Joule Thief

[xee2]

@ jeanna

I have been thinking of shorting mine around the resistor.

Do you think it will break it to do that? I wonder why RS made it that way.??

Yes it will work without the resistor. The neon electrodes will last longer if the bulb has lower current. So the resistor is added to reduce the current. But it will last thousands of hours without the resistor. And most of our circuits do not have really high currents.

Try increasing the base coil from 2 turns to 3 turns on the 3" toroid. With 3 turns mine works with base resistors as high as 5K ohms (12 volts out with 19 ma battery drain).

EDIT: I do not think you should use the neon without a resistor with 120 volt AC out of a wall socket. That might put too much current through the bulb (I just do not know since I have not tested this).

[stprue]

@ electricim

Re: Method for converting HV (static) into usable low-voltage power.

Do you think a similar method on a smaller scale could work for a JT?

[resonanceman]

My plan with this is to make an array of 40 leds going in a hemispheric way inside the globe. I am still thinking of how to do that.

thank you,

jeanna

Jeanna


The  LED arrays that I have been  using  would work  very nicely for that light.
They are  60 or 90  LEDs .......the  circuits driving them are compleatly different .
The  60  LED array  is  set up in  2 sections ......they can be driven   by connecting  2  the 2 outer legs     The normal  voltage ......the voltage  it ran at  from the factory  was  84 V

The   90  LED array  is set up  diffeent  .   it is  connected at  5 differerent  locations .....  I didn;t measure  the  voltage   before I  took iit apart  but  the electronics  in  this  unit light it up much easier than  the  60 LED array . 
I  have been using  it  with  its  electronics intact.

The PC board on the 60   is 3 in across
I have  driven it with  different JTs  at  40 to  250 V 
It worked  great untill I  tried it with a MOT JT

These are available at  Costco  or  some Walmarts .



gary

[Mk1]

@Gary

Did you try incandescent light bulb on the mot .

Mark

[jeanna]

What is this...  I couldn't get on this page because the ads page was down!!!

@xee,
I will change to 3 turns if you do. I would much rather keep the 2:10 ratio and I would rather have that be the same, than be able to turn on my toroid with 2Kohm base resistor. Most of the time the optimal base resistance is below 500r anyway., So, those are my reasons to not add the 3rd wind, unless you need it for any reason.

It may just be a more flexible 3055 at your end or a more highly charged battery, or something like that... You are using a battery are you not? I mean you are not using a 1.5 power supply plugged into the grid are you?
==
RS sells the neon in a 2 pack, so I have a spare. I may remove the resistor then, because my neon will probably go on at lower voltages than it has been. I seem to need about 200 volts to turn this one on.

I wonder what those camera neons used. This resistor is so obvious in this one and I never saw one at all in those from the cameras. I wonder if it had a different kind of gas.

@Gary,
I went right to walmart when you first told me about this. They have some led spots there, but 10 leds, not 60. I would like to make this one for some reason anyway. I want to place another order from the chinese led people soon. I think I will get 500 I think for $35 or $40. Once I get the light fixtures right, I will change the whole house to led lamps. I also want to try to take a frosted edison bulb apart and see how they do in there esp with a jt for power.

thank you,

jeanna