Joule Thief

[TheNOP]

But standard 120 volt 60Hz bulbs?

assuming the voltage does not change.
you need to understand why in some cases you can force more amps in a device, while in other cases you can't.

the higher the heat of the filament of a bulb, the greater it resistance will become.
if the resistance increase the current passing through the filament will be proportionaly limited by that resistance.
the vacum, or inert gase, inside the bulb prevent it from interacting with other gases that could destroy the filament.

the filaments of such bulbs are made with materials that can support the heat while emitting light.

[gadgetmall]

@ gadgetmall

It looks like the 69 mA is with no load. I think that battery drain will increase when fluorescent tubes are put on output. Can you check to see what battery drain is when your circuit is lighting a fluorescent tube?

no that was with a load . it was 65 ma without . I have it much lower now 59 ma with a load . It will get better than that because My fugi mod ,one of them is 15 ma with a load on a 45 watt cfl . now its not as bright but it stays lit longer than 16 hours on 1.4 volt Nimh @2500 mah
Gadget

[jeanna]

Actually, in the JT we are not using the tube the same as if it were in a light fixture. We are using it more like a neon tube.

What does this mean?

How are we doing this? Are we using volts plus something else?

thank you,
jeanna

[gadgetmall]

@ jeanna

First it is a 4 watt tube. That means it uses 4 watts when plugged into 120 volt AC supply.

I am surprised you asked about this. If you replace your 10 ohm resistor that you connect in series with the 1.5 volt battery to measure current with a 100 watt 10 ohm resistor do you really think that the battery is going to deliver 100 watts into it just because it is labled 100 watts? The 100 watts is the maximum power that can be put into the resistor without damaging it. Consider it a game. When you see something that says "100 watts" you need to play the game of "what in the world do they mean by that?".

The 4 watts are what it takes to Light the Filaments and get em hot and vaporize mercury as all floros have Filaments and the filaments are rated just like an incandescent 60 watt bulb. We dont need no stinkin filaments with cold electricity. So the actual power to lite them will be in the milliamp range on a jt

Gadget

[Pirate88179]

@ Gadget:

That is my understanding as well.  Similar in the way the Dr. Stiffler replications light a tube, all high volts and high frequency, very low mA's.  I'll bet we could light a tube in which the filaments were broken, what do you think?

Bill