Joule Thief

[xee2]

@ Mk1

Have not tried ground rod but I am sure it would work. Freezer has already posted photo of CFL working from AA battery.

EDIT: actually I am not sure. It works by capacitive coupling. I assume it will capacitively couple to ground as well as body.

[Mk1]

I have seen some of lidmotor movies and in some cases it got a brighter light with earth ground .

[WilbyInebriated]

if you are running one wire off the high voltage with the other unconnected, you can observe this capacitive coupling with a sheet of aluminum foil. connect the foil to the side of the tube that is not connected to the circuit and the tube will be brighter, touch that foil with your hand and the tube will get brighter yet.

@mk1
no, i never tried it with the big cap, but i did use the smaller .22pf? cap from another camera circuit.

@pirate
wow a four foot bulb! damn

[electricme]

@ all,
How to cool a plastic transistor running over its specs.
This is easy to do, but it is not something we see every day and most people don't think of it at all.

Solder to the transister 3 insulated wires about 8 inches long to the Base Collector and Emitter.
Solder the ends to the correct connection points on the PCB.

Hunt in the kitchen for a small glass open top jar, about 2" high and 2" accross, a babies preteething jelly jar. (don't tell the wife) as Ironhead says "DO IT"
It should have a pop on - off flat lid (eat the contents "yum" or throw it away), wash the jar and dry it.

Plonk the transister into the empty jar
Poor in some engine oil or light machine oil.

Now the oil acts as a really good heat sink, it covers the whole transister, not just the back of it.
The elect authority uses the same principles on their power pole transformers to cool them down, they have heat fins.
The same is used on ignition coils, they are all imersed in special transformer oil, does the same job.
No different to cooling down a stubbon hot transister.
If the oil gets very hot, plonk in a bit of finned ally and connect a 12v DC computer fan to it. 

Mostly this is self cooling, as the oil close to the transister gets hot, it rises, the cooler oil decends, so it will self cool your transister.

Problem fixed.
Note, don't tip jar over, or it is kitty litter time ha ha   

jim

[electricme]

@all
Wow this thread is going like the clappers, look at the pages, getting bigger faster than I can read them.

@ Bill
congrats on getting your big 40Watt fluros to light up
Good achievement, you earn 10 stars ha ha.

Bill you asked if others are having the CFL treatment, ahhh ha, we are in Australia, we are being forced to buy CFLs, last month the premier anna bligh gave away coupons in the local rag so every one could get a packet of 2 CFLs, the person who got the "green" glower got a free car.
If you break a CFL, the mercury in gas form trickles out, now I wonder if there is a way to soak it up.
I learned in High School science lab, if one heats red lead powder, in a test tube, mercury can be seen to come out.
Yep, and now all the tungston element ones have dissapearred of fthe shelves.
Tungston bulbs cost us 25c to buy, CFLs cost mininum of $3 now that a backward step in anyones langwige.

I was very concerned to hear of your experiences when these CFLs fail bill, If that poster can send or post that info he mentioned I'll read up on it.

Going to do a bit of thinking about the power factor prob, got to be a way around it.

jim