This is a continuation of the earlier blog. I wanted to change two parameters, the flash rate and the peak LED current. To do these, I experimented with the following. Flash Rate I built a sixth one (or seventh – I’m beginning to lose track, even though I labeled them). I changed the C1 capacitor
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Ya know, 10 kilowatts isn’t bad for a couple of floats bobbing up and down in the ocean (Youtube video). But like anything else, it will probably meet strong opposition from those that think it’s an eyesore or disturbs the environment. Actually I have a strong suspicion that a lot of the anti-whatevers use environmental
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I drew this schematic almost ten years ago, and of course the actual charger is nowhere to be found. I think it may have burned out somehow, and that was why I drew the schematic. Whatever the case, it does have current limiting, which has to be in anything like this that might be used
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I received the bag of these tiny inverter transformers that I ordered from goldmine-elec.com. Each was tiny: 10.7mm wide, 10mm deep, and 9mm high, not counting the leads. There are two windings, the primary which is 0.11 ohms and an unknown inductance, and the secondary which is 48.4 ohms and 350 mH. They sent a
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Quantsuff sent me a link to a short video of a toroid being wound using the cheating method. The toroid is broken in half, the turns are wound on and the two halves glued back together. Quite some time ago I participated in a discussion about doing this or a similar method and I’m not
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This is my replication of Xee2vids’ Human Powered Joule Thief (Flasher), in a Youtube video. The changes I made are as follows. I used a BC550C which is the same as the BC547C very common NPN transistor. I thought that since the flash rate looked too fast on the Youtube video, and since a slower
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I need more germanium JTs to run down the AA cells to less than a tenth of a volt, so I put this one together using an antique germanium 2N652 made by ETCO. I used a blue-green or aqua LED like the ones used in the traffic lights. It uses a Fair-Rite 2643002402 core. The
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I was reading an article in the ASME “mechanical engineering” magazine called “Nuclear’s Model T”, which talked about building small nuclear power plants in a factory and shipping them to their operational sites. This issue was Vol.131/No.7 July 2009. The article was published a few years before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. First off, I will
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I have built several of the “Single Cell Flasher With Two Year Battery Life” flashers found at Pigeonsnest.co.uk and they flash for what seems like eternity – they’re real misers when it comes to battery current. But the flash is somewhat anemic and I had never tried this type flasher with any color LED other
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I have read the claims of many Joule Thief fanatics who say that the JT will “suck the life out of dead batteries” and that’s how it got its name. But by the time the Joule Thief gets to a battery, isn’t it already mostly used up? During the Xmas holidays and since then, I
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