Big Joule Theif

[pentiger]

@Tec and All:
I've been told that connecting the Leds direct to the battery (without a Jt) will make them light brighter and stronger, than to connect them through the Jtc to the battery. Can You confirm this for us?
I bought some of the Radio Shack 10mm Leds, but I'm very dissapointed with them, as they are only 10 degree, and don't spread the light evenly, and are very dim as they are only 20 mA, 3.5 volt.
They are worthless, I get more light out of the regular blue leds that I get for free inside some cigarette lighters.
I will have to order some of the Warm White Leds (straw hat 140 degree 0.5 watt). They are made from .5 watt, up to 10 watt (700) lumin. Should work fine with a 12v battery and solar panel. If somebody has bought them already, please comment about their Quality of light. I really can't stand the light from the regular white Leds, or the CFLs for that matter.
I wish that I could afford the whole set up with the big 12v battery, solar panel, charge controler, Led banks, and of course a big 12v Jt. It does get a bit expensive to do it right, but I feel that a 12 volt Jt, although not essencial in the set up, could make a big difference compared to what a normal 12 volt battery system can yield,
I've made a new Jtc yesterday using the TIP3055, and it runs so strong that I can't even use it with two AAs, so, I've had to run it with only one. Now I'm ready to install a dimmer pot, and the secondary.
Still no voltages can be read by my analog meter anywhere on the circuit (with Leds instald), but the above mentioned Jt can run on a single very, very dead battery that will not even budge my analog meter, on its own, even on the AC setting. It does appear to consume more power than the 2n2222 does, but using a big battery like the one you've shown it should not matter much.
Check the Leds at Ebay:
20 PC 0.5 Watt StrawHat 8mm 140° WARM White LED 90Kmcd - eBay (item 250448852092 end time Nov-12-10 15:47:29 PST)
Nick

Hi Nick,

I used the TIP3055in the 36 LED's setup with 2 AA batteries. It's bright, but I am still looking for brighter light. What size is your toroid and do you have any experience with the 10W LED's you mentioned (700 lumen) with JT circuit. They would be great for my needs.

pentiger

[Tectalabyss]

@Tec and All:
I've been told that connecting the Leds direct to the battery (without a Jt) will make them light brighter and stronger, than to connect them through the Jtc to the battery. Can You confirm this for us?
I bought some of the Radio Shack 10mm Leds, but I'm very dissapointed with them, as they are only 10 degree, and don't spread the light evenly, and are very dim as they are only 20 mA, 3.5 volt.
They are worthless, I get more light out of the regular blue leds that I get for free inside some cigarette lighters.
I will have to order some of the Warm White Leds (straw hat 140 degree 0.5 watt). They are made from .5 watt, up to 10 watt (700) lumin. Should work fine with a 12v battery and solar panel. If somebody has bought them already, please comment about their Quality of light. I really can't stand the light from the regular white Leds, or the CFLs for that matter.
I wish that I could afford the whole set up with the big 12v battery, solar panel, charge controler, Led banks, and of course a big 12v Jt. It does get a bit expensive to do it right, but I feel that a 12 volt Jt, although not essencial in the set up, could make a big difference compared to what a normal 12 volt battery system can yield,
I've made a new Jtc yesterday using the TIP3055, and it runs so strong that I can't even use it with two AAs, so, I've had to run it with only one. Now I'm ready to install a dimmer pot, and the secondary.
Still no voltages can be read by my analog meter anywhere on the circuit (with Leds instald), but the above mentioned Jt can run on a single very, very dead battery that will not even budge my analog meter, on its own, even on the AC setting. It does appear to consume more power than the 2n2222 does, but using a big battery like the one you've shown it should not matter much.
Check the Leds at Ebay:
20 PC 0.5 Watt StrawHat 8mm 140° WARM White LED 90Kmcd - eBay (item 250448852092 end time Nov-12-10 15:47:29 PST)
Nick

Hello NickZ And all.
Yes it is bright. but DO NOT HOOK ANY LED UP TO A 12 VOLT BATTERY without the right resistor or you will burn the led or leds out !!!. What I showed was not a JT circuit Just a battery/LED's in parallel/ and a 75 ohm sandstone resistor.We have a lot of power outages here in the mountain's where I live so I need something That's long lived no danger of fire very usable light and easy to recharge Tec

[Tectalabyss]

Led's in series

Hello All.
I am doing a test with the 12 volt battery and led's in series with a 1/4 watt resistor I have 20 led's running am getting no heat from the resistor and a very usable light I am going to test this for the rest of the week and if it works ok I will add photo's and diagram's of the setup with a parts list. Thanks Tec

[NickZ]

