Big Joule Theif

[morpher44]

Would someone please tell me how your 2N3055 power transistors fail?

If you go out of spec, pass too much current thru from Collector to Emitter, they will overheat -- like any transistor.
Also, if you back EMF is going from Emitter to Collector, you have
a breakdown current that can ruin it as well.

I'm using an ice-pack from my freezer -- which helps immensely.

[JohnnBlade]

Hi All,

i got it to work, lighting up the CFL but using the disposeable camera circuit

here is the vid when it went on for the 1e time
YouTube - Lighting up CFL fluorescent light with disposeable camera with1 5v AA batery part 1 JB

but damn, i got my shocks even without cap while testing this


Greets JB

[lionhart]

big JT

Hi guys,

I have built several of these over the last 2 months, and was looking on you tube and found lid's big JT.

So I decided to get the components and build one, but I can't seem to get the amps down, I'm currently on 500ma at 14.4V using 4 AA bateries, but if I up it to 1.1A I get 120V. I would like to charge 12V batteries using a solar panel, not light lamps and need to get the current down.

I'm using the dual transistor circuit from slayer007.

Any ideas?

[ashtweth]

Hi lionhart, we and Lid have had the best success with the Halo light circuit, not sure what your doing wrong with slayers my friend so cannot comment.Just for reference here is Lid's Halo light circuit

Imageshack - 555jtwithswitches

[Watson]

Hi lionhart, we and Lid have had the best success with the Halo light circuit, not sure what your doing wrong with slayers my friend so cannot comment.Just for reference here is Lid's Halo light circuit

Imageshack - 555jtwithswitches

Could someone helpme with understanding this schematic?

What does the pulsing add to the circuit?

Some of my observations

The 1k resistor controls the base bias to the JT. If you want it to draw less current, increase the resistor.

If the right hand side of the 1k is shorted to the emitter of the right 2N3055, the JT should stop oscillating. I think that if the left 2N3055 is used to short it, the JT should be turned on and off. A much cheaper transistor such as a 2N4401 could do the job.

The charging battery, in addition to accepting charge, is limiting the collector voltage to the supply voltage plus the charging battery voltage. No voltage is shown for the battery, but if both the supply and battery were 6V, then the max collector voltage would be a bit more than 12V.

This charging battery could be replaced by a zener diode, then the zener voltage could be increased (up to the max collector voltage but not higher).

The ratio of the two windings to the transistor is 1:1. If the voltage at the collector is 6V, then the voltage on the base will also be 6V, which is the max for the transistor's base. If the supply voltage goes higher, then the base voltage will exceed the maximum, and may damage the transistor.

The way to reduce this base voltage is to reduce the number of turns. Instead of 1:1, the winding going to the base would have half as many turns.

I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't.

[Lidmotor]

Halo Light circuit improvements

Could someone helpme with understanding this schematic?

What does the pulsing add to the circuit?

Some of my observations

The 1k resistor controls the base bias to the JT. If you want it to draw less current, increase the resistor.

If the right hand side of the 1k is shorted to the emitter of the right 2N3055, the JT should stop oscillating. I think that if the left 2N3055 is used to short it, the JT should be turned on and off. A much cheaper transistor such as a 2N4401 could do the job.

The charging battery, in addition to accepting charge, is limiting the collector voltage to the supply voltage plus the charging battery voltage. No voltage is shown for the battery, but if both the supply and battery were 6V, then the max collector voltage would be a bit more than 12V.

This charging battery could be replaced by a zener diode, then the zener voltage could be increased (up to the max collector voltage but not higher).

The ratio of the two windings to the transistor is 1:1. If the voltage at the collector is 6V, then the voltage on the base will also be 6V, which is the max for the transistor's base. If the supply voltage goes higher, then the base voltage will exceed the maximum, and may damage the transistor.

The way to reduce this base voltage is to reduce the number of turns. Instead of 1:1, the winding going to the base would have half as many turns.

I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't.

@Watson---It sounds like you have much experience and knowledge in electronics. Slayer's Big Joule Thief project was a bunch of guys pooling their thoughts and experimental results. Xenomorph contributed the 555 timer part of pulsing the circuit to reduce the energy comsumption. The idea being that if we blinked the whole circuit (and light) only fast enough to make it appear constantly on, then we could save power.
The whole project spun off a simple joule thief circuit with people adding things here and there. What we were after was bang for the buck---BIG light for the least amount of energy.
Your ideas seem like there are sound and it would be interesting if you made one of these things with your suggested modificatons and posted the results.
There is always room for improvement.

