@ All, Here is the rest of the photo's.

@ All, Here is  Photo-1 and Photo-2 of my  5 yo Son's Night Light.

          Photo-1  =  Close up of the Night Light with Red LED on.
          Photo-2  =  looking up at it, you will see Red LED lit, which means the small Solar cell
                           outside is charging this Night Light (Jt with 50F cap), when the voltage in the
                           Cap reaches a certain voltage, the Green LED lights up, then I will switch
                           the Solar cell off.

          With this Night Light, I can turn the draw current down to as little as  0.11 mA and the
          LED still lights up fairly good, or turn it up to around maby  2 mA and it lights up very bright.

          I have a small variable resistor in this Jt.

          On a sunny day it only takes 2-3 hours to charge up nicely or very cloudy day around 4-6 hours.
         

thanks for the info i have noticed some transistors start at a low voltage then others i also noticed that the jt will drag the battery down to the transister start voltage and then sit there for hours so what i wounder is that anything above the start voltage isent needed my secound attempt is still going not as bright but it is still going very well maybe i am just expecting to much from this
i wont long lasting but also very bright i guess i cont have both just one or the other

Quote from: Pirate88179 on February 14, 2011, 08:43:04 PM
dasimpson:

You may be hurting yourself with your toroids.  If we have all learned nothing here, we have learned that not all toroids are created equal.  Using an unknown toroid from a power supply means you have no idea as to its permeability, and therefore how or IF it will perform.

You really can't beat those 5 for $1 one inch toroids from goldmine.  A lot of us have used them to good effect.  Are there higher permeability toroids around?  Sure.  Is one of them in a power supply, probably not, but, of course, anything is possible.

So, what I am trying to say here is that since you are not getting the performance others have achieved, and you are not happy with it, then chances are that your toroids are not the best choice.

Also, be advised that some of us have also seen a wide difference in transistors even of the same part number.  I have about 40 2N3904s around here and ones I got from one source, work differently than ones obtained at another.  Mostly, I see that I can take a battery or cap down lower with some then with the others.  I forget the term for this at the moment.  It has to do with the least voltage a transistor will turn on and off with.

I admire your continued efforts over here and am only offering you some, hopefully, helpful suggestions.  Someone gave me good advice here on this OU site a long time ago....and that was to replicate someone's circuit exactly, same components, wire, materials...everything...getting it working just like the original and then, of course, try to improve it.  But then change only one thing at a time, and if your performance goes down, you know you went the wrong way.

I hope this helps.

Bill

   @ Dasimpson:
    To use a commercial led bulb, the result will be that it will not light for long, when connected to a Jtc. If you have not tried a few single leds, in series, give that a try, you see that they will last a lot longer, on the same set up. Also try a different resistor. 
  If I use a commercial 20 led bulb, or even a 6 led bulb, it will only light for 4 hours or so, on the same single AA battery that will light 12 leds (bright) in parallel, all night.  I have not tried it in series. Leds are also different, some consume a lot more juice.  I like the flat top one because they have a very wide light dispersion, not like most.
  The commercial bulbs are made to handle a lot more voltage and current than is putout by Jt.  All my units last all night and all day, plus some more if I leave them alone.  I just need for them to last all night though as I charge the batteries during the  day. I'm still hoping to connect them all a 12v battery and solar panel, and leave them running full time.
  Most of my Jtc are made from the yellow Pc toroids, and I have had some luck with them. They may not be the best, but are free, and have worked ok for me, as I'm not trying to light CFLs.
 
   @ Pirate:  I have the link for the 6 inch ferrite toroids, if anyone is still interested in them.
Thanks for the link for the 4 inch ones.  I wonder if any toroids are ever made that are like one foot, or bigger.
                   NZ

i might be able to help you there i use this circuit for night and day light and works very well
btw the light dosent turn off it is on forages just night as bright as i would like is all i have tried parallel leds and they brightness goes down with each led adderd but if i put them in series they stay the same brightness until i hit the voltage limit
you can use just one battery with this circuit and a 2.5v solar panel