Joule Thief

[jeanna]

... infared leds .You might have different wave length  . curious as to your heater infrareds specs ??

Hi gadgetmail,

I don't know the specs.

My plan is to hook them onto my secondary that runs the 30 light array and see.

In fact, I just did. I substituted the 6 I have for 4 whites being run by the secondary. . so then I took a glass lamp globe off the very cold windowsill and have covered the array. The heat from the leds is little enough for me to think I am making my hand feel warm. So, it will have to warm up this very cold globe to really mean it.

On the other hand, I believe the IR can heat your body. I think portable saunas are made with them.

Nevermind the amperage requirements. The joule thief doesn't work like that. We don't know yet how or what it is capable of, so... I may look for some online to see what specs I am looking for.

I had a session on a "jade bed" when I visited a friend last month. I needed an extra towel to keep me from burning. The IR lights look like leds and they are embedded in the "jade". And, they really got very hot to touch.

I figure it is worth a try.

jeanna

[xee2]

@ AbbaRue

It is a square wave because the neon is limiting the voltage. I guess you missed my edit.

EDIT: Where is scope probe attached to circuit? It looks like you are measuring the voltage across the neon bulb which limits voltage to about 90 volts plus and minus (180 total for AC). The little spike is the voltage before the neon turns on, but is so quick the scope is not getting a chance to display it. If you remove the neon I think you will get a better picture of the Joule thief output voltage (it will be much higher).

[innovation_station]

love the heater idea guys just awsome ....

@ MRMAGS ....  you got to have some thing to do too 

lol

naw im not gonna kick my self ....


oh i have used my scope lots 

gadget your nuts...   lol 

what else you got laying round there lol   got any crystals ....  raw ones... 

i want some one to do a SIMPLE TEST IF THEY HAVE THE MATERIALS ...    bang  or strike a cupple togather

they light up....  hummmm   they discharge a verry formiliar  SPARK 

hummm

just if some one has this laying around .... if not  well no rush ...

back to work i will have pics tonight of the progress of the build ....


ist!

[MrMag]

OK, here is another shot. I just used a transistor I had laying around so I am going to have to find the right one. I placed a pot (1K) between the base and coil so that I could adjust the bias to the base (re. AbbaRue). I need to find a better transistor since I didn't get very much range out of the pot. Here are some readings I took.

Voltage measured across LED
Current taken in series with the battery
Resistance of the pot
Frequency across the LED

  5V  - 128mA  - 2 ohms - 7.225kHz
4.3V - 107mA  - 3 ohms -  5.5kHz

- Anything more than 3 ohms turned the light off. I need to use the proper transistor but I can't find them???

An interesting reading on the voltage shown on the picture. The voltage shown on the DVM and the scope are from the same point. I remember reading in an earlier post that someone could not read the voltage but the LED was still on. I think this will give you the answer.

[xee2]

@ MrMag 

The LED is also a device that limits the voltage across itself (like the neon in my previous edit, but it is not symmetrical). The voltage when the LED is on will be the forward drop voltage of the diode, and the voltage when reverse biased will be the reverse breakdown voltage of the diode. To measure the output voltage of the Joule thief the output should be open circuit (no load except the scope).

@ MrMag
EDIT: Where is scope probe attached to circuit? It looks like you are measuring the voltage across the neon bulb which limits voltage to about 90 volts plus and minus (180 total for AC). The little spike is the voltage before the neon turns on, but is so quick the scope is not getting a chance to display it. If you remove the neon I think you will get a better picture of the Joule thief output voltage (it will be much higher).