Joule Thief

[Hoppy]

   Using my best ferrite rod transformer from the 3.0 circuit, a TIP3055, and a 2n4017 transistors, and adding a 1n4148 diode from the secondary to the primary coils, and another 1n4148 diode with a cap, the other way around, I ran the circuit all night long. I tried different caps, they all made the light get brighter than just with the diode alone.
This morning the 1.5v D cell alkaline battery was reading 1/2 v, down from the one volt reading it was at when it started. This was a dead battery basically, as I wanted to see if it would self charge, but it did NOT.
  This circuit is strong enough to blow the white led, if left on without the diodes, and cap. Even on a dead 1 volt battery. I also added in series with the led, a 10 led 4volt led bulb which was barely lighting, although the white led was bright. Maybe this is what caused the circuit to not be able self charge. Once the circuit is turned off, the voltage returned to 1 volt.
  Anyway, so far I see no real self charging, yet.  But, I'll make some more changes, and remove the bigger 10 led bulb from the system.  This is still a very interesting circuit, and this was my first try.
  More to come...
                                                       
   NickZ

The IN4148 is a silicon diode, not germanium as gadget uses. Maybe this would make the difference.

Hoppy

[NickZ]

   Hoppy:
   That may be,  but that is what I have at the moment, and,  I'm far from a electronics part store.
  I'll check into it, as you might be right, although Minoly used a 914 diode and got his circuit charging to slightly higher voltages, and the 4148 is similar, but not the same.
  This circuit does work very well, specially without the diodes, or even with them, but it still needs some tuning, and I'm still working on it. This was the first try at it, and it ran all night, and when disconnected went back to the original 1. volt levels on the dead D cell battery.  All very interesting.
  If diodes are given too high a voltage they will not work and will conduct both ways, so that is why I lowered the input to 1. volt, and also to avoid blowing any of the small leds. I'l try other led bulbs, soon.
  Thanks for the advice,
                                      Nick

[totoalas]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/dsc05601r.jpg/

Neuground Lighting ac dc Combo   Sketch

[gadgetmall]

Nickz. it possible is 3 of 4 things not right   First . you cannot hook up Leds directly to the secondary . they need resistance and this is tuning /balance point , second i tried all the diodes i could find and only one KIND worked . out of 50each of 2 types of germaniums only one  kind of these work . I think it is 1n34a . The 3rd thing is the disk caps in series with the second diode also is a tuning/balance point , One cap may not work so parallel them to get the balance . There will be a point where you see little light and the circuit is sensitive as hell to a touch on the pos lead that makes it brighter . Also a touch on the Neg lead will make it dimmer . once you hit that spot which was not hard at all for me on now 4 different units you can see it charges up . My first unit hit 2.202 volts today .. this was just a cold nicad days ago .. i dunno . .
If you see the the voltage go below your start volts more than 2 hundreths while running it it is wrong.
correction that is 2 1000ths  for instance start cold measure 1.222  _ circuit running 1.220    . that is where you need to be.

Lasersaber has his way better as far as the last number on the meter goes when running . All he has to do it add the stuff and tune that disk cap as his bulb already has the necessary resistance in it like my 220 bulb..

[e2matrix]

SORRY OF OFF TOPIC...

Oh, man, do you have a link for more information?  According to what they told me, one of the missing boxes was last scanned in Ohio and the other one in Fort Worth.... so if that crash was in the last week it's certainly possible. But of course they didn't mention any crash to me on the phone.

Oh... man..... I just found the link. Thanksgiving Day. That certainly puts it in the right time frame..... My delivered box came on the Monday after TG weekend.... But the location of the crash is weird. Eastbound lane of I-10 east of Houston, about 300 miles East of me, so the trucks were moving away, I think, and FedEx did tell me that one of my boxes had been scanned in Fort Worth, which is 350 miles north of me and does make sense as en-route.... so who knows.
I feel badly for the people who were killed. The photos really look like it was a huge mess.

Sorry no link but it was on CNN.com and I clearly saw 2 Fedex trailers in a pic and commented when I saw that about how in my experience Fedex drivers seem to be less safe than UPS and some others.  I think they are under more pressure to get to their destinations than some other company drivers.   Not sure about Fedex but I've seen USPS parcels get routed a long way off course at times.  Hopefully it gets there for you eventually.
JUST FOUND ONE OF THE PICS:  http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/22/us/texas-highway-pileup/index.html?iref=allsearch
That's not the same pic I saw originally but you can clearly see the 2 Fedex trailers there.  And in case that page disappears before you get the chance here's a screen capture...