Joule Thief

[jeanna]

I like your new circuit. It will light at least 3 A in series (the most I have tried).
.... I am not sure exactly how much current I am using; different meters and different scales on the same meter will give different readings. But, it is very low.

Xee2,
What is 3A?

I think getting the lowest ampsdraw is a great endeavor in general, and since I spent about 8 months in the pursuit of very low amps draw, I am delighted to pass the project on. I learned a lot in the search for the least amps draw.

I do not believe my meters any more.

Xee2,
I am looking for the cap to put across the secondary leads along with the diode sort of the way you do this, and I have a lot of can caps from cfl circuits, but there is also an unknown orange plastic cap that is 1000volts.
I am wondering if this is the kind I want to use to light a filament bulb.
I think 800-1000 volts should be enough to light a filament bulb, but I am not getting this yet.
Can you help?

thank you,

jeanna

[xee2]

@ jeanna

Xee2,
What is 3A?

A typo. Should have been "3 LEDs". Thanks for spotting it. It has been corrected.

I am looking for the cap to put across the secondary leads along with the diode sort of the way you do this, and I have a lot of can caps from cfl circuits, but there is also an unknown orange plastic cap that is 1000volts.
I am wondering if this is the kind I want to use to light a filament bulb.
I think 800-1000 volts should be enough to light a filament bulb, but I am not getting this yet.
Can you help?

The key to lighting the filament bulbs is kooler's neon+scr spark gap substitute. The energy from the JT pickup coil is stored in capacitors over a period of time so that the accumulated energy is many times greater than what is coming out of the pickup coil. To do this the capacitors must be able to handle the output voltage of the pickup coil. As the energy accumulates in the capacitors the voltage across the capacitor increases. When the voltage gets high enough to fire the spark gap (neons+scr) all of the stored up energy is released at once which produces a very large current. This can be very dangerous. To minimize the danger the energy accumulated in the capacitors must be kept small. This is done by using only small values of capacitance. I do not know how to help you do this safely. If you do not understand what you are doing you can seriously hurt yourself. Please do not try this until you can do it safely. This is the same principle that Tesla used to get large sparks from his Tesla coil. This is also the way the flash cameras work. The energy is stored in the big capacitor over a period of time and then released all at once to fire the xenon tube.

[Pirate88179]

Well, I got my Joule Thief Pirate Light done, but not the way I wanted it.  My second Jeanna Light circuit must have a short somewhere as I could not get it to work.  I checked and re-checked everything I could think of.  To complete the light I used a modified Fuji circuit I had lying around.  It works really well and gives off a lot of light in all directions.  Later, when I get a lot of time, I will run a diagnostics on my failed large toroid circuit.  I really hope I do not have to remove ALL of those 330 pick-up coil winds, that would really suck.

Anyway, here is the new video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE0EtXB_RqE

This is so easy to make I hope a lot of folks on youtube replicate it.  This is way more light than a whole bunch of leds.  This is at least 3 times the light output of my Jeanna Light replication.  I wonder how much brighter this would be with the 1,200 volts or so of my large toroid circuit once I get it fixed?

Bill

[gadgetmall]

@All
For those of you who are wondering if there is an easier way to wind torroids with many turn and how to do it without stretching out 100 feet of wire  have a look .
You can make one any size to fit threw your toroid with a flat hard piece of plastic . this one is about 3 inches long and 3/4 inches wide . Just cut some V's on each end and then wrap your spool wire on it and it will easily pass thru a toroid without having to pull many feet of wire thru and end up with tangles and such . These are great tools for a Jt experimenter and can be cut to any size for many windings n a toroid . this is 100 feet this little toroid winding tool .
Gadget

[innovation_station]

@ jeanna

A typo. Should have been "3 LEDs". Thanks for spotting it. It has been corrected.

The key to lighting the filament bulbs is kooler's neon+scr spark gap substitute. The energy from the JT pickup coil is stored in capacitors over a period of time so that the accumulated energy is many times greater than what is coming out of the pickup coil. To do this the capacitors must be able to handle the output voltage of the pickup coil. As the energy accumulates in the capacitors the voltage across the capacitor increases. When the voltage gets high enough to fire the spark gap (neons+scr) all of the stored up energy is released at once which produces a very large current. This can be very dangerous. To minimize the danger the energy accumulated in the capacitors must be kept small. This is done by using only small values of capacitance. I do not know how to help you do this safely. If you do not understand what you are doing you can seriously hurt yourself. Please do not try this until you can do it safely. This is the same principle that Tesla used to get large sparks from his Tesla coil. This is also the way the flash cameras work. The energy is stored in the big capacitor over a period of time and then released all at once to fire the xenon tube.

i fully agree ... 

and xee2... 

i owe you too! 

as i never gave you near as much as you have erned! 

dont worrie ...  ill build you a GIFT TOO! 

BUT YOURS ..  needs more work ... as your no fool! 

: ) 

an HONER  to work with you ...  sir/mam!  ist is unsure ... 

w