Lidmotor

[Watson]

@Watson---It sounds like you have much experience and knowledge in electronics. Slayer's Big Joule Thief project was a bunch of guys pooling their thoughts and experimental results. Xenomorph contributed the 555 timer part of pulsing the circuit to reduce the energy comsumption. The idea being that if we blinked the whole circuit (and light) only fast enough to make it appear constantly on, then we could save power.
The whole project spun off a simple joule thief circuit with people adding things here and there. What we were after was bang for the buck---BIG light for the least amount of energy.
Your ideas seem like there are sound and it would be interesting if you made one of these things with your suggested modificatons and posted the results.
There is always room for improvement.

Lidmotor

I've built quite a few JTs none with CFLs (see my blog below). Long ago I built inverters with small fluorescent lamps, run off D cells. They wroked okay. Earlier, I built 12V to 50V DC-DC inverters to power audio power amplifiers, up to 200 watts. I used 12 gauge house wire for the primary.

If I was to build one, I would need some specs to design with:

Supply voltage, xxV +-yy%, or from xxV to yyV and current or if it's gonna be powered from batteries.

Need to use a toroid (low RFI) or okay to use a simpler ferrite rod?

Type and number of lamps or LEDs.

Light output from the lamp(s)

One possible solution is to build a DC-DC converter, say 12VDC to 165VDC. This will allow you to use a CFL, since most of those rectify the incoming AC into 165VDC the first thing after it enters the light.

Probably forgot some other necessities, lemme know.

[Watson]

I tried editing my last post _twice_ to add my blog, but it refused to post the changes. watsonseblog.blogspot.com

[Watson]

Cheap CFLs

I found some cheap CFLs yesterday at, of all places, Office Depot. Three 14W equiv to 60W for five bucks. That's like $1.67 apiece. Cheap! You can buy a few just for the parts.

I've found them even cheaper than that, though.

[ashtweth]

For Lid /Xen , slayer007 and ALL
YouTube - AIO Bedini Light Fan & Charger

[ren]

Nice Work Ash

[Lidmotor]

The AIO

For Lid and ALL

YouTube - AIO Bedini Light Fan & Charger

@Ash that is a great combination of designs. The problem is that you give all the credit at the front and back of the video to John and Rick who had nothing to do with the "Pulsed Inverted Joule Thief Halo Light" project and that is my drawing not theirs. Thanks for giving me some credit for it but you might want to edit the video a bit. Slayer is not even mentioned and it was his original idea to wind a JT toroid differently to make a CFL run. This is his thread and he started the project.
Thanks,

Lidmotor

[ashtweth]

Hi Guys, Doh your right Lid 4got slayer AND XEN for the JT , Sure thing can re edit the video and add slayer/Xen right up in there. I think the energetic forum are really ONE unit any ways but sorry to give that impression .
The reason i added in John and Rick as Rick pointed some things out to me once about tapping the ignition coil, bulb and relay so just wanted to let them know we appreciate that and respect that too .

@Ren thx mate, we tried a few new things and wanted to bring some thing new into the mix, Slayer/Xen/Lid i think really have the best unit so far especially with the Halo light as we tried ALL combination's.One thing, where Lid has the 1K pot, we found that with 2 Trafo's, the efficiencies are better with a 500 ohm resistor. In the original video you can see there is a nob we had there to tune for efficiencies, this is not a good idea, the pots burn out. Sorry again about that Slayer and Lid/ALL, will have it all back up tonight my friends

[ashtweth]

Here you go guys, gave some extra kudos to Slayer/Xen and Lid, and more then once in the vid and on the description
Sawry about that again ALL
new link re edited
YouTube - AIO Bedini Light Fan & Charger

sincerely
Ash

[Lidmotor]

Halo light modifications

Here you go guys, gave some extra kudos to Slayer/Xen and Lid, and more then once in the vid and on the description
Sawry about that again ALL
new link re edited
YouTube - AIO Bedini Light Fan & Charger

sincerely
Ash

@ Ash----Thanks for adding the credits for Xenomorph and Slayer in the video. I looked at your modifications to the the Halo Light circuit and found it very interesting what you did about the toroid coil. The elimination of the charge battery and rerouting of the charge to the sepearate cap pulser was also interesting. On mine I have switches to direct the energy anyway that I want and on my 5 day field test I didn't even use the charging aspect of the unit. I just ran off one battery or the other and charged up the whole unit with a little solar panel when I needed to. One thing that I really liked, and you may have also noticed, is that the light is not blinding. You can look right at it yet it fills a room with pleasant illumination. I found myself staring at it like you would stare at a camp fire.
Of all my lighting units (encluding the "Lunch Box") this is the one is by far the best.

Cheers,

Lidmotor