I unpacked my ol’ headphone amplifier and tried to find the wall wart AC adapter for it. The jack is labeled 12VDC, center negative, so I looked through some boxes for the adapter that matched up. I found one and plugged it in, turned on the amp, and heard Hum-Bub, Hum-Bub, Hum-Bub… The amp was
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Something is seriously wrong with legislators who take such a radical view of the laws. This article tells us that some members of congress are trying to repeal a law that is supposed to reduce the use of electricity and save consumers a lot of money. I think that this is another indication that the
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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
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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
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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.
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Bespoke – The experimenter sometimes may have a difficult time obtaining parts. In a pinch, he may be able to make his own parts. This generally applies to passive components such as capacitors, inductors, resistor, but on occasion may extend to active components too. Coils – Most of use who have built Joule Thiefs are
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I took this pic a while ago, May, 2001. The germanium chip and catwhisker are so clear and visible. The GI stands for General Instrument company, the maker. I know that silicon chips are light sensitive. If germanium chips are, then this one should make a good light detector.
Peter asked me why the Joule Thief transistor’s Vce(sat) is important. I will try to make an analogy of the current in a transistor to the flow of water in a pipe. In a JT, the transistor is supposed to be like a switch: it’s on (like a short) or off (like an open). But
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The fan is labeled: DC BRUSHLESS Model AFC0912DE Dell P/N P2780 DC12V 2.50A Delta Electronics, Inc. I work with Dell PCs and I had a CPU fan laying around that came out of an older Optiplex PC. I had connected it up to a 12V power supply much earlier, and it acted very odd. FIrst
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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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