Joule Thief

[jeanna]

btw it still will not lite the cfl worth crap ....
only if i hold it ..

ideas?
ist!

Hi IST,

If it lights when you hold it, then it lights.

In the tesla lectures, he made the point that unlike previous circuits, the AC circuit did not need to ground in the usual way, but could be grounded by simply holding it, which is what you did, or

By grounding it to a piece of metal on a wall that was connected to the ground, or

the ground itself.

So, you are lighting the light.
Now see what you can connect it to that will make it stay on... like the ground or something connected to the ground.

I have tried this and not yet got it to work, myself.

I think living in a faraday cage may have more effects than I can overcome.

Anyway, it is great that you got the light to turn on. Did you try a magnet on the alligator clip that goes to one wire of the cfl? That is what got mine to be on so well, I could remove the magnet after the light was fully on.

jeanna

[xee2]

@ jeanna

BTW, you mentioned that you got it to start by touching one leg of the secondary to the neg of the battery.
Did you keep it there, or just touch it once?

And, the circuit you drew has an added 200uF battery cap.(up from 100uF) Did that help?

The circuit diagram has one side of pickup coil connected to negative of battery. That is the circuit I tested. I did not have to touch tube in order to turn it on. I like to use capacitors across batteries but I do not think it makes much difference.

Since you are happy with results, maybe you should duplicate circuit and see if you get same results. It would take you less than an hour to make the coil.

[xee2]

[@ stprue

quote author=stprue link=topic=6123.msg188829#msg188829 date=1246385308]
I want the circuit digram maker you have!  Was it free?  TinyCad has very thin line and other stuff I don't like about it.  Do you know of a better free app?
[/quote]

I use Serif DrawPlus. It is not free and it takes a bit of learning how to use.

EDIT: they use to have a free demo version but I do not know if they still do. Google serif and see.

[jeanna]

... I like to use capacitors across batteries but I do not think it makes much difference.

The only difference between my circuit and components that changed from 5 1/4 duration to 4 hour duration was the caps at the battery.
So, I think it does matter.

... It would take you less than an hour to make the coil.

I might.
I am on to other things at the moment.
I got the circuit partly started and it will be a part of those other things, and I might do it now or later.

Thanks again.

jeanna

[innovation_station]

thank you mark  i went and got4 of those 

awesome find you know how lazzy i can be ...  lol

thank you jeanna  i will try those changes tonight

im building a solar light right  now 48 leds 1 coil 1 aaa solar unit recharger

ill put it all togather

and take a pic when i finish it ...  probally just use the mk2 coil style for this one ..  but who knows they are less time consumeing to wind

back to it ..

ist