One might think that there is not much point in trying to get more light out of a single battery when the light output is very low and the cell is going to run for weeks. But the Supercharged Joule Thief has proved to be much more efficient and is capable of doubling the the
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I was looking at the references in the Joule Thief Wiki at Wikipedia, especially the first reference, [1] after “Armstrong” in the first line of the text. This refers to an article which describes this as an Armstrong or Meissner oscillator. This article then points back to Wikipedia as a reference. What we have is
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I ordered some 22 AWG nichrome wire from goldmine-elec.com today. It’s about an ohm per foot, or 3 and a fraction ohms per meter. My plan is to make my own low value resistors for current monitoring. I often want to monitor the current in a higher power LED or input current to a Joule
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Paul is experimenting with a Joule Thief using some germanium transistors I sent him. I thought about a few quirks of germanium transistors that I may not have (or may have) blogged earlier. The vintage germanium transistors were made at a time when the solid state manufacturing technology was much less advanced than it is
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I was out walking and saw three AAA cells in the street. All three had been run over by cars, possibly several times; most likely someone discarded them when their camera or whatever had said the batteries were too low. I picked them up and brought them home, and put them to good use at
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Paul has been busy creating little Joule Thief Jewels out of salvaged household items such as CFL ‘corkscrew’ light bulbs. He has given me permission to post one here. This is also a cork supported one. I used a reclaimed toroid with 15 turns of new enamelled wire for right winding and a reclaimed double
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A long time ago, probably 200 years, the scientists experimented with electromagnets by winding copper wire onto a bar or rod of steel. Most anyone that is taking a physics class has been introduced to this electromagnet. This works ok for a battery or direct current but when the current is alternating the solid steel
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I left the Nichia LED on the power supply overnight, at about 85 to 90 mA, and it didn’t seem to have any problem. I decided that I had to design a circuit to drive it from a low voltage, such as two AA rechargeable cells. I drew up a circuit, which had two transistors
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I received my package of LED’s in the mail today from goldmine-elec.com. Quantsuff emailed a link to their sale on the Nichia NSPB633 blue oval LED (it might say NPSB, but that’s a typo). They are on sale for 100 for $10. I ordered some and I have been playing around, err, experimenting with them
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Background: I should explain what I’ve been considering. My door has southern exposure so I would like to put a solar cell on it along with a long-running joule thief. The LED will be pointed at the keyhole in the lock. During the day the solar cell will charge a supercapacitor and run the Joule
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