Joule Thief

[jeanna]

I see. Thanks Wilby.
So do you think it would do the grey thing with the lights?
I will not remove but just jumper them. There are 6 or 8 of them altogether spaced around the ring circuit board that holds the lights and... yes the pos side only.

~~~~

@All,

Here is the newest joule thief with secondary video.
30 leds in series now!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzhbsLBwc54

jeanna

[WilbyInebriated]

I see. Thanks Wilby.
So do you think it would do the grey thing with the lights?
I will not remove but just jumper them. There are 6 or 8 of them altogether spaced around the ring circuit board that holds the lights and... yes the pos side only.

~~~~

@All,

Here is the newest joule thief with secondary video.
30 leds in series now!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzhbsLBwc54

jeanna

if there are 6 or 8 of them i suspect them to be resistors. while i agree with the diode on the postive rail protection that other people have stated, i think in this instance it would be overkill of sorts, especially 6 or 8 of them . a led is a diode, connecting the batteries incorrectly should not blow them.
are there other components? any surface mount transistors? they would usually have 3 solder 'tabs'.

nice video!

[gadgetmall]

Gary,
Yes, it could be the inductors that are smoothing the spikes, but I have seen that caps and LEDs will do this too, so I am hoping that the inductors will keep doing the good spikes.
I probably doesn't matter what is doing it, unless by recognizing the culprit, it could be avoided.

------

I went to walmart camping dept today.

the local substation was hit and the power was out all day. I needed some more propane, and while I was there I noticed quite a few led camping lights.

I wonder if the 6 volt fluorotube has a toroid or radioactive ballast in it?

I brought home a tent lamp which is a ring of 24 leds.
I think one or 2 people here have shown this.

It was easy to get apart but to my great dismay I found that all the leds are in parallel and the 4 AA powersource delivers 200mA.
Now, at first I thought no wonder these things stop working within 6 weeks.

I noticed a very tiny black thing soldered in line on the pos rail-ring. I believe it is a diode.

I wonder about this diode thing. In those 70 leds I bought last spring, the lights work fine with the ac wall line, but they are very dim with the secondary.
This ring light showed the same behavior.
It was terribly bright with 4 batteries, I shorted across various batteries and 3 AA's dropped the amps to 108mA which is still much too high for a led, but when I dropped it to 2 AA's it only drew 3.8mA which is very dim. It is OK, for area lighting, and more than a nightlight because there are 24 of them, but how did the amps draw diminish so much?

It was when I looked really close because of this question and I saw the very tiny black item with 270 printed on it, that I connected the dots to the string of leds.

These must also be diodes and their purpose must be to limit the amps somewhere, although this does not seem to be what it is doing.

I would love some help with this.
Is there any one who has any idea what is going on here?

The 2 circuits have in common that when a secondary with high voltage high frequency low amperage is connected, the lights are very dim.
I needed more than 250volts to light up the string and even then only half of it lit up.
In this ring, the secondary just makes a very dim light of all these leds.

The other thing is that the switch seems to make a stronger diminishing of the light.
I don't really want to destroy the switch until the last choice, if possible, but maybe it is the switch that drops the amperage from 108 to 3.8 with 1/3 the power.
I would have to think that 1/3 of the amps draw which would be 30mA would be perfect, so what gives here?

Any ideas?

thank you,

jeanna

He Jeanna . I like those ring 24 led lamp . They are the perfect candidate for converting to a JT . If you notice that's 6 volts = 4 AA batteries . They draw 200 ma . the current supplied is a fraction of a single battery because it decreases as you put battery's in series and the voltage increases . They go dead winthin 24 hours and you have 4 dead batteries . NOW convert it over to a Singe battery . same light and if you play you cards right get the draw below 10 milliamps and you can see how long a single 1800 milliamp 1.5 volt battery will last . A long time . This is the principal behind the E-light . The Difference Of  Coarse is i dont use 2n3055's or 2n3904 . I can hint that there are Barium tanilate /germanium on the market from one supplier being manufactured . they produce there own voltage . Also Mine Charger there own battery plus they charge another . I really hope there is no animosity between us as there is with greginthewoods . I really respect you all so please don't have a grudge on me for looking after My daughter when 'm gone . Which wont be long . I wish i had a faster connection and more time .
Anyways i know you hate tearing up good stuff but i got used to it when i see the advantages of it .

Love and peace to you all and happy Experimenting .

Gadget

[WilbyInebriated]

the current supplied is a fraction of a single battery because it decreases as you put batterys in series and the voltage increases .

this is not correct. series connection of batteries will not decrease the current supplied or the current available. ie: one 1800mah AA battery has 1800mah. four 1800mah AA batteries in series is still 1800mah.

[Artic_Knight]

Nieves your curcuits are interesting to me, i particularly like the alternative you did to a joule thief using inductors instead of torriods. however i am looking to modify it a bit.

it seems to me that the spikes greated in the inductor are going to return to the inductor without passing through the battery because there is no return path to the coil behind the battery and its the shortest easiest path for the current to return to the source. therefore i dont see the spikes having much if any effect on the battery. instead perhaps a part should be added above the battery between the diod and return to the coil to prevent "voltage spikes" from returning to the source prematurely?

one question that i have not had answered to my satisfaction yet is the behavior of the inductors. if we move the inductor below the capacitor to just above the battery will it restrict the sudden changes? and if a diode is also added to allow the current to pass from the negative of the battery to the positive side (pass the inductor) will it allow these spikes to pass through the battery and no where else?

i suppose my real question to this whole mess is, does a inductor absorb spikes? or prevent them from passing? i need a part that will force a sudden change in voltage to take an alternate path through the battery.