Big Joule Theif

[jeanna]

@Morpher44,

This is a good idea.
I will probably learn what impedance means and implies by doing this.

Please make one more thing clear in your idea.
This primary is a center tapped wire which takes in the voltage from the center tap and proceeds to move it out the toroid (important) in opposite directions.
To my mind, this is what makes it different from other bifilar arrangements.
This was recently brought home at ou by some of those special people who believe they know everything. We were told that I was wrong and it was a series bifilar. He was wrong, and I like that center tap part to be up front in the beginning.


A few weeks ago, I charted the inductances of 4 toroids with 1-9 turns on them.
After I open open office for the first time I can post a chart with that info.
I do not know (or have a clue) how to work that L= n^2 A /2 p r equation into anything so I will let you help with this chart.

@all,

I am almost finished with my new light bulb.= a self contained light bulb with a joule thief and switch (and rheostat ).
This is bright, but not fully bright.
However, if I use a 2.4v battery pair it does get fully bright.
I think a lithium battery =1.6v might do the trick. I'll be back with that and a pic.

still no package of toroids...

jeanna

edit
Here are 2 pix.
I set it up so you could compare the brightness / sharpness of the shadow cast of the battery but it is very easy to see the difference when looking at the alcohol bottle.
However, they are both bright and the single lithium AAA is experienced as very bright.
j

[Mark]

Thanks Morpher

[morpher44]

short

Whats the highest voltage you two have tried as input into the big toroid? I tried to push 12 volts through it but it acts like a short.

We don't say "short" here.
We say electrically challenged.

So here's the deal as I understand it.
The coil will create a certain reactance
XL = 2 * PI * f * L
were L is your inductance in Henries and
f is essentially the resonant frequency you are
after. Input voltage can vary the "f" that it will
attempt to resonate to.
If XL is too low, yes it behaves like a short.
However, with the Joule Thief, we have bifilar
or trifilar, etc. ... and so its really a transformer too.
Everything on the 2ndary effects the impedance seen
on the primary side ... transformers to an
impedance conversion subject to turn ratios
and a constant associated with how well
inductive coupling is happening (with 1 being PERFECT
and less than 1 being the real world coupling).
In metaphysics, the yin-yang symbol
(and many other symbols) depicting
the dance between energy couplings--
expressed using golden-ratio/Fibonacci spirals.
This sort of thing happens in a transfomer -- I suspect.
I digress...

Anyway, it won't oscillate unless you have certain
conditions met with respect to that impedance
or reactance in the coil.

It might be good for this "big joule thief" team to try
to get to the bottom the exact equations here for the
transfomer / reactance.
I'm looking for a spread-sheet chart for newbies to know
what will work and what won't work with respect
to Joule Thief transformers.

When it don't resonate, however, you might be able to
add capacitors here and there to make it go.
Also, start with the most simple load at first ... a single LED ...
before getting too complex with loads.

[jeanna]

string of leds at full brightness attached

Hi lidmotor and Mark and everybody,

I found at least one diode at each end of those strings, and I have taken one string down to just a string of 34 lights. You can tell where it is because there is a third wire that goes into the bottom of the ones with the diodes. I only got into one of these and I betcha there is also a resistor.
I have an older string which does not have so much protection.

I have no doubt you can light up your tree, Mark.
The number they seem to aim for is 35 per unit because if you plug 35 leds into a 110 v circuit you will not need a resistor.
Then they add a resistor for safety from the inevitable power surges then they add a diode. I do not understand that, but it seems to be everywhere. Maybe it is brighter if they force the ac down a one way street.

@lidmotor,
That was a really great video, as I said right there. I especially appreciate the way you 'showed' how when you use the pulsing magnetic from the pulsing electric coil, it seems to take less amps draw.

I agree that a 'D' cell is a good way to go.

About a heat sink.
I have never needed a heatsink when using the secondary for power production.
If you are getting heat on anything, I would suspect a problem.

I better start soldering before the afternoon cold sets in. My solder iron was not able to beat the chill of the room last night. (Speaking of heat sink... I could USE some heat! )

thank you,

jeanna

[Mark]

Hi Lid and Jeanna

I wish I could say my led bulbs were at full brightness but they're not. My guess would be 60-75% brightness.

I used a 2 light fixtures that I had for my bathrooms to light up all the bulbs. One of them has fixtures for 8 bulbs and the other has 4 fixtures. I ran 11 of the bulbs last night for about 3 hours on the AAA battery and noticed they started to dim quite a bit so the draw maybe quite high. The battery was probably a year old but had never been used before.

