Joule Thief

[electricme]

@ Mk1
I didn't think before did I, should have posted this first before all the other suggestions.

Take out your HD, and put it in another machine as the slave or the primary secondary.

Strt the computer, then go to START>run> type in CHKDSK and let it scan your hard drive
If it finds anything structually wrong, it will correct it.

Restart the PC several times to see if there are any other probs still there.

Do anti virus and malwarebytes scan

Run anything else you think you can do on it, get rid of coolwebsearch if it is there.

Save any stuff you need to, on to another drive

Then put it back in the original PC and reboot it.


If that wont get it to boot, check out your CMOS or BIOS settings.
put your XP CD in the drive and boot off it

Hope this all helps.


General Jim

[jadaro2600]

@jadaro2600
Ist is correct, you can light up a LED off a single coil both ways.

Take a look at this TWV I just made
Please excuse the fingers

I held a bare LED across the output from my big torid coil
Holding the LED I turned it 180 degrees and it again lit up 

Hope this helped you

General Jim

This is fantastically strange.  Is it possible that the led is attaining resonance in  way i described in this post:

I've looked into the youtube video ..perhaps we're thinking along the same lines; or maybe not.  the jtc looks a bit strange, but i'm a newbie.

I'm attempting to create an equivalent brightness using AC as would be with DC but using less over all power.

Intrinsically, generating AC will have it's drawbacks, or losses involved. etc.  I've read that a diode will act as a capacitor given a reversal of normal current flow, but in reversal situations there is heat dissipated.  Heat = loss of usable electricity.

I was thinking about half the current would due if a LED could be set into a resonant mode.  The circumstances being right ..a resonant LED wouldn't overheat and the eyes would smooth out the frequency... and hopefully not cause seizures.

Given the right forward current and perhaps a reverse current less than that of the forward current and the LED could be brought to resonance.

Still don't get why the led would rather light up that there be any current flow through the collector emitter path.

[electricme]

@ jadaro2600
you are having trouble in working out how come the current passes through the transister? is this right, relating to the JT?

Well I don't know if I could help you on this, as I am not sure how it works, but some how hi frequencies are involved in this process.

The JT steps up the voltage big time, in the process  the current falls to amounts that we carnt measure accuratly.
Some of us have got small voltage in our torids, some of us have got hundreds of volts.

The higher the voltages and frequencies and 1.5v turns into stuff that we don't know about, its almost like smoke or a mist but it can light up LEDs left right and center.
Example is Bills (Pirate88179s) work he pioneed on lighting up literally hundreds and hundreds of LEDs, all on a simple 1.5v AA battery cell, actually I take my hat off to him because he deserves recognition for this, he is the first person in the world who has successfully done this.
That is why this thread seems to have 2 or more seeminly different topics all going at the same time, they are all related and find their roots here on the working of the JT circuit.

When I built my first joule thief, (in the early days) I also made a test LED, it had 2 wires connections, the LED would not light from a 1.5v aa cell fully charged.
But put the same LED on a joule thief, and viola, light shone out of it, using the same test battery.

Anyway, mabe there would be others who would have a better explination than mine, if you do, please hop on and tell.


@ bill,
when does jeanna return? I really feel sorry for her when she see's all the posts to read up on.

Hooroo
General Jim

[flathunter]

@Pirate

Heres my setup:

Original evilmadscientist design.  Got 2 JTs, one using a tiny toroid (half inch long i reckon - cylinder), and a wind of 7 bifilar turns, one about an inch long with 9 bifilar turns (mobile phone charger wire on both).  I plug em into my breadboard which has a 1k resistor and a 2n3904.  They both can power several LEDs in combo with the little motor. 
My third JT is the large kind of audio transformer toroid that I actually bought for a different project about a year ago, but then gave up after several lame and dangerous attempts to safely connect it to the mains.  Thats the good thing about the JT - less chance of hurting yourself with REAL results   This toroid has definitely stopped working - its got loads of turns of rather thick wire, as well as secondary leads, and I reckon you may be right that somewhere along the wire something has gone wrong.....at least I still have my little ones    
Thanks anyhow mate - your videos of the CFLs were the ones that got me going on here!!!  I've got a 4w lamp now to play with, and 2 Boots disposable cameras .....Who knows, maybe the boots cameras will be the JT makers dream come true!

@jadaro

Thanks for the advice concerning the motor.  I'll try the capacitor and diode in my next circuit.  The motor is in good order as its working with the other 2 little JTs I have.  I'll be experimenting with the motor much more over the next few days, and if anything interesting happens, especially in regards to RAFs info concerning spinning backwards, you'll all be the first to know!

@RAF

Great work.  I second electrics suggestion of a circuit diagram.  12 V motor eh!!!!  I'm gonna have to aim a little higher! 

@electricme

Its complete coincidence!!  But RAF seems to be coming up with some good results, so i'll be doing my best to replicate and see if my motor works in a similar fashion.

@everyone else

Keep the info coming!

[RAF]

The circuit is pretty strait forward

Just to clarify the brushed DC motor starts out very fast,
and as the capacitor drains slows to a crawl but with some torque

The brush less starts fast but as the capacitor drains the motor
slows then suddenly goes in the other direction

I did put a meter across the capacitor to measure the voltage
during the run