Joule Thief

[Pirate88179]

@ Jesus:

It should be...but, alas, it only lights up when I touch the battery or, when I hold my hand within 6-8 inches of the battery.  I can control the brightness of the light by how close I hold my hand, or finger, to the battery itself.  Very weird.  If I can figure out my newest camera, I will make a vid and post to youtube showing the effects.

I may try resoldering my connections again, just to be sure.

Bill

[nievesoliveras]

@pirate

It is been said that when you need to touch the light to get it going, that the cables are connected wrong. There is a post maybe a few pages back that explains to get one wire at a time from the lamp and touch to see if it ligths, the one that ligths with you touching something is alright, the other is at fault.

It is here: http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=6123.msg144771#msg144771

Also check the polarity of the circuit. The polarity on Pino's circuit is wrong.

Jesus

[Cap-Z-ro]

I dunno Bill...I might want to leave that one as it is and build another one.

That thing sounds like it might lead to finding out how to receive aether energy.

Regards...

[Pirate88179]

@ Jesus:

Thanks.  Yes, I did that test as suggested by xee2.  I fixed it now by resoldering one connection.  Funny thing is, when I hooked up and removed each wire one at a time to see which it lit with and not, the wire I had to resolder was my "good" connection that lit it up when touching the battery.  I have no idea why.  I had a cold solder joint it seems but, I guess one could wire this with one wire only (the wire going near the transformer) and have it light like mine did by having your hand near the battery.  I might add a switch to the wire going to where the resistor was so I can light it either way if I want.

Here is a picture...it is pretty bright in my opinion, especially considering the power source. (1 AA bat.)  Thanks for everyone's help.  This is a fun project.  Can we make use of the high voltage form where the xenon bulb was? (I got zapped once holding the board there, plenty of juice)  I guess Freezer already did this with his neon in this position.  I believe he said his tube was brighter with the neon in the circuit, right?

Bill

[Pirate88179]

@ All:

OK, so now I decided to hook it up to an 18" long 15 watt tube just to see what happens.....IT LIGHTS!!!!!!!

First photo is without the flash, second is with the flash.  You can see my circuit on the right (yellow AA battery that came in the camera)  and the little tube on the left. (Not hooked up)  This is fantastic and amazing to me!!!!!  I think this is almost as bright as the smaller tube.  Now I want to buy one of the 3 foot long tubes to see what happens.  This is great!!!!!

Thank you all!!!!

Bill