Joule Thief

[dog812]

Well thanks to everyone who has helped.. I finally built my first working Joule Thief. Was easier than i thought.. I have no volt meter or breadboard.. I am very newb.

I tried winding the secondary coil.. but i get nothing.. I wound it the sme as the first coil. but did 22 turns of 30 ga folded in half then cut and connected the same as the primary .. ? is this correct? or should it just be a single wire wrapped?

[jadaro2600]

@Mk1,

I just got a different NTE brand transistor - its the NTE89. Along with a bunch of other things, but I saw this movie 'Knowing' and have gotten sick to my stomach...So, I'll probably not be doing much testing tonight.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/nte/NTE89.pdf

[innovation_station]

a friend passed me this video

thought i should share it!

ist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3lNZ0u_ghw

fast car!?!?!?

we grow....

[dog812]

Ok.. I got the secondary finally working.. Just wrapped a single wire about 6 times around..
The LED is not very bright but it is working..
How do i get it brighter? More warps , less?

[jeanna]

Well thanks to everyone who has helped.. I finally built my first working Joule Thief. Was easier than i thought.. I have no volt meter or breadboard.. I am very newb.

I tried winding the secondary coil.. but i get nothing.. I wound it the sme as the first coil. but did 22 turns of 30 ga folded in half then cut and connected the same as the primary .. ? is this correct? or should it just be a single wire wrapped?

dog812

First, congrats for the first working jt! It is confusing until you get accustomed to where things go.
So, yeay! good going.

Now,
You have made 2 secondaries .

The secondary is not in any way connected to the regular circuit. So, somewhere else  (even in the palm of your hand) touch the sanded or burned ends of one of those mag wires to each side of a led and you will get a light. If not, turn the light around.

If that still doesn't make a light, sand the ends of the mag wire more - I find this more trouble than it seems it should be, but it twists when you sand it or burn it, and whole segments of the varnish go untouched. be persistent. (of course you will)

And, of course, be sure you have only one wire not the ends of 2 different wires. (that is the only trouble with making 2 secondaries as you have done.

Good going.

jeanna