over the years many people from Eng. and Professors share there work only to have it tore down and ridiculed to the point that they quit and go back to there research.  So I thought at first that I was going to be in the same boat so I was a little jumpy so to speak.  Again I Apologize to all.  Now that I hope I have redeemed my self I will start over and I do welcome criticism. Just needed to know how it was being given if you can understand.  I do know about measurements and not to jump to conclusions.  Many times I have come out of the lab with a smile on my face and a rooster strut only to come back in the morning to see my experiments failed and back to the drawing board.  Forgive me if I came across wrong.  As I said earlier Myself and my Friend who is also a retired Eng. from a different company have been working on a free runner for a long time and I may have been more excited about the find than I should have been.  I am sure if you are like me,  There is absolutely no one or very few people that understands what I am saying when I speak of inductive reactance, impedance etc.  They just look at you and think your nuts!  So!!!  I hope this helps and would like to start over!!

In starting over I want to say this.  I posted my findings with the hopes that others would build this up and see if thy could make it better or offer some input.  I don't know everything and I will be the first to tell you this.  Also I have found that in the field of Free Energy you can take the degrees and use it in the bathroom for something useful.  Most of what I have learned in this field has been hard because the education gets in the way.  I have a Friend that has two Eng. degrees one in chemical and one in Electrical and he does not believe in this stuff and if I want to get a good flagellation verbally then all I have to do is mention what I am doing.  He will be at my door with his own equipment and insist on making his own measurements.  I have got him several times because he says that this is not possible and cant believe what he is seeing.  Me either. 

Ok I am re-posting my work It is just something I threw together from my notes.  So in the next few days I will post pictures and more data.  I will also do the supercap test.  I need to make a new coil at the proper impedance to fit the cap.  It is rather large. It is a 4700f at 2.7volts.  I will include data, pictures and schematics.  I hope someone else will build this. 

Also I might add that before I posted I got conformation from my friend that his circuit was also working as mine.  So it looks like it is repeatable.  Time will tell.  We have a skype lab meeting  every day to compare work and pass prints, data, and pcb artwork back and forth.  We usually try to work on different projects so we don't do redundant work.  If we find something we each build the project to see if it is repeatable or if we should put it on the shelf of pretty things that don.t work!

well I have rambled on enough and so lets build some stuff!!!      

[drodenbe]

Hello    stprue

I bought my caps from ebay.  They are a package of 7 2700f at 2.7 volts.  They were taken out of service as I understand it from semi trucks used as battery backup cold start units.  They sold for $149.00 plus shipping.  I looked around for several weeks trying to find something cheaper.  I too know about funds as I am retired.  No $30.00 an hour anymore! Have just enough to pay bills and a little left over for my hobby.  Which ain't cheap!  This looked to me to be the best deal.  Maybe some has come up with a better price since.  I have had them for a few months.  I took one cap out of the bunch and installed the rest with voltage taps in a nice Cabinet.  I fused the taps for 15 amps each.  This thing takes over 60 amps to charge if you put 12 volts directly across it at 0 charge.  I used my 80 amp battery eliminator/charger to get the first charge.  Then a smaller charger will top off when needed.  The other single cap I use for the joule thief projects.   This is the one I will wind the coil for!  Ps you can get 10f at 2.7 volts at Digi-key.  The number is 589-1002-ND.  They are 3.068 if you buy 10.  I bought 10 and put 5 in series to make a 13.5 volt super test cap for the bench. I put two on one board with terminals.  If I need 24 volts I just series them.  Works great.

[conradelektro]

@drodenbe: thank you for forgiving my high handed approach. Your claim sounds so far out, that I though you are one of the people who do not know how to measure a dynamic circuit reliably.

I do not have any credentials in electronics besides the fact, that I built many Joule Thief type circuits and some pulse motors I encountered in this and other similar forums. Look at what I have posted (the pictures will suffice) and you will see, that I do not lack enthusiasm. And I also try to measure carefully as I learned from people who know better than me. Well, I am retired and do this as a hobby.

I will start replicating your circuit tomorrow (since it is now almost 23:00 where I live).

My plan is to make a cardboard tube with a length and diameter which allows to slide an AA battery or recharge type (of similar size) into it like a core. On this coil form I will wind the three coils you specified. The enamelled copper wire I intend to use is 0.22 mm (AWG 24), I also have 0.35 mm and 0.5 mm (AWG 22 and 21). AWG 19 (0.75 mm) seems to be rather thick?

I got some 2N3904 transistors (and also the other two transistors you mention in your drawing) and should have similar capacitors and resistors or potentiometers (but have to check). I have no Jumbo LED, but an ordinary LED should suffice.


My questions:

A) Do I wind the coils one on top of the other (in which order)?

B) Or do I wind one next to the other (three in a row, each taking up about a third of the length)?

C) Is it essential to use AWG 19 wire for the coils (0.75 mm ), or would thinner wire work as well?

C) Did you use a AA battery (the throw away type) or a rechargeable battery of size AA?


Remarks:

Your note at the bottom left corner of your circuit drawing sounds like you have wound the coils on top of each other.

I see the word "Nicad" and an arrow to the battery in your drawing? I guess that means nickel–cadmium rechargeable battery?


Greetings, Conrad

[drodenbe]

Hello,

Here is some preliminary pictures of board and bench shots. I will have to hook up my pc based scope to get the scope shots.  They will be coming.  Need to start on my coil for super cap.  Much delayed getting data ready. 

Let me explain about the board.  Since I am constantly changing something in my designs I started to make what I call universal test boards.  Where most of the components I want to quickly change I can do so with the terminals and not permanently soldered to board.  That is saved for final design.  So this board was made to mary a joule thief circuit with Larskro's the amazing circuit.  I have had success with this design lighting 200 Led at one time without changing the Load current much.  So I just used this board and moved the secondary coil wire over to the far right terminal connecting it to the collector circuit.  This way I don't have to make so many boards.  I just mount the parts I want to use at the time.  Notice the two pots. One on board and one on the terminals.  You can use which ever one you want.  But only one at a time.  Some times I have pots on hand that I know I wont have to change.  If I think I will be changing values I use the external hookup.  Can also replace with carbon resistor if you don't need the pot. I don't use the diode plug either.  That was for another project.  I put a two pin mini plug in place of the LED that way I can remove it if I don't want it in the circuit.  I show 3 options in the schematic.  One you hook a single 1.2 volt nicad across the 125t coil with diode and adjust frequency so both batteries charge at the same time there is a sweet spot.  Depends on what state your charge battery is in.  you will notice the frequency will change as charge battery charges and also depending on run battery voltage.  both will change the op. freq.  I noticed that I only loose a couple thousandths of a volt if run battery is fully charged when charging load battery.  When the charge is complete the run battery tops its self off at around 2.5679 or so depending on your battery.  so this is what I have and where I am at for this moment.  See what you guys come up with. 

[drodenbe]

bench shots