Big Joule Theif

[seth]

That ones an iron core theremart.

I dont think it would work quite as good as a ferrite one.
But it sure would be nice to not have to wind the toroid.

I just started winding another toroid.

This one will be 26ga. for the JT and 30ga. for the pickup coil.

Boy it sure takes a long time to wind the 30ga. such a small wire not making much head way.
But I think it would work better with the smaller wire.
Be able to have more turns per layer and the wires a lot tighter on the toroid.

Hi Slayer,

Do you always use a bridge and capacitor off your secondary coil, before running it in the CFL?? Have you managed it without?

Thanks in advance and Nice work

PS, Why do you think ferrite cores are more effective than iron cores??? Ive been playing with both myself, and the ferrite ones do seem better for some reason. I saw on OU someone was using an air core. Anyone had any luck with that?

[Lidmotor]

556CN-Dual timer chip

@Lidmotor: This is absolutely not too way out for what i can imagine hehe.
I am conceptionalizing a solution for this right now and it looks like this will not even need an additional timer
That all depends on if a cap can be found that charges to a sufficient potential (like above 12v) in around 1/100 sec.
Something like less than 1 microfarad. I will run some cap simulations to find the best capacitance value. Hopefully i can experiment with that tomorrow.
If that will turn out to be not working well, then a 2nd timer that pulses the cap every 10 seconds for example can be added.

Xenomorph--- I got a timer chip at Radio Shack today that is two 555s in one chip. It is called a 556CN Dual. Part#276-1728. This would probably get the job done----if we need to do this. I hope that we can figure out a way to do it with just the one. Actually I stared boxing the whole thing today. I figured out the (2) DPDT switch circuit and it works great. The two switches have an 'off in the center' position that lets you turn off one battery or the other until you get the bulb on. The way I have it wired you can use both batteries as a source also. I installed a charge port for a wall source input or a solar panel input.

Lidmotor

[theremart]

Torroids...

That ones an iron core theremart.

I dont think it would work quite as good as a ferrite one.
But it sure would be nice to not have to wind the toroid.

I just started winding another toroid.

This one will be 26ga. for the JT and 30ga. for the pickup coil.

Boy it sure takes a long time to wind the 30ga. such a small wire not making much head way.
But I think it would work better with the smaller wire.
Be able to have more turns per layer and the wires a lot tighter on the toroid.

Ok, did not look that close I noticed there are worlds of differences in torroids of the materials used. I have no clue as to understand all the different types..

[slayer007]

829-0080-UNIVERSAL TOROID CORE-Electronic Surplus Inc.Offering obsolete IC's, discretes, motors, relays, switches, pots, and much, much more! Always looking for your excess inventory.

it is only the primary wrapped on this torroid, by the look of it one could wrap the top of it with the other and have a dandy of a torroid...
FYI...

That ones an iron core theremart.

I dont think it would work quite as good as a ferrite one.
But it sure would be nice to not have to wind the toroid.

I just started winding another toroid.

This one will be 26ga. for the JT and 30ga. for the pickup coil.

Boy it sure takes a long time to wind the 30ga. such a small wire not making much head way.
But I think it would work better with the smaller wire.
Be able to have more turns per layer and the wires a lot tighter on the toroid.

[theremart]

This looked interesting..

829-0080-UNIVERSAL TOROID CORE-Electronic Surplus Inc.Offering obsolete IC's, discretes, motors, relays, switches, pots, and much, much more! Always looking for your excess inventory.

it is only the primary wrapped on this torroid, by the look of it one could wrap the top of it with the other and have a dandy of a torroid...
FYI...

[Xenomorph]

@Lidmotor: This is absolutely not too way out for what i can imagine hehe.
I am conceptionalizing a solution for this right now and it looks like this will not even need an additional timer
That all depends on if a cap can be found that charges to a sufficient potential (like above 12v) in around 1/100 sec.
Something like less than 1 microfarad. I will run some cap simulations to find the best capacitance value. Hopefully i can experiment with that tomorrow.
If that will turn out to be not working well, then a 2nd timer that pulses the cap every 10 seconds for example can be added.

[Lidmotor]

Sharing of ideas

I just wanted to say thank you for all the great work you guys have done on this. This is some amazing light output for that much input powerand you still get most of it back in the charging battery. Great stuff

@Jetijs----I don't know about the other guys here but I have followed and admired your work going way back. Your build quality is perfect. If you ever build one of these lights I hope that you will show it. It is kinda like your solid state charger only it makes light along the way.

@Shlodo---Great video!! I especially liked how you showed the "sewing" of the toroid. I almost gave up the project until Slayer told me how to do it. My first attempt was a messy disaster. Your video may become a classic. The only thing missing was the circuit diagram. A little mystery might be OK though.

@ Slayer---All I can say is thanks for all of this. The key piece of the circuit is your trifilar 2" toroid design. Without that it just doesn't work right.

