Big Joule Theif

[Tectalabyss]

LoA

It could mean.
Light's Of America Which I think Sell's that type of bulb?
Tec
Well Jeanna answered the question.and what do you know I was right for once : )

[area46241]

joule thief wanna be...

Hello this is my second post here I am new. Thank you all for the awesome videos on youtube. I just want to say that I purchased my first lights of america bulb at the local grociery store here in Indy for two dollars on sale in the hardware section its the 20 watt that replaces the 75 watt and I cant wait for it to blow out so I can disect it for the toriod and the gas tube. My next stop is the dumpster behind the drug store for some camera boards. I really am interested in winding the different coils and don't have the specs on how to. Lidmotor inspired me and then I found Dr Stifflers website. My appologies for such a long winded post. The Donald Smith video and Dr Stifflers both appear to be Tesla variants. Don Smith hails from Spring Texas and i can't help but wonder if Dr Stiffler and he are/were acquainted because Stiffler is from Humble, Texas a few miles away. Smiths accent caught my attention because its east Texas and I went to jr high and highschool in the Woodlands. Anyway thanks to lidmotor, jeanna, johnydavro, chilliqueen, and of course Dr Stiffler(I want your board but its going to have to wait) If any of you have any suggestions on windings I would sure apprieciate it. my crates of electronics supplies are wide open in the kitchen now and the books are opened I'm excited about the possibilities...Static capacitive absorption...is it over unity? or is it something unseen?

[jeanna]

world light

I am hoping people around the world might be able to use the old used cfl bulbs to make some light for the village.

Here is my contribution toward that end.


I took it off. Something went wrong with the last pic.
I will fix it in the morning.

jeanna

[Tectalabyss]

JT Wanna be

Welcome area46241.
I hope you have an enjoyable learning experience.There are alot of nice people here Tec

[ewizard]

Lights of America

The limitation here is that if you are not in the states, you might not be able to get this.
Their website didn't have anything to say about these lights a few weeks ago.

But if you can get them, they are great now that you can make a power supply that works with them unmodified.

have fun.
If you are really new I suggest that you make a plain joule thief to get your hands into it. Makezine has a great how to video. It is how I learned.
Then start making the secondaries and carry on from there.

jeanna

Thanks for the info and sorry for the duplicate post last page - that's odd as I'd swear I only edited the post to reduce that long LOA list but it became another post

I see the LOA web site and I'm in the states but I'm not sure which of the many lights they have that you used in your setup. Is there something special about their light? I see they have CFL ,LED lights and much more. I assume this was one of their CPF lights?

[Tectalabyss]

Light's for the world

I am hoping people around the world might be able to use the old used cfl bulbs to make some light for the village.

Here is my contribution toward that end.


I took it off. Something went wrong with the last pic.
I will fix it in the morning.

jeanna

Hi Jeanna & All.
That's a good ideal is there any way to use a low cost solar panel with your setup ?It would work very well in some of the sunnier countries around the world.where they cant easily find or afford the batteries.Just a few humble thought's Tec
PS I Am looking forward to seeing the picture's when you get the chance. Thank's.Tec

[jeanna]

Replay

tiny orange toroid light

This time I checked to make sure, and it is what I wanted to present.

The reason for this video is because I can see that the toroid is the most limiting factor for making a joule thief. I only realized this when the stock rooms of allelectronics and mouser emptied of the toroids we mentioned in a day.

So, I took the circuit from the 10w cfl that I had removed, and the screw base too.
I could have used the transistor and resistor from the circuit too, but I didn't think about that until later. It was the toroid I was concerned about.

---
yes a solar panel does this, but in the day this light is not needed, so a storage battery of some kind is necessary.
There are videos out there using batteries of aluminum foil and copper, or carbon. I lit a led with 2 of these in series. I didn't try the jtc with that but it would surely work with only 1 instead of 2 in series to some degree.
So, the focus is really on making a bright light with that toroid from the cfl.

