I was looking at This model train web page about using solid state relays. He gives a few examples of what he calls “home made” solid state relays – I would call them discrete SSRs because they are made from separate components. There are a few things that I would like to add. He pointed
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Andrew asked a question about a DC-DC converter: I need your advise on the following challenge I have an 8 volt 0.3amp solar panel which I would like to use to charge a small lead acid battery 12 volt no more than 10 AH. Could you suggest a simple JT circuit that could be used
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Well, it’s Friday the 13th. We just had a Friday the 13th just 13 weeks ago, and we will have another one in 13 weeks. Wow! That’s almost spooky! Friday really was Friday the 13th for me and my co-workers. We had several network problems, one which required me to run from one building to
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I made a few of these in early 2010, and they are very handy to have around. I can use power strip sockets that would normally not be usable for a ‘wall wart’ adapter, and the power cord frees up a power strip outlet that would otherwise be used for the adapter. I’m not sure
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Note (from yesterday’s blog): I have seen many good Joule Thief projects mistakenly use the 1N4003 series rectifier, which is made for 50 or 60 Hz, and has a slow recovery time. I have put a 1N4003 in parallel with a 1N4148, and found that the Joule Thief’s performance often drops. This is because it
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I got a link from Quantsuff, about making jewelry out of Nixie tubes. Bill ‘Botronics‘ Sherman replied that Nixie tubes need 140 to 170 volts at 2 milliamps. Meanwhile, I’ve got ten thousand or more of the Dionics DTN-205 transistors in my parts bins that were made for driving Nixies and VFDs. I liked Bill’s
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I made this and I used an old HP 721 power supply set at 31 volts to power the LEDs. The 8 LEDs on each side of the middle are in series and add up to about 25 volts. The two sides are then connected in parallel. The 721 PS is set for 30 mA
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Andy asked me about Peltier junction TEGs (thermoelectric generators) in the Yahoo group Joulethief. The only thermoelectric generators I’ve experimented with are the thermocouples used in natural gas appliances to shut them off if the pilot light goes out. Nowadays these may be getting rarer because the energy efficiency is seriously reduced by a pilot
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I received the following comment from Mayank and this is the reply to his comment. Hi Watson, I have a 1V, 3A solar panel that I want to use to charge 6V SLA battery. I checked some other circuits on the web and they use big torriod cores with 2N3055 transistors. Can I use a
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On occasion I see others refer to the Joule Thief and flashlight (torch) page of talkingelectronics.com. He has many comments, some good, some not so good, and some that miss the mark. Someone recently mentioned the Circuit B, which is shown in one of the pictures. He talked about increasing the efficiency a lot by
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