Joule Thief

[resonanceman]

@resonanceman

I am on the same boat. My transformer got brooken, I lost my solder iron and my power supply got shorted on an experiment today.

I am way behind now.
This hobby of mine is getting too expensive.

Sorry to hear  you are burning stuff up  too .

I hope  you can hang in there

Your  input  is  very  valuable here .

gary

[jeanna]

....

The thing is that it lights the cfl brightly. The secret lies inside the turns of that transformer and the conections to the other pieces.

On one of those findings of yours. Have you not found for cassuality the transformer inside schematic?

The model is the "TDK TAD170"

Jesus

Are you looking for this?
I think this is the transformer Freezer used a while back. I always wondered why he made his light then left. Oh well, different styles.

Are you looking to find it? or are you wondering if I would try using it?

jeanna

[Yucca]

@ Yucca

I suspect that it was not running at 1.5 volts. I think that your meter readings are ONLY THE VOLTAGE AND CURRENT THROUGH BIAS RESISTORS, TRANSISTOR IS NOT TURNING ON.

Hi xee2,

Rest assured it runs at 1.5V supply, my scope confirms this, as does the fact that it will run on a single AAA alkaline cell (after jump starting). And it oscillates and excites the neon.

The secret is that it will not start at 1.5V, It fires at 4V, but then you can wind down to 1.5V before oscillation mode collapses at anything lower.

This is one very handy aspect of a variable supply, many more exoticly wound JTs are built which appear dead, but they just need a kickstart and then you can wind them down into the lower voltage range.

I have studied it more carefully using my DSO and a resistive 1ohm shunt. here are some figures that are reasonably accurate:

supply voltage: 1.5V
true RMS input power: 2.4mW
power wasted in bias resistors: >=2.0mW
peak base voltage: 5.68V
oscillation frequency: 37.1kHz
HV out (with neon lit): oscillates 60V to 84V

[jeanna]

@all

please help me I just turned the dmm back on and the voltage keeps raising...I have never had any results like this...What am I doing wrong?...
...

2.598...

now it's lowering but for so few turns AND ...dam
Help out Jeanna..I will do a step by step.  You have the same ingredients as me.

I think you have a lot more ingredients in your circuits than I do.

So, maybe if you start with a parts list we can see if I really do have the same ingredients as you.

I have noticed your numbers, but I can't figure out your circuits. Your photos are great, but they need labels if you are going to get me to follow you. That is asking a lot so I don't usually ask someone to do labels, but I am usually lost.

About the dmm dipping and changing values, we found this to be fairly normal behavior with these kind of experimental circuits. I'd say don't worry.

Get some sleep, and please make me a parts list, and we will see if I can replicate this. If that is what you mean by helping you??

jeanna

[resonanceman]

@Gary,
I am sorry to hear about your last 4 daze... too bad about burning stuff up.

Next door, I am trying to use the pulses from the lower basic level joule thief to change the output of various combinations of leds and inductors and caps.

Recently, I had a segment of the circuit that I split into 2 segments. I was trying to be able to add lights and not have other parts of the circuit change. For the longest time/ many tries, I got nowhere, but then I added another inductor and spread the cap to span across 2 inductors. When I did that, the other part of the circuit did not effect the one I had just manipulated.

So, I think you are correct here.

As you are suggesting, I was trying to add caps in a line between inductors today too.
No luck so far. (The entire circuit went out today whenever I put on the new one. aargh!)
As with you, my progress has felt slow.
I make a success one day then go along for another 10 days with no more progress.

And, I think there is much more to be explored.
I am very glad to hear of your experiments.
Thank you for sharing your ideas.

Jeanna

I tried a few setups  using  caps  between the inductors ....... so far nothing  has  worked ....     

I remember  something about  Tesla  adding caps to the circuit .......he said " always do this "
Do   you  remember that ?    Do   you remember how he was using them ?



It took most of the day but  I finally got most  of my stuff working again.
It turns out that I did not  burn  out my 3055 after all .......  I had taped  a solder joint   where  the  3055  goes through  the heatsink .......  it got hot  enough to  melt  through the  tape and short out .

gary