Big Joule Theif

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

[Mark]

Thanks Morpher

[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

[CosmicFarmer]

I got one of those LED chains, but it is in a net formation. Un even number of colors and the last one at the end does have 3 or more connections. Knowing that might have saved me a day of noodling around ;-)

Interesting to have a wall of light to play with

[kooler]

car coiling

my last video of my high voltage joule thief car coil thingy
i used jeanna's toroid setup

YouTube - joule thief hv

please don't make fun of my messy table...haha

[Lidmotor]

Really kool experiment & video

my last video of my high voltage joule thief car coil thingy
i used jeanna's toroid setup

YouTube - joule thief hv

please don't make fun of my messy table...haha

Thanks for posting this. I watched your video about four times. What a neat application of Jeanna's big toroid circuit. It looks like you went from the toroid secondary into a large bridge rectifier, put a high voltage cap on that, and then went to the car ignition coil? Then I get lost. Does the neon trigger the car coil to fire or does the cap? If you get a chance, let us know how this last part is wired. Thanks. I am somewhat of a "Blue spark" addict and love playing (carefully) around with that stuff. I even like the sound it makes. Mini lightning and thunder ----but watch your fingers boys and girls.

Lidmotor

[kooler]

@lidmotor & all

[Lidmotor]

Thanks Kooler

@Kooler
Thanks for the quick circuit posting. This is like your 1.5 volt stun gun circuit that you posted back on page 17. I had alot of fun with that one. I figured that this new circuit used a neon triggered SCR also. Next step is to go get a million neon bulbs.

Lidmotor

[kooler]

neons??

nah.. you can do alot with this circuit
run microwave transformers ...
another jeanna style jt... for more voltage to run a third stage...
you can run it wireless like a sec...
it just needs more hz to lite cfl's
if i could get 40 more hz i think i could lite 3 cfl's of the 9-13 watt range

if you don't like a shock .. i wouldn't play with this
i still get my self.. ever once in a while
hahaha

[Vortex]

Could not the toroid ferrite core be replaced with a coil?
Use a coil for the core?

YouTube - Electric motor [ 4000-foot Winding ]

just thinking
randy

[kooler]

ign coils X2

lidmotor
i went ahead and done a couple demo's
just to show how simple this is...
two ign coils and then a micro transformer...
the power of single cell batt or is it magic...?

YouTube - joule thief HV X2

have fun

danger high voltage