Joule Thief

[innovation_station]

so this is neg potiencal...  you are playing with   if thease curcuits are useing npn transistors

and if it does it 1 way it will do it the other  right...

so when we look to nature ...  neg lightning  strikes...  and  positive lightning strikes are quite another story.....


so both at once to me seams really powerful....

ist

[maw2432]

@ Bill


Where did you get your LED Christmas lights?  I am sure they go on sale after Christmas..... maybe a good time to buy.
I want to try some with the little circuit card that I purchased.  To answer your question about the little round component on the board,
it is marked 101K.  It does look like a capacitor.  The manufacture is TDK.  Yes, the square component is the transformer.  It is marked
Danger - High Voltage.  I believe it outputs 1000V.  With the board placed in the breadboard,  I have not gotten zapped (yet). he he.  It did work with 2 AA batteries but did not light the 40 watt bulb very bright. 

Bill

[Pirate88179]

@ maw2432:

I got my LED lights at a local grocery store (Krogers) and they were on sale before Christmas....reg. $11.50 ea. and I got them for about $8.00 each.  I originally got them just to take all of the leds out of because to get 100 leds from my local Radio Shack would cost about $200.00!  Then I decided to use them on my tree and then, I wondered if the Fuji circuit could light them and...well....you know the rest.

If you are indeed pushing 1,000 volts I would be very careful what you try to light up.  Each string of my lights is designed to run on 110 vac from the wall with no transformer.  I did a quick test with one string just to see if they would light and...wow...they were very, very bright.  I only did that for a second or two then turned off.  These Fuji circuits are supposed to be putting out about 300 volts so I figured 2 x 110 =220 so maybe I would not burn them out.  They are still very bright however.  Remember these leds are the small ones like you see used as indicator lights on electronics stuff.

See what others say here but I am thinking that you can probably run 900 lights (9 strings of 100) and if you attempt to run less than that without adding a resistor, I think you will fry those leds.  My lights have no transformer that I can see....just a wall plug.  See what the electronics guys here say.

I would think you would be safe lighting the long florescent tubes as mine were not anywhere near full brightness.  You could try two 48" tubes and I would bet they would be very bright indeed.  I think it would be less likely to burn these out although with enough juice, I am sure its possible.  I am going to have to get one of these boards from electronics goldmine.  I can't remember if you said it or not but will your board run at all with 1 AA battery?  Thanks and good luck.

Bill

[maw2432]

@ Pirate

Bill,  it does not light-up a 48" tube with only one AA battery.  I think the Fuji circuit may be better. 

The desciption says: Small CCFL driver produces about 1050Vrms from 5VDC to start a CCFL lamp and 295Vrms for VL (discharging tube voltage) a IL of 5mA. Will drive up to 100mm x 3mm dia. CCFL tubes. Inverter is only 1.7”L x .8”W x .52”H (excluding connection pins). Operates from 5 VDC@0.2A. Drive frequency is 30KHz. 

There are 2 outputs.   I think one for the start-up 1052V and the other for the 295V discharging voltage to keep a bulb lit.   It seems to work the same from either output when testing on a 48" tube.  It does light up two 48" tubes with no problem with 6V input.  I need to get one of those battery holders that uses just 3 AA batteries like the one you have in your flashlight, so I can try it with 4.5V.  Radio Shack did not have any. Two batteries (3V) hardly lights a 48" tube. As I posted earlier, it seems to work ok with a 9V battery and also with 4 AA's but I want to see if will work with just 3  of the 1.5V batteries.

I suggest you also order the EIC-801 Solderless Breadboard ($4.95) to plug into for easy testing if you do decide to order the CCFL board.  That is a very good price on the breadboard from Goldmine.     

Bill


Bill

[maw2432]

@ Pirate

Bill,  Krogers now has the LED lights for 50% off the 11.99 price.   I just purchased three sets and will test.

Bill