@Tec and All:
I've burnt my share of leds already, and the good (bright) leds are hard to come by.
What I was refering to was a 12 Jt thief, connected to the newer 12 volt Leds, not the 3 volt leds..
You can connect the 12v Leds direct to a battery, but using a Jt in the circuit would extend the battery usefulness, big time, and alow for more lights, and a longer run cycles. Similar to Jeanna's 3 1/4 inch JT with a multi seconday Led light circuit, and over 1000 volts. Much easier to do when using 12 volts.
I'll find out more about the 10 watt warm whites Leds, and post the link. You can hook them up direct to the 12 volt battery source, they are made for it and will give the best result connected directly.
There are many guys that are working with the bigger 12 volt Jt circuits. That is where I'm headed, as you can only do so much with the 3 volt leds. I'm into getting some bigger more usefull light going, and not too concerned about using more current to get there. Solar panel to keep the battery up, and the running frequencies steady on the Jt, is the way to go, for me anyway. The Jt would be optional at that point. In anycase a self running Jt would be something else again, if we can make it work.
I got my dimmer pot working on the TIP3055, it really did need it, now I can run two AAs on it, while charging two AAs in parallel using my 1 inch toroid.
Anybody have any luck finding the 3 inch ferrite toroids, or tried a Crt Tv ferrite core yet.
NZ

[Tectalabyss]

@Tec and All:
I've burnt my share of leds already, and the good (bright) leds are hard to come by.
What I was refering to was a 12 Jt thief, connected to the newer 12 volt Leds, not the 3 volt leds..
You can connect the 12v Leds direct to a battery, but using a Jt in the circuit would extend the battery usefulness, big time, and alow for more lights, and a longer run cycles. Similar to Jeanna's 3 1/4 inch JT with a multi seconday Led light circuit, and over 1000 volts. Much easier to do when using 12 volts.
I'll find out more about the 10 watt warm whites Leds, and post the link. You can hook them up direct to the 12 volt battery source, they are made for it and will give the best result connected directly.
There are many guys that are working with the bigger 12 volt Jt circuits. That is where I'm headed, as you can only do so much with the 3 volt leds. I'm into getting some bigger more usefull light going, and not too concerned about using more current to get there. Solar panel to keep the battery up, and the running frequencies steady on the Jt, is the way to go, for me anyway. The Jt would be optional at that point. In anycase a self running Jt would be something else again, if we can make it work.
I got my dimmer pot working on the TIP3055, it really did need it, now I can run two AAs on it, while charging two AAs in parallel using my 1 inch toroid.
Anybody have any luck finding the 3 inch ferrite toroids, or tried a Crt Tv ferrite core yet.
NZ

Hello NickZ and All. Yes I see where you are going And yes I believe the 12 volts could be made to work with the JT and if a type of feedback circuit could be made it would make the run times seem almost endless.When I get the fund's I plan on buying some of the newer higher wattage Led's to test with the JT/12 volt setup.I have looked every where I can think of for the big coils no luck yet! I will Keep Looking After my illness a few months ago I am having to relearn a lot of the things But in a way that's not to bad,At least the electronics's part anyway Tec

[Tectalabyss]

12 volt JT working

Hello All.
A quick Update I have Hooked up a 12 volt car battery to to a JT circuit I had been running with a 1.5 volt AA Battery I had one 10 mm Led and a red Led to test with.Here are some photo's Tec

[pentiger]

Hello All.
A quick Update I have Hooked up a 12 volt car battery to to a JT circuit I had been running with a 1.5 volt AA Battery I had one 10 mm Led and a red Led to test with.Here are some photo's Tec

Hey, great setup, I wonder how long will it last with such battery. More testing needed

[Tectalabyss]

Hey, great setup, I wonder how long will it last with such battery. More testing needed

Hello Pen Tiger and All.
I have been running some test with a 1 inch torrid coil that I used two years ago,and it works too but not like a normal JT circuit If I unhook one of the wires then the leds should go out.They do not. I read 3.5 volts at the led + side The two leds don't even dim.It will fry a 2n3906 or a 2n3906 they would work a little while before going up in smoke.I switched to a TIPL760A transistor that could be the problem not sure???.Or The 1/4 watt resistor org/org/red which I think is an 3.3k ohm. I went up to it to see if it would stop burning my transistors out.I did end up having to use a 75ohm 2 watt 5 % sandstone resistor at the ground and that could be whats going on Any how maybe some one can see whats going on till then I'll keep digging I added some photos. Tec

[pentiger]

Hi Tec,
I am not sure what could be wrong with your circuit.

I myself struggle with a coil.
I looked at some posts suggesting 3turns, 7turns and secondary of 50 or more turns. My toroid is around 1 inch in diameter. I am getting 12-15volts from the secondary at around 70 turns, and I don't know if this is the right voltage I should expect. I saw Jeanna's posts where she plugged 2 LED bulbs into similar setup, so she probably had many more volts from her JT.

