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.
Archive for July, 2012:
2012-07-17 Using a MOT In A Joule Thief
I have been noticing that several of my Google Alerts have been about using a MOT (microwave oven transformer) in a Joule Thief. These have mostly been Youtube videos of experimenters that have built a JT using a MOT for the coil. There are a few disadvantages here. First off, the MOT is huge, heavy
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2012-07-16 Reversed Joule Thief
This .PDF document is on a Yahoo group called Radiant Energy. You may have to log on to view it. It is not a true Joule Thief because it does not conform to the conventional JT that has a single transistor with a coil that has two windings. People just can’t seem to get the
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2012-07-15 Joule Thief – Vce(sat) Is Important
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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2012-07-11 joule Thief watson
I did a search on Google for Joule Thief watson and came up with a bunch of hits. I clicked on the Google IMAGES listing, and came up with a lot of my blog pictures interspersed with pictures from other websites. I can tell you that generally if it is one of my (Watson’s) pictures,
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2012-07-09 Supercharged Joule Thief – Reduced Brightness
Peter is experimenting with my Supercharged Joule thief circuit. His picture is one of his recent results: a Supercharged Joule Thief flashlight. I quote: Hello and thanks for the fast answer, Now I want an SJT as a nightlight cause there are many so called “depleted” batteries lying around – I built one on breadboard
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2012-07-08 Honeywell Mainframe 1981
Honeywell Level 66, model 66/07. Had 384k words of memory. One word = 36 bits, so it was 1.25 megabytes. Five disk packs (removable). Three tape drives. Line printer in foreground. The video screen sitting on the mustard colored cabinet displayed all the jobs running along with their priority. Sometimes the students would be on
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2012-07-07 Honeywell Mainframe, Infotron 1981
The Infotron port selector (used by students) became intermittent and unreliable as it was expanded and was soon replaced by the Gandalf Data, Inc. port selector. No amount of troubleshooting and long periods of long distance calls to Infotron in New Jersey could get the problems fixed.
2012-07-06 SAC Computer Center, Level 6 minis Oct 1981
The Honeywell minicomputers were located in the room next door, behind the left door. My shop was behind the right door. The level 6 minis (behind the sliding glass doors) had Multics OS, and had a 4 character hexadecimal memory display and keypad on the protruding ‘ledge’. When the Level 6 crashed, it would jump
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2012-07-05 SAC Registration Jan 1982
Santa Ana College Registration setup, Jan 1982, The old blue terminals were Lear Siegler ADM-1A, the newer beige terminals were ADM-31.
