Joule Thief

[Pirate88179]

Gary:

Great diagrams.  On your photo, it appears that there are 2 or 3 more diodes on the left side after the bridge of four.  Is this correct?

Thanks,

Bill

[resonanceman]

Gary:

Great diagrams.  On your photo, it appears that there are 2 or 3 more diodes on the left side after the bridge of four.  Is this correct?

Thanks,

Bill

Bill

what may look like  extra diodes  is really sloppy  solder connections.   I was using up  old solder that  was really to thick for the job ....and a soldering iron that was to small .

There are 2 diodes on each side of the cap ...... the bands are all in the same direction .

I modified  the  picture  with a schematic to make it more clear

gary

Edit

I originally  had the diodes backwards ........ I fixed them

[resonanceman]

I am posting  a couple pictures of  the  core  I am using before I fried it .

I was  getting  about 450 V  from   one set of pins.

I removed the  wire ......  I kept  the E core and the plastic  spool that fits over it .......with attached  pins for  connections .

First  try  10 wraps bifilar  ( cat5 wire )   
I got  46 V  out  JT LED position ....no  secondary
I am powering it with 12 V

I  noticed that   when the  E core halfs are placed together   there is a gap in the  middle  section .
I cut  3 pieces  of sheet metal  to fill  that gap .
I was thinking that  with the gap filled  I should get  higher  voltage .
It  dropped to 3.6 V  with 1 piece of metal in the gap .
3.3 V with 2 pieces.
3.2 V with all  3 pieces .
With  all  three pieces   the  gap  is  filled  as well as I have the ability to fill it .

What I wonder is  if the lower  voltage  means  the core is  acting like it is  higher  permeabillity .....or  is it lower ?
I will check  voltage   with a full set of  windings  once  I get this thing finished.

gary

[Pirate88179]

Gary:

Thank you for adding the labels on your photo.  It is very clear to me now.  I want to make one of these and see what happens.  Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Bill

[Mk1]

@gary

The hole in the core is to make sure the core doesn't saturate ...

when you add the metal in the hole it changes the core operating freq...


Hello everyone !

Mark