Big Joule Theif

[Watson]

Ferrite Toroid Cores

FERRITE MATERIALS LIST - the details
FERRITE CORES

A few months ago I got some ferrite toroids from Goldmine Electronics, stock # G66683, at 5 for $1.00 (I checked and they're still available). At ten bucks, I have a big bagful, enough for the rest of my life, I'd guess. They're pretty good size: O.D is .985 inch, I.D. is .510 inch, and height is .355 inch, fairly thick for its size. The smooth cores look like uncoated ferrite.

They are very high permeability; a single wire through the core measures 3 microhenrys on my LC meter, and 6 turns measures 560 microhenrys.

I built a higher power JT using one of these cores and eight turns of 24 gauge solid insulated phone wire for both windings. I works very well and drives a 10mm 5-chip white LED at 80 mA. I wound 6 feet of the same wire on another core and it measured about 50 millihenrys but the meter is not accurate at this high of an inductance. The JT oscillated at 1100 Hz, the lowest I've ever measured in a JT that I've built. I can hear it in an earphone!

I started to wind a lot of turns of 32 gauge wire on one, but it's tedious and I didn't finish. I don't think I have anywhere near a hundred turns. I may try to wind some primary and feedback winding over it and try to drive a few neons or a CFL something like that.

I hope your holidays have been happy.

[jeanna]

Hi everybody,

I made a lamp using a tor-23 which is about 5/8 inch.

TIP3055RadioShack
5T,8T,84T MK1Jeanna style
120r fixed
309v
40Kh

I managed to keep the volts DOWN to 309v at 40Khz and placed the jtc between the base of the bulb and the lamp switch.
When I did this with 700 v yesterday the switch continued to arc and never turned off.
So, it is bright but not as bright as with 700v, but now I need to hide the wires.
Here is my pic for today.

To a bright and shining New Year!


jeanna

[Lidmotor]

Toroid core

Ah, yes.
Then you make a video so it is known everywhere anyone is watching.

I am curious about how you wound the toroid.
Did you do my more difficult new one?
I ask because I have never seen anything like this and I suspect that it has to do with both the toroid and how the turns go.

Well, I am off to get some aluminum pans etc.

This will be cool.

I picture it this way...
you walk into a house and touch the shiny part of the wall and all the lights in the house go on.
or...
Maybe it could be started with one of those IR body heat detectors so you don't even need to touch it! ... but I am ahead of myself. I need to get the pans first!

thank you for all the good ideas!

jeanna

Hi Jeanna,
My toroid cores arrived from Allelectronics yesterday and I will have another go at you little HV coil. The core that I was trying to use was all wrong and I tried the hard and the easy way of winding the secondary on it. Neither way worked. The core may have been made of iron powder instead of ferrite.

Happy New Year

Lidmotor

[jeanna]

Ah, yes.
Then you make a video so it is known everywhere anyone is watching.

I am curious about how you wound the toroid.
Did you do my more difficult new one?
I ask because I have never seen anything like this and I suspect that it has to do with both the toroid and how the turns go.

Well, I am off to get some aluminum pans etc.

This will be cool.

I picture it this way...
you walk into a house and touch the shiny part of the wall and all the lights in the house go on.
or...
Maybe it could be started with one of those IR body heat detectors so you don't even need to touch it! ... but I am ahead of myself. I need to get the pans first!

thank you for all the good ideas!

jeanna

[Lidmotor]

Wrong toroid core??

@ Jeanna
I tried to make the small HV toroid yesterday and failed to get it to work. I think that the toroid core I was using was perhaps wrong so I ordered a couple of the Tor-61s and will try again. Sometimes things that look easy --arn't. About 20% to 30% of what I try doesn't work or works differently than what was planned. Once in awhile a new "thing" emerges and one of those "Oh Wow look at that" moments takes place. Those are unfortunatly rare moments.

Lidmotor

[jeanna]

voltage too high?

Hi everybody,
I had a time consuming dissapointment today.
I want to share it to save some of your time, or at least bring up the question.....


I finished my lamp and darn... this is so strange.

