Big Joule Theif

[slayer007]

Here's just a shot video of the coil with eight layes running a cfl off one 1.2v AA battery.
The light is quite a bit brighter than it was with just four layers.

I allso tried it with two AA batterys and it seems to use less current for more light.

The joule thief uses the same current with the four layer pickup coil as it does with the eight layer coil when its not under load.

YouTube - Joule Thief eight layer coil lighting cfl off AA battery

[StevanC]

how about which BJTs go (a list in order of preference)?
MJE3055
TIP35
2N3055
?

How do the IRF260 would perform here?
or the infamous IRF2204 ?
???
:-)

[Xenomorph]

@Slayer007 :
I think no-one has tried to wind a toroid with the winding proportions of the Fuji-disposable camera circuit (details in the overunity.com thread) , which seems also very efficient. It has 6 and 15 windings and 1750.
But your 8 layers will get you close to 1000 winding already i guess.
Interested to see what your future coils will be able to achieve

[slayer007]

I wound another toroid today.
The joule thief was the same but the pickup coil I made biger.
This one was eight layers thick.

It does light the cfl a lot brighter.
So I guess you should try to make your pickup coil as big as you can.

as Joit said ratio 1:1,61 is better

[slayer007]

Here's a short video showing the CFL light off one AA battery.
Using one transistor to trigger the base of the other.
It lights but it's not bright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peOiMKL7zeI

[slayer007]

To wind the cores I would First wind two strands of wire on a small bolt.
That way I could just put the bolt through the center of the toroid.
Then I would wind another bolt with just one strand and do the same.

I think you could go a lot higher than 160 allso
I would like to do another one and put as much wire on it as I can and see what happens.

Edit.
I said small I ment small diameter the bolt was about 4" long.
If you give your self enought slack its just like sewing. LoL

[slayer007]

Using two transistors one to trigger the base of the other I can get it to light with just one battery.
It's not bright at all but it will light up.

[Lidmotor]

Failed 1st attempt

I wanted to see how many 1.2v AA batterys it would take to light the CFL up.
One just wasn't quite enought to light it up.
So I tried two and it light up.
Its not nearly as bright as it was off 12v but its not bad for just two batterys.

Heres a video of it lighting off two 1.2v batterys.

YouTube - Joule Thief Lighting CFL off two 1 2v AA

Gosh I want to get your results soooo bad but I will have to wait for my ferrite toroid core to arrive in the mail. My first attempt at this failed miserably. I tried to use a stack a 3 steel washers as the core and it didn't work. You need a ferrite core. Also-- winding a toroid with 160 turns on a secondary pickup coil was hard and took along time. It ened up not even and messy and I think that contributed to the failure. Any tips on how to wind this? Is your JT circuit standard and what transistor are you using? I finnaly got the "washer" toroid to run but only poorly and got nothing out of the secondary. This is a proof of the statement: "Garbage in-- Garbage out". Follow the instructions of the inventor if you expect to get his results. Sometimes you can get away with subsitutions but not on this design.
I really really want to replicate this. Especially now that I see that it will run on 2AAs.

Lidmotor

[redeagle]

Bucking coil joule thief

I am thinking about using a joule thief circuit to run a cap pulse to the charging battery for my bedini. I have my four pole stator from one of my fans that I had a failed experiment. All poles are in series with clockwise rotation. 30ga trigger and 26ga power. I lost count of the turns but i know it's around 100 on each pole. I know this is called a bucking coil, and i have heard that it is supposed to increase the inductance in the coil. Has anyone tried this type of setup already?

Matt

[slayer007]

I wanted to see how many 1.2v AA batterys it would take to light the CFL up.
One just wasn't quite enought to light it up.
So I tried two and it light up.
Its not nearly as bright as it was off 12v but its not bad for just two batterys.

Heres a video of it lighting off two 1.2v batterys.

YouTube - Joule Thief Lighting CFL off two 1 2v AA

[Lidmotor]

The ferrite toroids I bought off ebay.
The wire is 23ga. there both the same.
I did want to use a biger wire for the pickup but didn't have enought.

I think it could use more windings on the pickup coil allso.

OK Thanks. I found the 2" toroid core on Ebay and orderd it. While I'm waiting for it I'll wind a "test" coil on a steel washers core and see if maybe I can get it to run. When the ferrite core arrives I'll wind a correct second toroid and compare the two. The amp draw you listed is about what I expected. It looks good to me. No more ignition coil.

Lidmotor

[Inquorate]

@ jas_bur77



Welcome aboard!

[Joit]

About Ratio
Maybe the golden ratio 1:1,61 is better, as Ash mentioned at the TPU? thread.
But just a guess.

[jas_bir77]

reading and trying your stuff.
keep up the good work
best of luck.

[jas_bir77]

hi @
slayer007
Lidmotor