And, please keep pushing this envelope, everybody! And, please show others what you have made.

jeanna

edit
let me add the LoA I get from wall mart. I am sure they are in other places. (My hardware store carries some but not all of LoA bulbs.)
They are made to resemble a standard light bulb and have 20 leds in series and a whole lot of protective caps and diodes and resistors and even a fuse, so while I have made and shown(on youtube) how I made a modified LoA bulb into a battery joule thief lamp, I wanted a simpler design.
this eventually turned into the jtpu = joule thief power unit, which is a stand alone joule thief in a switched plug socket which lights one or 2 unmodified LoA bulbs and is entirely portable.

[Tectalabyss]

tiny orange toroid light

This time I checked to make sure, and it is what I wanted to present.

The reason for this video is because I can see that the toroid is the most limiting factor for making a joule thief. I only realized this when the stock rooms of allelectronics and mouser emptied of the toroids we mentioned in a day.

So, I took the circuit from the 10w cfl that I had removed, and the screw base too.
I could have used the transistor and resistor from the circuit too, but I didn't think about that until later. It was the toroid I was concerned about.

---
yes a solar panel does this, but in the day this light is not needed, so a storage battery of some kind is necessary.
There are videos out there using batteries of aluminum foil and copper, or carbon. I lit a led with 2 of these in series. I didn't try the jtc with that but it would surely work with only 1 instead of 2 in series to some degree.
So, the focus is really on making a bright light with that toroid from the cfl.

And, please keep pushing this envelope, everybody! And, please show others what you have made.

jeanna

edit
let me add the LoA I get from wall mart. I am sure they are in other places. (My hardware store carries some but not all of LoA bulbs.)
They are made to resemble a standard light bulb and have 20 leds in series and a whole lot of protective caps and diodes and resistors and even a fuse, so while I have made and shown(on youtube) how I made a modified LoA bulb into a battery joule thief lamp, I wanted a simpler design.
this eventually turned into the jtpu = joule thief power unit, which is a stand alone joule thief in a switched plug socket which lights one or 2 unmodified LoA bulbs and is entirely portable.

Hi Jeanna
What I meant about the solar panel Is if they had a rechargeable battery they could recharge them during the day.I watched your vidio Great Tec

[jeanna]

solar panel

Thanks,

Yes, they could. I have used little solar panels for AAA to D which work quite well.
The sweet thing about the jtc is that even if the sun is not bright enough for a full charge, it is possible to use that battery in the evening for a few hours of light. Good point.
Thanks for bringing it up

jeanna

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Hi Jeanna. I'm about to do some more testing with the toroid i picked from a computer psu, green in color at 2" dia. X 1 1/4" inner dia. X 3/4" height.
What sort of primary to secondary ratios and wire guages are you using for some of your various lights, like the one with loa inside the table lamp with shade or the small toroid light you salvaged from the cfl. I'm kind of a light nut myself, leds and all. I like the fact that when the rare occurrence of a power outage (rare thankfully) i always have enough light source with cfl's, halo ring bulbs (best), and led's which seem to be edging out flouro's since there cleaner for environment and more reliable usually, though the color harshness could be helped by diffusers as you've shown.
My toroid now has about 50 turn bifilar 18 gauge, and was thinking some 24 gauge for a secondary, though i also have 30 gauge. Maybe the 30 gauge would better for a flouro and 24 for led's. What kind of ratios would you use for this toroid at 1.2v of course, your ideas are very much appreciated. Thanks.
peace love light
Tyson

[jeanna]