I went to a lot of trouble to get the battery-rheostat-switch in line with the joule thief under the fixture.
I did all that so I could use the switch.
I even fed the secondary wires through the little holes around the bulb screw place.
I managed to get the thing so it went out when the switch was thrown, but it continues to drain from the battery.
It might be a faulty switch, but I bet it is because it is doing a joule thief radiation shuffle, or some other kind of dance.

So, it looks sort of like the other globe lamp except it has a rheostat.
The light is the unmodified 19 led LoA light so it has fewer bulbs than the 24 in that one, and it is beautifully smooth in the light it gives off.
I mean there are no bright light spots coming through the glass bulb.
Those strawhats are very nice in that way.
But, it is not really any brighter, of course because it has 19 leds and the other has 24 leds.

I did this because I thought it would be easy or easier, or at least an option for someone who did not want to take the light apart. (nope)

I will probably remove the joule thief and use it for a growlight because it lights my 15w growlight really well.

jeanna

[Lidmotor]

The Coil

Thank you everybody,


OK lidmotor,
Here is a closer look. I described the details above so I won't repeat it... just a closer look.
I wrapped the string 3 times around each side of the centertapped primary to keep the primary from being overlapped by the secondary. The string is about as thick as some 24awg wire.
This is the Tor-61 from allelectronics. I am going to check out the mmi info now to see what they have.
jeanna

Thanks Jeanna
I should be able to make this ok. It doesn't look that hard.

Lidmotor

[jeanna]

Thank you everybody,


OK lidmotor,
Here is a closer look. I described the details above so I won't repeat it... just a closer look.
I wrapped the string 3 times around each side of the centertapped primary to keep the primary from being overlapped by the secondary. The string is about as thick as some 24awg wire.
This is the Tor-61 from allelectronics. I am going to check out the mmi info now to see what they have.
jeanna

[Lidmotor]

@ Jeanna
I havn't taken my LoA bulb apart yet so I might try your new toroid coil on it first. I have a core that should work on this. I'm working on three projects at the same time now and trying to fit them into any free time during the holidays.

Thanks,

Lidmotor

[Pirate88179]

Way to go Jeanna!

Bill

[sucahyo]

It lights a neon
a 7w fl tube
a 15w tube
it dimly lights a fat 20w fl tube but it stays lit when my hands are off it.

Congratulation .

[jeanna]

Hi Mark,
Yes, and this is a quiet forum compared to ou.

----

So, for that reason and because not everybody here likes to thrash it out at ou (or whatever) I am announcing my latest success.
I wound a toroid with the MK1jeanna hybrid type winding with about 110 Turns on the secondary and got 600v-727v.

What is so great to me about this is how small the toroid is... 0.86 inch OD.

the windings are
2T,9T,110T
TIP31 from RS
25r at the base
one AAA battery.

It lights a neon
a 7w fl tube
a 15w tube
it dimly lights a fat 20w fl tube but it stays lit when my hands are off it.
No cfl.

So, I had just suggested to lidmotor to take his apart and gut it for the easiest bright light (which is true)
I grabbed an unmodified 19leds bulb and it lights at full brightness. wow.
This is more light than the cfl even though the cfl is harder to light.

So here is a christmas present to all.

jeanna

[mk1]

Hi everybody,

I made a new JT secondary powered light bulb modification.
I also modified the lamp so the whole lamp and bulb work together as a joule thief secondary light.

(aka jeanna's light, I think.)

19leds jeanna's light in a lamp

Enjoy,

jeanna

Very nice work !

I got this membership , before the one on OU , i maybe time to use it ! Since pretty much everyone is here.

Mark

[raff]

Hi guys/gals,

nice work on the joule thief

never thought adding a third coil(for the CFL) will be fine... usually the LED in the collector "catches" the BEMF , and therefore lights up..

anyways, will try making one also...

parts to be used: those switching transistors commonly found on PC PS..rated at about 7A 400V .... for the core, cant seem to find a big enough torroid for it(I have one here about 1.2" OD but 10T is only about 88uH on my LC meter) I wonder if this is even suitable.. not SO sure where this torroid came from(maybe just for EMI filtering)... so.. CORE to use would be (again) from the PC PS trafo E-I core (with airgap removed)....I think this will do fine..

till next year! merry X-mas and a Happy New YEAR to all!

[Pirate88179]

Way to go Jeanna! That is really cool.

Bill