@ dllabarre

Quote from: dllabarre on September 01, 2009, 09:12:14 AM
I need to get a mV analog meter again. 

I think that an analog meter will drain the capacitor faster. I think most analog meters are less than 1 meg input impedance. I would suggest you use a digital meter with 100 meg input impedance. If you want to trade money for convenience you can find digital panel meters for about $10 with 100 meg input impedance. I may be wrong but it is something you should check.

@ dllabarre

Slayer007 was getting similar results with a similar circuit (see Joule thief thread). There seems to be something happening that is not well understood.

@xee2

Tesla or Moray or Gray or Bedini or someone like that, has made reference to being able to connect to a ground rod or the negative terminal of a battery to pull negative potential into a circuit.

This was the first time I tried to connect to the negative of a battery instead of a ground rod.
Its working....

DonL

@ dllabarre

What seems strangest to me is that the inductor is a short circuit at DC and therefore I would expect it to short out any voltage in the capacitor.

@ dllabarre

Just some speculation. When one side of the capacitor is charged negative, it forces electrons out of the opposite plate so that it will become positive. The electrons forced out of the positive plate of the capacitor create a current flow. If they flow through a resistor there will be a voltage drop across the resistor while the positive plate is being rid of some of its electrons. If this is true, your circuit may work better using a resistor instead of an inductor.