Hi folks, Hi Jeanna. I'm about to do some more testing with the toroid i picked from a computer psu, green in color at 2" dia. X 1 1/4" inner dia. X 3/4" height.
What sort of primary to secondary ratios and wire guages are you using for some of your various lights, like the one with loa inside the table lamp with shade or the small toroid light you salvaged from the cfl. I'm kind of a light nut myself, leds and all. I like the fact that when the rare occurrence of a power outage (rare thankfully) i always have enough light source with cfl's, halo ring bulbs (best), and led's which seem to be edging out flouro's since there cleaner for environment and more reliable usually, though the color harshness could be helped by diffusers as you've shown.
My toroid now has about 50 turn bifilar 18 gauge, and was thinking some 24 gauge for a secondary, though i also have 30 gauge. Maybe the 30 gauge would better for a flouro and 24 for led's. What kind of ratios would you use for this toroid at 1.2v of course, your ideas are very much appreciated. Thanks.
peace love light
Tyson

Hi Tyson,
I wrote this as an answer to a similar question.
Let's see how it does.
Please ask the questions that this doesn't cover after you get this.
thx,
j
===:

The gauge I use for the primary bifilar is 24awg. I got this from a telephone extension cord.
The length you will need to make this first one will be about 14 inches of each wire.
This depends on the fatness and diameter of your toroid, so this is just a guess. (I use a small one and it takes 11 inches of each wire and is very generous.)

After you have made a plain joule thief make a second one exactly the same way. Put the led into the led spot but do not solder it.
Remove the led when you prove that the circuit works.
Now, wind a secondary.
The choice of gauge for the secondary is up to you.
The thinner wire will make higher voltage, but the problem with really thin wire (like 30awg from radio shack) is the insulation is easily scratched. If it gets scratched you will have little to no voltage from your output.
One more thing about the secondary.
The side of the primary that connects to the collector coil is the part that is being "transformed" so, if you have 10 turns on the collector side (you do now if you are following the makezine video) Then double that will be 20. So, make your first secondary with 20 turns.
This will give you a starting point for reference voltages.

Now, you have 2 very useful circuits.
1-the plain jt is the best way to get the last bit of joules out of the battery. It makes a terrific emergency light.
2- The battery needs to be a little higher for the secondary to work. There are exceptions to this, but most of the ones that use a secondary run down after the battery is at about 1.1v.
So, you use the jt with secondary then when it is no longer bright you switch that battery to the plain jt.
This does not apply to a rechargeable battery.
Do not use a rechargeable in a plain jt, because it is not good for batteries to be so thoroughly drained.
(I could never figure out why but it seems to be so.)

After you have made these 2 you can start experimenting.

I have found that it is very important to make the wires wound snugly onto the toroid.
It is possible to have a good one that is loosely wound but if you want high voltage... get it tight around and try to have as many winds as you can actually in contact with the ferrite.

(I believe there is a difference in opinion about loosely wound together, but this is not about wound together, this is about being tightly wound on the toroid itself.)

That toroid is a powerful source of "something" that makes high volts.

I hope this helps.

jeanna
===========
a couple more points:
The job of tuning the primary is trial and error.

use a pot at the base of the resistor until you know what resistance you want.

I usually wind a few turns for one secondary led and add one turn at a time until the led is too bright, then subtract one. Now that is the number of turns per led. If you happen to own a scope you will also know how many volts.

OK for now,
please ask the rest of the q's as needed.

jeanna

[SkyWatcher]

Hi jeanna, thanks for that info. I removed the 18 gauge, then rewound with 24 gauge bifilar primary which runs the transistor smoother probably due to impedance. Then i put 80 turns of 24 gauge for secondary, though i may have damaged the wire as you've pointed out because i cant get a good reading from a meter around 5 volts ac which does correspond to transformer step-up rules although charging a cap the voltage climbs past 40 volts. From what i know of this, this should act like an ignition coil where the secondary is charged first with first pulse then secondary collapses and gives much higher voltage. If we look at Lidmotors replication of your 3 1/4" dia. toroid, with 300 turn secondary of 300 gauge and a 13 turn primary, that is a 23 to 1 turn ratio and so at 1.5 volts should only be 34.5 volts. So then it does seem that as long as the windings aren't damaged and the transistor is firing how it should then flyback is at play here as you may already know. Similar to pulsing a regular transformers primary with dc pulses and getting high voltage off secondary via flyback effects. Anyway just trying to figure out why the differences im seeing.
peace love light
Tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Hi jeanna. I redid my wiring to see if that was an issue since i was using a proto-board and instead i used a plastic wire strip and that did help, i can now see 9-10 volts ac from meter off secondary with 1.2v input. Though something is still not right since i should be getting much more voltage based on yours and lidmotors setups that seem to use flyback effects from primary collapse. I wonder if the transistor im using is not shutting off sharply and quickly enough, its an NTE392. rather overkill im sure. let me know what you think. Thanks.
peace love light
Tyson