@Xenomorph----This may sound really out there but what if we used two 555s. One to pulse the whole circuit and one of Shlodo's to pules the bulb and charge battery. Tuning that might be a nightmare though. They might get in a 555 timer fight. Things might get ugly.

Lidmotor

[slayer007]

Thanks to Slayer & Lidmotor for helping me build this, and to evryone else working on this project - cheers
YouTube - Joule Thief 05 - 40W Fluoro Tube on 2 x AA's

-shlodo

Very Nice video shlodo.

The light looked nice and bright.

Really I was kinda surprised you got that much light out of the yellow toroid.

I think you get it to work a lot better with a differant toroid thats ferrite.

But you still did it and a very nice job to and thanks for the notice ant the end.

[Xenomorph]

[Jetijs]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the great work you guys have done on this. This is some amazing light output for that much input powerand you still get most of it back in the charging battery. Great stuff

[shlodo]

2xAA's running 40W Fluoro Tube

Thanks to Slayer & Lidmotor for helping me build this, and to evryone else working on this project - cheers
YouTube - Joule Thief 05 - 40W Fluoro Tube on 2 x AA's

-shlodo

[shlodo]

Lighting / Charging Switcher

@Xenomorph

Well first of all the charging part can be HV (not as High as the Neon side). With my 90 turn coil I got 500V voltage spikes. I have not scoped this coil yet but its definitely enough to light a neon so we know its more than 90V.

My idea is to have a relay switching between:
1. lighting the Big Fluoro off the secondary coil
2. charging a cap off the Collector

We do this fast enough so that we do not notice the pulses in the light. Its hard to charge a light the Fluoro at the same time so why dont we do one when the other is off.

It removes the 555 from the front and puts it to the back. The JT will have full on time but im sure we could get better charging out of it.

Check out the attachment, I drew up a circuit. I was just about to try it today... I had the 555 built, got the relay switching, then it died on me!! Damn!
-shlodo

[Lidmotor]

Charging

@Sholdo--- Getting the bulb to stay on with the charge circuit hooked up was a BIG problem for me. I could not get it to happen at all until I put the 555 circuit on. Then it would only happen with the round or U bulb. The way I get it to work is to get the bulb to turn on first and then connect the charge battery. The return from the charge battery has to go to the (+) side of the source battery. I think that my voltage regulator also helps.
The DPDT on this circuit will not work like it did on the LED JT circuit where both the charge and source shared a common ground. What I figured out on this circuit was to use (2) DPDT switches that each have an off position in the middle. The way it would be wired would to use either battery as a source alone or one as the source and one to charge. The Bedinis SSG circuit is just like this one as far as the wiring of the source and charge batteries are concerned. There must be a diagram around somewhere for the manual switch circuit. Maybe if someone knows of one they can post it here.

Lidmotor

[Xenomorph]

@shlodo

Thats a good idea, i see one problem though. U would have to put the 555 on the back end not the front

[shlodo]

@Lidmotor

I ran the test at 7 volts with a 50 milliamp draw. The light was on low light of course but still enough to read by at night. I may run a test at full brightness which runs at 11 volts and 150 to 200 milliamps.

What size battery were u charging into Lid? I cant seem to charge battery and keep the light going together, its one or the other it seems.

When the bulb is not firing, pulse the charge battery

Thats a good idea, i see one problem though. U would have to put the 555 on the back end not the front, interrupting the HV line and shifting it to the light then to the cap/battery. The 555 would probably get zapped with HV.
U would probably need to use a relay or something to isolate the chip.

Ive seen some Solid State relays. they have No moving parts. Ive tried cap pulsing before by building up charge in a cap and using a Relay to dump into battery. But because of the High Potential as the relay makes contact a bit of energy is lost by producing a spark. I reckon a solid state relay would eliminate this.... Again i haven't tried it yet.

Also perhaps the simple NEGISTOR circuit i posted above might help instead of the 555. i dont think it will mind the HV as much. its only a 2n2222 cap and resistor.


@Slayer

shlodo that does work very well to light a cfl.
It's allmost the samething Aromaz was doing with the ignition coil cfl.
I'm running it off 10v it draws around 170Ma.
But it will light a 13W cfl I'm using the toroid I have for the JT.
I didnt use the cap or the 1K resistor and the base of the 2222 I ran back to the cfl.
I'm allso using the 2222 to trigger a 3055 thats running the JT.

So thats why the Aromaz circuit worked. Apparently there are few transistors that have this NEGISTOR effect and the 2n2222 is one of them.
Wow u got it working without the cap?! but then theres no way of modulating the ON time??? Im building a JT mood light and was gonna use the circuit to ease on and off slowly

@Lidmotor

I will use a DPDT switch in the boxed version

For the life of me I cant seem to figure out how to use a DPDT switch to flip flop the batteries?! Can u post a circuit of the wiring?

-shlodo