I received a Google Alert with a link to a forum in which the poster declared that adding a 22 nF capacitor to the conventional JT will increase its brightness. I’ve read this claim previously and I tried the circuit (see attached pic) and I found that the LED went from bright without the capacitor
(Read More…)
My now retired co-worker gave me a present with some bars of Blissed Out Soap, which gives a website on the wrapper. I have been fascinated by homemade soap since I was a child, and watched our next door neighbor make soap out of bacon grease and lye (sodium hydroxide). This soap is very fragrant,
(Read More…)
I received a Google Alert for a Youtube video called “Joule Theif (sic) meets ABHA Coil!!” and I have some comments that I’d like to share, but I’m not going to put up with Youtube’s extremely lame text limitation of 512 characters. The two batteries in series show 2.5 volts on one DMM, and I’m
(Read More…)
Not long ago I bought a Duracell charger for my cell phone. It has various adapters to fit the different power connectors, in my case it was the Micro USB. I connected my cell phone to it last night and plugged it into the wall, and this morning I went to unplug it from the
(Read More…)
Bill told us he would like to Steampunk a large lamp, so I volunteered one of the ones I have in my garage. It’s a biggie! The regular 75 watt lamp is beside it in the pic. I also have another one similar in size but shaped like the 75 watt lamp, because it’s incandescent.
(Read More…)
Last month I put an antenna strap mount on my chimney and put a 6 foot piece of 1 inch galvanized pipe in it. Then I went shopping for an all channel TV antenna. I had a UHF antenna, but I figured that I should install a decent VHF/UHF antenna. I went to Radio Shack
(Read More…)
In late 2009 I obtained a few dozen of these 10mm 1 watt single chip white LEDs from a Chinese vendor on eBay. My main intent was to see how long they would last in a lifetime test. I attached four of them with screws and washers to a piece of wood, and connected them
(Read More…)
I built this circuit, and it seems to be a lot more complex than it needs to be to do the job.
Kirk left me a comment asking how much inductance is too much. I’ll try to go into detail as to how the inductance and other factors affect a Joule Thief. First a couple things should be defined. This discussion is confined to a conventional JT, with a single transistor and a coil with two windings:
(Read More…)
Last night about 11:23 PM I was given a good shake while in bed. The M 4.5 earthquake was a few miles east of Yorba Linda, which is only about 5 miles from where I was. This morning at about 9:33, about 10 hours after yesterday’s temblor, I was at work and felt a sharp
(Read More…)
