Joule Thief

[Thaelin]

 Hi All:
   The more I read of using this camera circuit, the more I wonder if all thoes
dead ones down at the as is store would have basically the the same thing.
I was out for a walk the other day and saw the remains of one along the road.
Further inspection shows the circuit board is the same and has the diode, cap
and such on it. I suspect that it is not as efficient as the continuous type but
then there for the pickings.
   Even tho the thing was broken, still gave me the circuit to look over and I see
no diffs in it. Removing the parts and rewireing it will tell the story. Has the xformer
on it as well.

Thought I would share that with all. I am in the works to add JT driven FL tubes
in all of the places I can get away with. Many thanks for all here in sharing your
ideas and progress. I am going to help others here cut the electric bills by showing
them how to do this as well. Chow

@ Pirate
     Spend the quality time with your friend, I had to put my baby to sleep last year and
I still miss her dearly. Just so empty here now. Hard to miss 118lb rottie.

thaelin

[gadgetmall]

@all

I am a little confused here with the new toroid windings.

@electricme

It is nice to see you again.

@gadgetmall
I could not get all the schematics out of post.
I will bother you no more with my insistence.

Jesus

@Nieves
Not A Bother Brother At All . I appreciate your Kind And persistent carefully consideration when checking these schematics . As i said before i just build em and am not that proficient in drawing them yet . Please keep up the Good Work . I want to Fix that Last Good one For Me PLEASE!!. Thanks And God Bless ..
Al

[nievesoliveras]

@Nieves
Not A Bother Brother At All . I appreciate your Kind And persistent carefully consideration when checking these schematics . As i said before i just build em and am not that proficient in drawing them yet . Please keep up the Good Work . I want to Fix that Last Good one For Me PLEASE!!. Thanks And God Bless ..
Al

Here is the fixed graphic. I did not include @jeanna's recommendations. If you two agree on the same changes, just describe them as precise as possible and I will do the changes.

Jesus

Edit:

...
Please correct the 680pF to 68pF on those base caps.

The other thing I think is because there is a pictorial element to your schematics, the secondary is actually going through the center of the toroid, but the drawing shows it going around the whole thing. I tried it the other day, and I cannot honestly remember what the results were so I will do it again later, but the thing is that it is going through the center right now and in all the results posted so far. So, please would you make this change too?
...
jeanna

[Koen1]

@Koen,

Welcome. This is a fun sandbox. It seems to get bigger every time someone else joins! So, com'on in and join the fun.

Thank you Jeanna
Yeah, it's quite busy over here and everyone seems to have some variation of a JT circuit they're playing with
so I think I'll join in the fun indeed

I would suggest (since you asked) that you get a torus (toroid) made of ferrite, and wind a simple joule thief. It is the basis for all that we are doing, so, you might as well have one or 2 or 3 of them lying around. Check out evilmadscientist.com for the instructions. Or did someone already post them? I or someone can get the good instructions to you if you cannot find them.

There's quite a few how-to guides on the net so that's not really a problem. There's lots of youTube and other vidstream guides, and there's a few good
text descriptions too. I pulled one from "Instructables" the other day that seems to be fine. It's not really difficult anyway, just make sure you've
got the bifilar trafo, the 2N3904 transistor, the 1Kohm resistor, and the LED all wired correctly and off you go.
I have already ordered a bunch of ferrite ring cores, transistors and resistors so I should be able to build a few "classic" JTs next week.

And seeing that Bill has been lighting up 2 fluorescent tubes using a modified camera circuit, I decided to try that as well so I ripped
a disposable camera apart and am now looking at the circuit board... It looks almost identical to the board Bill showed me, the capacitor
is just a different shape but all the connections appear to be the same. I'm not entirely sure yet, as I have been told that it will only work
properly with a Fuji AA board that has a large 3-coil transformer with 6 connectors and I'm not sure if the trafo on my board qualifies as
such... Well, it's only a small step now to turn this into a JT so I'll just go and do that and then I'll see if the board was right I guess.

For those interested, here is an "Instructables" step by step guide on how to turn an old Kodak disposable camera into a Joule Thief:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Create-a-Joule-Thief-LED-torch-or-nightlight-by-re
Mind you, what the guy does is really ripping everything that does not belong in the JT circuit off the camera board, then he pulls
apart the transformer and completely re-winds it using the familiar bifilar wind, then he's basically done with the trafo core what
most JT builders did with a ferrite toroid or bead, and then he hooks it up like a JT again.
This appears to be different from the Fuji camera approach, which does apparently not require dismantling and re-winding
of the transformer at all.. ?

Any more clarification would be appreciated, of course.

Once you have it set up - and using a breadboard might be a good idea, since we change things around a lot- take out the led and wind a secondary and light a few leds from just the secondary.

Yeah that's the latest bend in the road isn't it? Getting more out by placing secondaries nearby? Now that's interesting.
I noticed IST's large ring-shaped setup there... Quite funky. So it's really getting power from the JT that is doing its thing in the middle there? Weird...

You will be filled with ideas and you will know where you want to go from there.

Again,

Welcome,

jeanna

And again thank you very much for the welcome

Can't wait to get this old fluorescent tube lit up from a near dead battery

Best regards,
Koen

[gadgetmall]

@All Ok Folks I got the Fugi Camera Circuit producing full power measure 1800 vdc using the trigger switch shorted . The total Current draw is 12 ma Now Below the public Domain Joule THief Using My Modifications on the page before this one. This Is amazing .one Circuit i did last night is still running 8 hours powering a CFL from a 1.25 Nicad . Still Showing 1.21 volts !!!!! YEA > Get to it these will give enuff power out now to run every light in the house and im guessing but 1000's of leds of a 1.2 volts battery