Any ideas welcomed.

pentiger

[NickZ]

Tec:
Sounds like you might be getting too much juice through the resistors to the transistor. I'm sure you'll figure it out. I hate burning anything.
Looks like the stronger the toroid's output, the less voltage is required at input.
At least with the big battery you won't have the problem with the changing frequencies in the Jt. It's impossible to maintain them steady when using the small AA batteries that drain quickly. I see that the Tip3055 drains the small AA batteries much quicker than the 2n2222s do, but I'm hoping to get a 12 volt battery and 18 volt solar panel soon, so I won't have to worry about that.
Right now we are going through one of the worst storms ever. Right now in Costa Rica we have no water service, electric power is intermitant, mudslides everywhere, roads are closed, and thousands are being flooded out.
So, a 12 volt solar Jt, would come in handy right about NOW. The batteries can recharge even in cloudy weather. That is where I'm going with this.
NZ

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Hi Nickz, can you explain what you mean by 12 volt solar JT. Do you mean you want to use your 18/12 volt solar panel to power a joule thief circuit to recharge 12 volt batteries, using either the E/C or a secondary on JT. I think it would work, though only issue would be to avoid fluffy charge. Capacitor dump might help prevent fluffy charge, though more of a pain. I have a large ferrite core and large primary that works with 12 volts nicely, though it all depends on the load as to if the transistor will heat up. That's why i pointed out the bedini variant circuit because with some loads it doesn't heat up at all. Past few days I've been powering my warm white leds directly from my 12 volt lead acid to compare to JTC, I put 12 of them, 3 sets of 4 parallel leds in series for 4 volts per parallel set, it works well with one resistor in line. So what kind of voltage can the solar panel you envisage maintain in cloudy weather under the load of the JT do you think.
peace love light
Tyson

[NickZ]

@SkyWatcher:
The idea is that since there is no way to keep any Jt working properly when the run and charging voltage and frequency is constantly dropping, as the smaller batteries drain in charge. Having a bigger 12 volt battery source that is maintained and kept charged up by an 18 volt solar panel , would be the way to avoid that problem. Plus a Jt (or several) that run off of a 12v source instead one volt, can output much more useable voltage and light through various secondaries and Leds, without having to play around with the smaller batteries all the time. Which I'm getting tired of.
You may have missed some of my earlier posts here that would have made for less confusion.
The idea is to make the biggest amount of light as possible from the smallest and cheapest source.
I'm really looking at the practical angle of the Jt circuit, I know that the Jt becomes optional once incorporating a big battery and solar panel. But working on the possible self running, and radiant aspect of the Jtc is what keeps me interested, especially if it can be upgraded into something more usefull.
NZ

[SkyWatcher]

Hi Nickz, thanks for the added info. Though I did read previous posts, just wasn't clear. Are you planning to run solar panel directly or hook it up to a JT for when it's cloudy to charge your 12 volt battery or is a JT at panel not needed. So it sounds like your going to use separate secondaries off the 12 volt joule thief, since of course the E/C position at 12 volts or 3 volts would be like going direct anyway. Or are you just going to use one secondary and put multiple 12 volt leds off of that. I had a thought, would it not be possible to make a voltage divider to divide the 12 volt input with resistors or something to then tap off each lower voltage point to run separate JT circuits, though not sure if that would be any more efficient.
peace love light
Tyson

[Tectalabyss]

Catchup

Tec:
Sounds like you might be getting too much juice through the resistors to the transistor. I'm sure you'll figure it out. I hate burning anything.
Looks like the stronger the toroid's output, the less voltage is required at input.
At least with the big battery you won't have the problem with the changing frequencies in the Jt. It's impossible to maintain them steady when using the small AA batteries that drain quickly. I see that the Tip3055 drains the small AA batteries much quicker than the 2n2222s do, but I'm hoping to get a 12 volt battery and 18 volt solar panel soon, so I won't have to worry about that.
Right now we are going through one of the worst storms ever. Right now in Costa Rica we have no water service, electric power is intermitant, mudslides everywhere, roads are closed, and thousands are being flooded out.
So, a 12 volt solar Jt, would come in handy right about NOW. The batteries can recharge even in cloudy weather. That is where I'm going with this.
NZ

Hello NickZ and all.
I've had a lot of Doctor's appointment's and test's and its got me behind If I understand right you are trying to make it so you can run your lights when the power is off and recharge with a secondary off the JT,and when the sun is out with the solar panels.And if you have a lot of wind you may want to make some type of wind generator when the sun is not out for a few days,Just a thought. When I get the time I am going to wind a bigger JT and go with a bigger Transistor and secondary to see if that will work with 12 volts and some type of feedback circuit.you be safe and keep testing sounds like you are making progress Tec

[NickZ]

Guys:
I'm working towards a 12 volt solar Jt circuit that will run off a 12 volt battery, that is being charged and kept up by an 18 volt solar panel-charge controler, and yet the Jt circuit will have the add ability to feed-back to source (at night) if needed, to keep the system further charging, and lighting 24/7. Eventually leading to a self running Jt system that does not require the solar panel, and can run direct off of a single (self recharging) run capacitor. That is the idea, and goal.
Right now we have been without water for 4 days where I live, intermitant electric power, most roads are closed, and thousands of people flooded out. And the biggest storm in a while here is not over, Yet.
So, an emergency back-up 12 volt solar system, that can be connected to a Jt circuit to make it all work more efficiently, to light ones home, is what I'm working towards.

PS.
Check the 10 watt Leds bulbs (700 Lumen):
10W HIGHPOWER WHITE STAR LED 700 LUMEN 12V USE - eBay (item 250176044368 end time Nov-27-10 08:08:41 PST)

I'll bet they can be made to light off of strong Jt circuit drawing much less that the 10 watts.
NZ