[Tectalabyss]

JT Help

Hi Tyson,
I wrote this as an answer to a similar question.
Let's see how it does.
Please ask the questions that this doesn't cover after you get this.
thx,
j
===:

The gauge I use for the primary bifilar is 24awg. I got this from a telephone extension cord.
The length you will need to make this first one will be about 14 inches of each wire.
This depends on the fatness and diameter of your toroid, so this is just a guess. (I use a small one and it takes 11 inches of each wire and is very generous.)

After you have made a plain joule thief make a second one exactly the same way. Put the led into the led spot but do not solder it.
Remove the led when you prove that the circuit works.
Now, wind a secondary.
The choice of gauge for the secondary is up to you.
The thinner wire will make higher voltage, but the problem with really thin wire (like 30awg from radio shack) is the insulation is easily scratched. If it gets scratched you will have little to no voltage from your output.
One more thing about the secondary.
The side of the primary that connects to the collector coil is the part that is being "transformed" so, if you have 10 turns on the collector side (you do now if you are following the makezine video) Then double that will be 20. So, make your first secondary with 20 turns.
This will give you a starting point for reference voltages.

Now, you have 2 very useful circuits.
1-the plain jt is the best way to get the last bit of joules out of the battery. It makes a terrific emergency light.
2- The battery needs to be a little higher for the secondary to work. There are exceptions to this, but most of the ones that use a secondary run down after the battery is at about 1.1v.
So, you use the jt with secondary then when it is no longer bright you switch that battery to the plain jt.
This does not apply to a rechargeable battery.
Do not use a rechargeable in a plain jt, because it is not good for batteries to be so thoroughly drained.
(I could never figure out why but it seems to be so.)

After you have made these 2 you can start experimenting.

I have found that it is very important to make the wires wound snugly onto the toroid.
It is possible to have a good one that is loosely wound but if you want high voltage... get it tight around and try to have as many winds as you can actually in contact with the ferrite.

(I believe there is a difference in opinion about loosely wound together, but this is not about wound together, this is about being tightly wound on the toroid itself.)

That toroid is a powerful source of "something" that makes high volts.

I hope this helps.

jeanna
===========
a couple more points:
The job of tuning the primary is trial and error.

use a pot at the base of the resistor until you know what resistance you want.

I usually wind a few turns for one secondary led and add one turn at a time until the led is too bright, then subtract one. Now that is the number of turns per led. If you happen to own a scope you will also know how many volts.

OK for now,
please ask the rest of the q's as needed.

jeanna

Wow That was a very helpfull Post Jeanna My Thank's to you and all the great people here. Tec

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, well i dont think my toroid is ferrite jeanna and probably why it stinks at outputting decent voltage, so i am experimenting with air core jt's. The first one is working well with a brooks coil geometry, plastic spool taken from the wire the shack sells. first test coil can light a flouro at minimum 6 volts, though not great because i wound to much for the primary. Primary is 26 gauge @ 6 ohms and pickup coil is 30 gauge at 42 ohms, so i will rewind another plastic spool with less primary turns for lower input voltage and the same or more on the pickup coil. Anyone else tested any aircore jt's using a pickup(secondary).
peace love light
Tyson