Joule Thief

[rensseak]

The GDT sparkgaps work. But, they are not as good as a real spark gap. However, they are easy to use at low currents and voltages.

what about a "Transient voltage suppression diode" as a substitute for the GDT?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_voltage_suppression_diode

regards
Norbert

[xee2]

@ rensseak

what about a "Transient voltage suppression diode" as a substitute for the GDT?

I have no experience with them. Do you have a part number to recommend?

EDIT: Seems like good idea. But, I am suspicious about semiconductor being able to take repeated sparks. They may only work a limited number of times. The data sheets do not address this.

[electricme]

@Jeanna,

Back on P842 I think it was, you posted a MOV link of your success with the JT connected to a Stubblefield coil, thats pritty good going in my book.

BTW, I believe you may be the very first person in the world, who has ever seen the output of a stubblefield coil on a scope, when Nathan was alive, there was no scopes. Lucky you.


I heard you mention the clips were connected to the "tens", try this to see if the whole setup can hook into aerial energy.

Hook the scope to the same place you took the first reading from.
Grab a long length of copper wire, about 10 meters long, then touch the "10"s and "5"s ends in turn, watch the scope to see if there is a change in waveform at the same time.
Look for tiny sparks also, if there is, see if the waveform gets bigger by gently/rapidly tapping the connection where you are tapping it to.

While you are doing all this (you need 3 hands) try and raise the other end of the aerial wire, see if this also will feed more energy into it.

I found by rapidly tapping the ends of the wires connected to my EB, it seemed to agetate it and the oscillotations changed, they seemed to be excited.

Gotta get back to slave reading

jim


   

[electricme]

@All
This is way off topic.


Is the USA the only country with a space shuttle? No, Russia has one,   and
also there is another, in the UK, it seems Amateur Rocketry can launch a Shuttle, a BIG one, with a Robin Car on its side.

This is a big mean mumma this one.

In the UK there is a TV program called TOP GEAR, they drive cars Fast to Extremely Fast, this time they bolted a Robin Car to a rocket and up she went and down she came. Now, how do I upload a MOV file?

TOP GEAR is a very interresting TV Show

[gadgetmall]

Bill,.. regardless of wether or not i ever get mine to work, i think a thread with 855 pages speaks for itself. its obvious you guys are doing something with this device.

if someone misconstrued what i was saying, and took offense to it, they have some issues that have nothing to do with wether or not this device works.

what i was trying to say was, that MINE isnt working.. i never said that YOURS doesnt work, or that THEIRS doesnt work...
as if their LED lighting up wasnt proof enough for them that they need MY approval......

instead of arguing about a mute point, lets try to work together here.

i dont understand what im doing wrong here...  i can design a multicore procesor, but a 3 component joule thief gives me trouble.... (shrugs)

[EDIT::]  1K resistor was too much, i used a 500 Ohm resistor and it turned on right away....
possibly my red  LEDs have a lower resistance than the base circuit.     

YAY!! i got it to work!  - changed all the resistors, now i have 12 working joule thiefs, of varying core types. it works with cylinders, and even steel rings work with smaller wires and more turns.

i might try a simple Nail next....

oddly enough im reading only 1.3v across the diode.

.6v at the base resistor.

drawing 40ma

Smoky if you put a varaible resistor in series with your base resistor you might see what we are seeing . Congrats . Also its not just the Volts that are lighting Leds its the Pulse dc or ac if you wind an Mk1 you can see Frequency is the most improtant Led factor here we are Experimenting with . I have 1300 volts from a 1 volt battery . I Blew 50 tophat 100 milliamp leds drawing only a fraction of that so its something to ponder as leds are rated in Dc milliamps not ac as we have on Joule Thiefs .Some here are lighting up to 500 to 1000 white leds off a dead aa battery so somthing else to stride for I dont know what the record is but i have a low powered Jt running 4 bright leds now since january on less than a milliamp and it never has gone out . Lots of fun here man . Welcome .

Gadget