New comer needs any and all help

[TinselKoala]

I think the wire size and turns that you said, are fine.
I'm sure there is some kind of "sweet spot" but literally every coil I've tried seems to work, more or less, and the ones I got from the old TVs, the ones in the rectangular frames, work really well. They are dual windings with the same size wire and same number of turns on each winding.

OK, so those breadboards that have the holes for component wires.... I've found problems with them too. The "grippers" that are inside will get loose or bent and won't make proper contact. I've got a few but I'm careful with them, using only small component leads, but sometimes they still will get loose.

But I think twisting wires together should work fine if you're careful about it. There is even a prototype technique called wire-wrap, where all your connections are made this way with really fine wire and a little wrapping tool. I've laid out whole circuits of chips this way, without a single solder joint. For low voltage, low current circuits this works fine; I've even seen wire-wrapped connections inside commercial products like those old TVs.

So let's build a basic LED joule thief first using the coil you just described.

You have some 2n2222a transistors I think. Make sure you know which lead is which: if you have the metal can version, the lead at the "tab" is the Emitter, the middle lead is the Base and the remaining lead is the Collector.  The Collector is also connected to the can so don't let it touch any other part of the circuit. If you have the black plastic version looking at the flat side, the leads are E B C from Left to Right.

Let's use a run-down AA or AAA battery for this simple JT confidence builder.

Now  take your coil that you described, and hook one end of the ten-turn winding to one end of the 50 turn winding, and hook this point to the positive battery terminal.

Take the other end of the 10 turns winding and hook it to one end of a resistor, something between 200 and 1000 ohms. Hook the other end of this resistor to the Base of the transistor.

Hook the other end of the 50 turns winding to the Collector of the transistor and to the Anode of the LED. (The LED has two electrodes inside, one looks like a "Cup" this is the Cathode or negative, and there should be a flat side on the LED base to indicate Cathode, and the other one is the Anode or positive.)

Hook the Emitter of the transistor to the Cathode of the LED, and finally hook a wire from this point ( Emitter-Cathode) to the negative pole of the battery. It should work!

If it doesn't, reverse the connections to ONE of the coils, whichever is easiest to do on your setup. Then it should work.

If not, check the connections to the LED, try reversing it, but also make sure it's working by lighting it with normal power. Try a different transistor. If it still doesn't work after all of this, we've got some problem that might take a few tries to find.

I just made a short video, following these instructions exactly, the only difference from your build is my larger turns winding has only around 30 turns instead of your 50. It's processing and uploading now, will be ready in a few minutes.

OK, done uploading:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIgKGDbtfw

[TinselKoala]

Once you've got that basic circuit working, then start experimenting to build up to your desired operation.

First start by changing the base resistor value and see what that does. Keep the same low voltage battery, and change the resistor in steps: 220 R, 440R, 470R, 560R, 680R, etc and see what happens to the brightness of your LED. Then, with the 680R or 1k R in there, try increasing the battery voltage and see what happens. If you started with a dead 1 volt AAA, put a brand new 1.54 volt one in there. Etc.

Then change the transistor to a 2n3055.  Then start adding or removing turns from your coils, a few at a time. Experiment in an orderly fashion and keep some kind of record so you don't get lost.

By starting with a working circuit and only changing one thing at a time, you will learn a lot and you can build up to where you are getting the results you want.

ETA: If you are going to stay with this hobby... and it's a good and very rewarding one... you really need a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. The most basic one available is the Weller WLC100, like the one I use. I think RS actually carries these or a similar one. Velleman also markets a good basic adjustable iron.
I got my Weller at a yard sale years ago for 5 dollars, and I've changed the tip once in all the time I've been using it. You probably aren't going to get that lucky though!!

[jhsmith87]

OK.. well I got an led to light up but my multimeter shoes no difference in voltage I tried all size resistors even tried a pot no voltage increase.

[TinselKoala]

OK.. well I got an led to light up but my multimeter shoes no difference in voltage I tried all size resistors even tried a pot no voltage increase.

Well, I take it you at least got your circuit working. I hope you found my directions and video useful.

Your multimeter isn't going to be able to measure the output voltage of this system, because its output is very short duration, HV spikes.

If you really want to measure the output voltage you can do this:

Find an electrolytic capacitor of around 22 microFarads, 200 volts. The "negative" side of this cap will be marked on the case. I used the big cap from a CFL that I took apart, it's perfect.
Find a diode, just about any one will do. To confirm my instructions here, I used a random diode from an old TV circuit board. It is marked RM1B and 57, and has a band on the cathode end. The internet tells me this is an 800 V, 0.8 A rectifier diode. You might have 1n4001 series diodes, use one of them, like 1n4002 or 1n4005. There are also a bunch of these rectifier diodes in the CFL power circuit in the base of the bulb.

Hook the positive side of the capacitor to the Collector-LED anode connection.
Hook the negative side of the capacitor to the _anode_  (non-banded end)  of the rectifier diode.
Hook the _cathode_ of the rectifier diode to the Emitter-LED-battery negative connection.
Now hook your voltmeter across the capacitor, negative lead to negative on the cap, positive lead to the positive on the cap, DC voltage setting, 20 volt range.
Turn on the JT, and you should see the LED light up normally, and the voltage on your cap will climb more or less rapidly until it stabilises. You might be surprised at how high it goes. Mine got up to 2.7 volts in a few seconds, with less than 1 volt input from the battery.

Now for the real treat.....  break the connection between your LED and the emitter of the transistor, so that the LED is disconnected and can not clip the output. Set your voltmeter to the 200 VDC range. Repeat the above, but just connect the cathode (banded end) of the rectifier diode to the emitter lead of the transistor, with your LED disconnected ( and of course connect this junction to the battery negative as usual). Watch.... and learn. I _know_ you will be surprised this time.
Mine took about 30 seconds to build up to just over 70 volts DC, and that on less than 1 volt input from the battery.

The capacitor stores and "integrates" or adds up the spikes, so you will get a voltage reading that reflects the performance of the JT. The diode keeps the charge on the cap and doesn't let it back into the JT to vanish. But the presence of the LED means that no matter what the true output might be, it will be clipped by the LED, and also limited by the fwd voltage drop of the rectifier diode you are using. It does provide a reference value for you, though, and you should be able to tell if your changes are having any effect. With the LED disconnected you get a value closer to the peak output voltage, less the (now insignificant) drop caused by the rectifier.

BE careful, with a good HVJT you can build up hundreds of volts in a big capacitor this way and hurt yourself.

[jhsmith87]

Yes your instructions help a lot I probably couldn't done it without it thanks. Now I'm trying with the capacitors but I can't seem to get it is the capacitors to charge over .7 volts and when I try to hook up a diode  it behaves more like a resistor I know I have hooked up the right way and I tried putting putting diodes in all the places I can think of I had it coming from the collector and the negative terminal to the capacitor I had coming from the emmiter and all of the places that I could I tried using an LED before the capacitor every way still nothing above .7 volts I must be doing something wrong I'm just not sure what it is. But we can skip over that part for now and try too move along to just up in the power try to power something more than just 1 LED what should I do next to try to power assume all CFL or maybe some halogen light bulbs anything that will provide enough light for a few plants so now that I've got the circuit down good. What should be my next step in trying to create more output power would it be just increasing the input power adding another circuit to the end of that circuit or what