Nice hack, thanks for sharing.
It looks like this can also work using an LED as the bias source, using a white LED to bootstrap the circuit into activity.
Once running it should work until the battery or supercap drops below 0.4V
Another interesting note, defunct lithium cells can be used for this because even though they dont charge up above 2.2V due to internal shunts they have capacity equal to a good supercap below this.
Put a zener or other limiter across the cell for safety though!!
Nice hack, thanks for sharing.
It looks like this can also work using an LED as the bias source, using a white LED to bootstrap the circuit into activity.
Once running it should work until the battery or supercap drops below 0.4V
Another interesting note, defunct lithium cells can be used for this because even though they dont charge up above 2.2V due to internal shunts they have capacity equal to a good supercap below this.
Put a zener or other limiter across the cell for safety though!!