Joulethief SEC exciter and variants

[xee2]

@jonnydavro
Does anyone have any ideas why I still cant light a tube?

How long is the 1400 turn coil on the PVC pipe? I can light a 4W tube wirelessly with 400 turns, so I think you still have coil problems. Is your coil single layer with no wires over other wires?

[altrez]

@jonnydavro

Hey thank you for the advise I tried the ferrite rod but it did not help. I just wound a new coil I can now light LEDS wireless about 12 inches away from the coil bit cannot light a neon or a 4 watt tube at all.

my new coil is 1400 wraps around a small piece of 3 inch PVC and is about 16H or that's what my LCR tells me. The secondary is .015mH

I have 15 LEDS going at once full brightness. Does anyone have any ideas why I still cant light a tube?

Thanks for the help everyone!!!!

[jonnydavro]

I put together a guide for jonnydavros Simple SEC build for a friend and I am sharing it here by permission. It is very detailed.

If you are new to this topic, download the PDF guide, and watch the video! It's a great lead in to SEC Exciter projects and very inexpensive. Good fun.

PDF Guide

Video


Thanks jonny!

* changed the link to Scribd - you'll need to login for a download, otherwise you can read it online

@Kcarring.Hi .Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this.
This will help people get started with a simple exciter circuit and hopefully they will find it interesting and want to try out all the other great circuits that people have kindly posted on this thread.I will place a link to your guide on page 1, post 1 for easy reference.Cheers Jonny.

@Altrez Hi.I am sure you should be able to get a neon going with your coil.I have tiny coils that work but the guys are right about bigger being better.
I would try two things.First spend a bit of time experimenting with different L2 coils.Try a 18swg enamel wire which is quite thick, and make a few with different amount of turns to see if it gets better or worse.Also try a spiral L2 coil with plastic straw spacers which keep the L2 coil slightly away from L1
Also try inserting a small ferrite rod inside the L1 coil.I use one from an am/fm radio ariel and this gets the neon glowing on my small one which is 10 cm by 15mm.Good luck.Jonny

[altrez]

Well here is something different. I attached a pie plate to the 100k omh resistor and it no longer gets even warm. The AV LED is super bright now as well. It still wont light a 4 watt tube but It burnt the heck out of my finger to the point its numb.

It wont light a neon so I am not sure how much volts its pushing but it seems like HV or RF? So do you think I should drop the resistor down to 50k and see if it will light a tube?

Thanks guys!

Edit: When I say burnt I mean the HV out not the LED.

[altrez]

@ altrez

Each new turn needs to be next to the previous turn. No going back and forth.

Oh ok that's how I did it. Clock wise.

[xee2]

@ altrez

Each new turn needs to be next to the previous turn. No going back and forth.

[xee2]

I don't understand what you mean?

Solenoid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[altrez]

@ Altrez

The coil should be a solenoid in order to get high voltage.

I don't understand what you mean?

[slayer007]

@xee2 I am really not sure how mine ended up so small. The tube is 11 inches an 1/2 inch across. I am using radio shack magmatic wire?

@slayer007

Ok so if I take a good size piece of PVC and wrap it with the mag wire it should work? What is the mH of your big coil? and of your smaller one?

Thank you both!



-Altrez

Yes the PVC pipe will work good.
My L1 coil is 13.8 mH the L2 pancake coil is .05 mH.

[xee2]

@ Altrez

The coil should be a solenoid in order to get high voltage.

[altrez]

@xee2 I am really not sure how mine ended up so small. The tube is 11 inches an 1/2 inch across. I am using radio shack magmatic wire?

@slayer007

Ok so if I take a good size piece of PVC and wrap it with the mag wire it should work? What is the mH of your big coil? and of your smaller one?

Thank you both!



-Altrez

[slayer007]

WOW your coil is like 1000 times bigger then my little coil. Thats awesome But my coil is around 1200 wraps? and its small I posted a pic.

Thank you xee2!

-Altrez

Altrez for the basic Slayer Exciter you need a coil a lot bigger than you are showing.

It will work with small coils like that but it is very hard to get it to run right.

My coil is 3.25' x 14' over a 1000 turns of 26awg mag wire.

The pancake is 9 turns of 21awg plastic coated wire.
The plastic coating on the wire will help with the wire spacing and competence.

[xee2]

@ Altrez

The coil in video is 900 turns #28 wire. It is about 11 inches long. If you have 1200 turns #28 yours should be longer. Did you wrap as a solenoid? The larger diameter coils radiate better. But a smaller diameter should still work.

[altrez]

Yes. Something is wrong. Post a photo of your coil.

Have you tried reversing the L2 leads? If you are still using a 2N2222 you should eventually try to get a bigger transistor and use a heat sink. I suggest using a cell phone charger to do your tuning, that will limit the current going into the transistor.

EDIT: This is video of a 900 turn coil. You should be about the same.
YouTube - Slayer exciter circuit - 1 AA battery

WOW your coil is like 1000 times bigger then my little coil. Thats awesome But my coil is around 1200 wraps? and its small I posted a pic.

Thank you xee2!

-Altrez

[altrez]

Yes. Something is wrong. Post a photo of your coil.

Have you tried reversing the L2 leads? If you are still using a 2N2222 you should eventually try to get a bigger transistor and use a heat sink. I suggest using a cell phone charger to do your tuning, that will limit the current going into the transistor.

EDIT: This is video of a 900 turn coil. You should be about the same.
YouTube - Slayer exciter circuit - 1 AA battery

Ok here you go.