Lynx Joule Inverter

[NickZ]

  Yes, thanks. That was what blew, and I did replace it with another cap, as this was a brand new 24 watt Cfls which I liked a lot. But, that did not fix it, even though the cap was obviously cracked open, something else also must have burnt out. I'm tossing it in the big pile of other discarded Cfls for later recycling. Not worth the time it takes to fix, as they just costed about 6 dollars. It still works with the Exciter type circuits.
  I don't know if you've seen my Joule Ringer Lamp video, inspired by Lynx, as well as Lasersaber.
It's running on 12v, and lighting a gutted 65 watt Cfl bulb. This is about as much light as I can get out of it using these circuits.  I'm thinking of buying some 110 volt flourescent light circuits to connect to my newer joule ringer circuit, now that it can light 110v bulbs off of 12 volt batteries, or solar.
Or even getting 12 v flourescent light circuits, to light any tube, round halo bulbs, or Cfls.   Anyways,  just a thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iTdrjIRiwo

[Magluvin]

  Yes, thanks. That was what blew, and I did replace it with another cap, as this was a brand new 24 watt Cfls which I liked a lot. But, that did not fix it, even though the cap was obviously cracked open, something else also must have burnt out. I'm tossing it in the big pile of other discarded Cfls for later recycling. Not worth the time it takes to fix, as they just costed about 6 dollars. It still works with the Exciter type circuits.
  I don't know if you've seen my Joule Ringer Lamp video, inspired by Lynx, as well as Lasersaber.
It's running on 12v, and lighting a gutted 65 watt Cfl bulb. This is about as much light as I can get out of it using these circuits.  I'm thinking of buying some 110 volt flourescent light circuits to connect to my newer joule ringer circuit, now that it can light 110v bulbs off of 12 volt batteries, or solar.
Or even getting 12 v flourescent light circuits, to light any tube, round halo bulbs, or Cfls.   Anyways,  just a thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iTdrjIRiwo

Ah. Well you can poke around to see if anything is shorted with a meter. Just to know. 

Yes, I have seen the vid.   

I wonder if we are stuck with just getting more light output per power in, rather than maybe charging another battery with a smaller on on the input. If ya know what I mean.
There must be a reason for a lot of claims having light bulbs as loads instead of motors or powering other devices that provide other forms of usefulness.

As for serious usefulness of cheaper lighting, this is great stuff. Ever fly in a jet plane and look down at the cities at night? Each one of those lil tiny orange street lights is 400 to 1000w. If we could just reduce that substantially, it would be a great accomplishment.

Nice work. 

Mags

[NickZ]

  The problem with getting more light out of the bulbs is the transistor heat issue, at anything above 12v. or burning out the internal circuitry of the 110v Cfls, and Led bulbs. So, either we'll have to be satisfied with lower light intensity, or... build somewhat more inefficient circuits using more components that will allow for higher voltage/current levels. The Joule Ringer's single transistor circuit work very well for the 110 volt, 7.5 watt led bulbs. I just can't buy them here in Costa Rica, yet. I'll have some brought to me sometime soon though. In the meantime these are the best bang for the buck that I've seen yet: 5  900 lumen 10 watt Led lights, for $12, free shipping.
Wish they came with a small fixture, to mount them on the ceiling.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-10W-Watt-LED-Cool-White-High-Power-900LM-LED-Lamp-SMD-Chip-9-12V-DC-/330790452557?_trksid=p2047675.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D117%26meid%3D2880964511898202726%26pid%3D100010%26prg%3D1065%26rk%3D4%26sd%3D110946278953%26

[TinselKoala]

That LED driver circuit looks to me like you might be able to get away with using a simple mosfet in place of the "driver" chip. The optoisolator output feeding the gate of the mosfet, with a resistor or two scattered about in there. I've used optoisolators to trigger mosfets before, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[Lynxsteam]

Nick,

This thread really isn't about lighting CFLs, but I understand your situation.  LEDs are expensive and not available easily in Costa Rica.  You can light unmodded CFLs on the LJL with collector/secondary connection.  Moving the connection from emitter to collector really keeps the transistor in its range.  A 2n3055 can handle 60-70 watts. But CFLs are power hogs compared to LEDs so maybe two to three bulbs max on a single 2n3055. 

Another thought is starting them with a third winding on the secondary and switching over to a lower setting once they are warm.  If you watch my vids on the LJL, you will see that I wind three layers of secondary on the form.  Also, (and this is different) for CFLs, I would run two parallel wires for the primary.  You will have in effect fewer primary turns, but less resistance too.  On the high setting you will quickly warm the bulbs and then you can disconnect the third layer of secondary.  Its tough to perfectly design these LJLs for both LEDs and CFLs.  That's why I use taps on the three layers of secondary.

So, back to this thread.  I hope you can get one of these LEDs to see how simple this Lynx Joule Inverter is.  Its so simple it kind of takes the fun out of it.