I also lit up a string of 150 led christmas tree bulbs also. I'm at my up north home now but when I head back to my other residence I'm going to see if I can light up my christmas tree that has 700 leds on it. May have to use a couple batteries in series but just have to see if its possible.

Whats the highest voltage you two have tried as input into the big toroid? I tried to push 12 volts through it but it acts like a short.

Mark

[Lidmotor]

LED candelabra bulb

@ Jeanna & Mark
I finally got one of those LED candelabra bulbs and it worked on my setup. I could get it to full brightness on 1.5 volts but the amp draw was way up there. It acts kinda weird using the inside guts so I might take that out like you did Jeanna. I was really surprised at the amount of light when it came on bright. I might make another boxed light using a "D" cell battery for the increased amp draw. A good heat sink for the transistor will be needed also. Jeanna--let me know if you get another source going for the big toroid core. I can get the smaller 2" ones but they sing pretty loud and don't work as well.
Mark I am very interested in how you got a string of these LED bulbs to work and if there was much light output. I have done something similar on another project using FLs in a string but the light was never very good. It was just a bunch of bulbs lit up like glowing neons. It was interesting but not useful light.

Cheers,

Lidmotor

[jeanna]

Very nice, Mark!

Please tell me since they are unmodified are they full or even near full brightness?
I have to modify the bulb and remove the stuff inside to get full brightness. It really does get to full brightness, which is exciting.

But...
I have just blown my transistor, so I will have to return with better results tomorrow.

I wanted to use the light's switch the way I did with the globe fixture, but not take the lamp apart, so I got it all hooked up and used the plug ends of the lamp, but this was only about half brightness. I am not sure why.

So, I am going back to the drawing board for the night.

jeanna

[Mark]

Well that was a short record. Just lit up the last 3 bulbs. Now have a total of (11) unmodified led bulbs lit. That means a total of 209 leds lit from a single AAA battery! I'm beginning to wonder just what is the limit that can be lit off this big joule theif. Thanks Jeanna!

Mark

[Mark]

Hello everyone

I have a new personal record of (8) 1.5 watt unmodified led bulbs lit with 1 AAA battery, for a total of 152 leds. I think I still have 3 more bulbs left so I will see If I can light all 11 here shortly.

[Lidmotor]

Cool Light

Hi everybody,

I made a new lamp today and made a video of the stages in making it.

My Globe Lamp using 24 LEDs on the secondary

I hope you enjoy it!

jeanna

Nice one Jeanna. I like that you took an exsisting light fixture and converted it rather than completely "reinventing the wheel". I have an old LED camping lantern that I may do the same thing with. These Jolue Thieves can hide out undetected in all kinds of places.

Lidmotor

[Tectalabyss]

reason for deleting my post's

Hello everyone.
The reason I deleted my post's were due to a virus that had gotten past my software.I didnt want to share a virus with anyone else.I ending up having to reformat my hard drive.I have a new anti-virus which I hope will take care of the problem. I will not use avast antivirus again. Thank's Tec

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Hi jeanna, nice work and nice lights you've built. I've tried the JT using my 13.8V supply and the transistor tends to get hot, although with bedinis oscillator the transistor stays cool, so I'm not sure if the JT is driving the transistor properly in all cases and with certain loads using the flyback it can heat the transistor. Though the JT circuit does work well with certain loads such as running the halo flouro bulb off a secondary wrapped around the bifilar winding. It seems that when using the flyback off the primary that if the load is say a battery with a lower voltage than the source the transistor will heat up. I'm sure you would find the same thing if you ever try higher voltages, though I wish I could get the JT to properly drive the transistor because it has a nice linear drive whereas bedinis oscillator is finicky. Anyway cool lights.
peace love light
Tyson

[jeanna]

Hi everybody,

I made a new lamp today and made a video of the stages in making it.

My Globe Lamp using 24 LEDs on the secondary

I hope you enjoy it!

jeanna

[jeanna]

Hi Vortex,

you could try it.
The W with a u of 11,000, is what xee2 thinks the big toroid is.
So, 850 might be a little low.
It takes many more turns to get any oscillation to happen when it is too low a permeability, so you use too much copper, put too much R into the equation, and you might run out of room.

I am getting some samples from the manufacturer of the big one, and will test the differences between a few permeabilities and sizes. Hopefully we will be able to know after that..

thank you,

jeanna

[Vortex]

@vortex,
I think the permeability is the important thing to find out.
It may be too low.
But, it might be perfect??

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FERRITE CORES