Joule Thief

[xee2]

@ altrez

@xee2

Nice and simple circuit you have there I am sure it would light a CFL for more then 12 hours. Could you try lighting a larger tube to see if it will light for the same amount of time?

-Altrez

My experience is that if the 4 watt tube lights so will a 20 watt tube. Jeanna said she found the larger tubes easier to light.

[xee2]

@ jeanna

I am sorry to be a pest, but how many hours was that?
Were those listed items hourly checks?

I do not have much experience testing with low battery voltages, but it seems that once the voltage drops to 0.90 volts, the battery will be dead in less than one hour. Therefore it does not seem reasonable to worry about making the circuit work at voltages lower than 0.9 volts.

The last set of data was taken with dead battery. I let it sit for a while and recover then it would drop back down in a minute or two. I did this several times taken the data and photos when it droped to various voltages.

[jeanna]

Thanks xee2,
I must be asking such a simple silly question that it is hard to answer.

I get this information about the battery, and I thank you for it, because it is the important information.
It is more important than how many hours your particular light was lit.
But, in fact that was my last question.
How many hours did the light stay lit with the big toroid with the 2T,10T,and 80 turns secondary?

@stprue,
I was seeing something like this too, where the voltage on the meter went down but the light across the same leads got brighter. I too, would like to know more about how this happens.

Thanks for asking it.

I have a question about the chip etc you are using.

I see a connector going from the upper sides of the transistor/chip into the battery rail which is also where the black and red wires that light the light appear to be coming out.

Can you tell me what those connections are?
Which color clips are connected to your secondary?

thank you,

jeanna

[stprue]

Thanks xee2,
I must be asking such a simple silly question that it is hard to answer.

I get this information about the battery, and I thank you for it, because it is the important information.
It is more important than how many hours your particular light was lit.
But, in fact that was my last question.
How many hours did the light stay lit with the big toroid with the 2T,10T,and 80 turns secondary?

@stprue,
I was seeing something like this too, where the voltage on the meter went down but the light across the same leads got brighter. I too, would like to know more about how this happens.

Thanks for asking it.

I have a question about the chip etc you are using.

I see a connector going from the upper sides of the transistor/chip into the battery rail which is also where the black and red wires that light the light appear to be coming out.

Can you tell me what those connections are?
Which color clips are connected to your secondary?

thank you,

jeanna

If you are talking about the white thing, it's a cap...If you are talking about the black thing it's the bridge rectifier 1amp@1000volts and really small!

My biggo to me anyways has a primary no secondary if you are talking about the collector coil and base coil let me know!

[stprue]

@ Jeanna

I need to share something with you I think we could make a hybrid coils hazens/MK When I was winding my last MK coil I noticed that if messed up the last turn and a half..crap for voltage...I looked at it fixed it and boom back up to where it was before.  I have a feeling that it is possible to wind a coil like the simple Hazens1 design but the starting and finishing turns would need to have an MK twist involved.  I have not tested this idea because I have run out of wire! and I need help by other minds do to all the possible windings possibilities.