Joule Thief

[dllabarre]

Hi DonL
The schematic is the same. Just the toroid changed.
I guess I could make one for the record... oK I will.

jeanna

Thank you for the schematic

What size wire are you using on the Toroid?
each 4 turns:
306 turns:

What is the diameter (outside & inside) of this Toroid?

NICE WORK!

DonL

[Mk1]

@all

My survival instinct got me searching , this need to be seen by every one .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyofhLYYVC8

1.5 volt light now heat .

[stprue]

Very cool Mk1...nice find!

[jeanna]

Jeanna:

Nice job!  On the larger tube, try using a neo (a very strong one) to "drag" the light down the tube.  I have done that and it seems to work.  I have no idea why.  Once the entire tube is lit, remove the mag. and it stays lit.

Great going.

Bill

Thank you!

I did try that and every other trick.
Today without any plan except to learn the edges of this since it was already successful... I took out some of the caps and tried it without the magnet/s.
I could do almost anything except remove the magnets on the 4w but no thing I did made the bigger one/s light.

Here is how close it is, though:
I put one magnet on the left side and I hold the tube with my left hand.
I snap a magnet onto the right connector and as long as my right hand stays there, the tube just under my hand lights up. I can spread the light to the right about 1/3 the length of the tube then even that stops.
If I put my hands on both ends the light is out.
I took out most of the battery caps and even the 68pF base cap, and the light stayed on.
But I needed the resistor cap to start it.

I am wondering if the AAA is just too wimpy. It only lasts about 30 minutes. Maybe that startup just takes too many amps. It only holds 750mA fully charged. A pair of these work for weeks/months with an ordinary dc circuit with a 47ohm resistor. I think I need to try a AA before I am done experimenting with this one.

@Lee,
I am letting others do that part.
When xee2 reported that he had an easy start on a tube when he put one of his pickup lines back into the battery, I tried it, but it didn't seem to help me too much. The magnet seems to be my best starter switch.

I am watching those people and I take note of what they do.

jeanna
edit
Yes, MK1 those are cool videos.

2nd edit

hank you for the schematic

What size wire are you using on the Toroid?
each 4 turns:
306 turns:

What is the diameter (outside & inside) of this Toroid?

NICE WORK!

DonL

The toroid is about 1 1/4 inches OD and 1 or 7/8 inch ID.
tor-61 from allelectronics.com 2/$1 ooo expensive 50 cents! 
It seems to be the same material as the tor-23 which I love. I got my wish. I wanted something like the tor-23 that was big enough to hold more wire.

I used 27awg wire. It is red cuz I got it from gobrushless.
The 4T,4T are made of telephone wire.
I made progress in the method of winding the toroid or rather managing the 24 feet of wire.
I loaded a bamboo barbeque skewer into the end of my hand drill. Then holding the counted out 24 feet of wire in one hand allowed it to feed onto the skewer as I turned the drill's handle. It went on easily and allowed me to 'sew' the  wire through the center. I had to tug at the end, but there is still a lot more room for more turns fed through without the skewer.

j

[dllabarre]

@Jeanna

Thank you for the details on the toroid!

DonL