Joule Thief

[resonanceman]

Hi everyone, I mostly hang out in the crystal cell thread, but I had a question about the joule thief. Based on the considerable amount of variations and experiments that have been done, in this thread alone. Could someone please post a schematic, of what they consider, the best joule thief is so far. Which one is the longest lasting, and most efficient? I hope this request doesn't sound lazy, but surely you can understand that a 1000 page topic is a little intimidating! I've built the battery switching joule thief charger that Lidmotor and Kubikop showed on youtube, which is really cool, but I know I'm way behind in joule thief design. I started tinkering with joule thieves about a year ago, and then got involved in researching crystal cells, so I missed a lot of progress I'm sure. So what's the most long-lasting, amperage squeezing, design you guys have come up with!?

mrbr00k

What  are you thinking  of doing with a JT?
A JT that is most efficient for one thing might  be totally ineffective for some other thing.........there  is no one  best JT...... this is  thread  is a string  of experiments  with people  finding the  best they can do for MANY different applications.

gary

[mrbr00k5]

@All

Thanks for responding everyone. I guess I should have been more specific, so I'll rephrase the question. I basically just want it to run an L.E.D. or two. What I would like is a basic platform to build on. Besides the most basic joule thief, you know, the one with the 1K resistor to the base of the transistor, which you find all over the internet. I've seen some youtube videos where the person is going on about how simple it is to improve the efficiency of a joule thief, by just adding one diode or capacitor or etc. But they are usually moving the camera around so much I'm about to get seasick while watching the video, and I have no idea where the part they mention goes, since they seem to be filming inside the bat-cave, and not a well lit room, with clear schematics to go with their dialogue. But anyway, what is a relatively simple, improved version. In other words, a good all around design, with reduced current consumption, as compared to the most basic joule thief. I've also built the high efficiency joule thief from watson's e-blog, as seen here:

http://watsonseblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/joule-thief-high-efficiency-isthe-topic.html

It's really good, but I'm curious if you guys would recommend any changes. So anyway, (I tend to ramble...) Bottom line, a good balanced design, that's not too complex, but mostly with the idea of running an L.E.D.

Thanks in advance for any info you can offer.

I'll get started on reading the WHOLE topic meanwhile, HONEST! I just wish I had more free time...

[jeanna]

Please take a look at the joule thief 101 thread.
It was designed for beginning jt'ers
here
http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=8341.0

At least follow my posts for a concise list of suggestions, although others added a lot more than I did.
Because you said you had made a few, I thought you knew a bit more.... no problem.
Just do that.
I usually suggest a plain one but after that I suggest one using 16 turns on the secondary and 2-4 leds running off that.
but for only a few more turns and no additional mA draw you can add another 4 leds easily.
It is the lowest amp-cost jtc around.
But why should I repeat it again here?

jeanna

[Artic_Knight]

Hi All,
I have done quite a lot of experimenting over the last few months with radiant charging using the back EMF from various circuits including JT's. As Gary mentioned you do have to keep cycling the cells (charge/discharge) over many times. Both pulse frequency and mark/space ratio plays a crucial part in how successful this technique is. You are correct that a dead cell can be brought back to life and show a potential voltage, but no real useful current. You need to study the works of John Bedini and others to get a grasp of using these charge methods successfully. I have achieved mixed results with both nicad and lead acid cells... the methods tend to be rather critical, and I'm still working on these projects.

altho i love the idea of radiant energy as it would be a source of free energy and has been "discovered" i believe there is a more scientific and chemistry based answer for these batteries. if anyone has researched there are "desulfators" on the market, its a device that sends a high voltage charge with no amps that if it was constant would fry the battery but since its pulsed wth no amps it acts to restore the batteries origional chemistry by removing hard deposits off of the poles of the batteries. although this is designed for lead acid batteries it also seems to restore other batteries as well.

as deposits are made on the poles from batteries sitting around with little to no charge they cannot be fully recharged as part of the chemicals needed to restore the electrolyte is hard and crusty on a pole. if we knock it loose, its now available to restore a charge. a high frequency high voltage pulse with no amps makes the poles or plates "sing" and vibrate. this causes everything to be shaken loose and mix again.

if you wanted to modify the joule thief for charging you would need one high voltage version for "reconditioning" the battery and another for amps as said.  however just to verify some other statements made, using the "reconditioning" several times and even on a weekly basis is good for batteries as it will keep them in peak performing capacity. 

[Artic_Knight]

pardon my lack of memory but didnt this forum try their hand at making their own ferrite torroids a while back? i am interested in trying to make a ferrite disk for magnetic experiments. if anyone recalls/knows about this subject would you mind PM'ing me or replying to this thread if bill doesnt mind?

thanks