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Author Topic: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.  (Read 40143 times)

Legalizeshemp420

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Here is the video with the waveform and all and I am really impressed by this little bugger.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbwzAmO0998

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2013, 05:32:33 AM »
I was very busy today with my car but I did manage to squeeze in about an hour to reverse engineer the circuit.  Rather odd at one point as it makes no sense to me so I will run it up in the simulator and see what I get in a day or so.

TinselKoala

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2013, 03:47:45 PM »
Your scope is showing a frequency of about 1.7 MHz.

I've taken apart a few garden lights myself. There are two main variants that I've found. One uses a photoresistor CdS as the ambient light sensor, to switch from charging in daylight to lighting the LED at night. The other simply uses the photovoltaic cell itself, both for sensing and charging.

The first type uses a tiny chip marked ZE002 and the second type uses ANA608. These are both four-terminal devices. Here are the schematics of the two types I've analyzed:



Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2013, 03:51:42 PM »
This is neither of those and has no IC on it (probably why it is better).  I already can tell it has a darkness sensor via the solar panel since I reverse engineered it I just haven't laid it out yet.  Works extremely well and I will take my DFC-1000 out to be 100% sure what the frequency is but I can't remember if it is a high impedance load or not.  I would hope it would be.

Oh, here is the parts count: 11...1 Diode, 3 Resistors, 1 cap, 2 transistors, 2 inductors, 1 Solar Panel, and 1 white led that I have no idea what the specs are for it.

TinselKoala

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2013, 04:02:48 PM »
That's a lot of parts. What are the transistors? I would like to see the schematic when you have a chance. The DFC-1000 counter has a 1Meg input impedance for low frequency signals (Below 100 MHz), the JT won't even know it's there probably.

ETA: It appears to be the same as the Elenco F-1000:
http://electronicsandbooks.com/eab1/manual/Hardware/D/Dynatek/DFC1000%20c20060821%20%5B9%5D.pdf

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2013, 04:18:29 PM »
Yes, it had 3 models that rebadged it and I forgot what the other one was.

S9013 and if I were to design this circuit for my needs I would use the S8055 over the S9013 since they fight for price supremacy a bunch.

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2013, 04:46:33 PM »
Your scope is showing a frequency of about 1.7 MHz.
1712.5Khz using the 0.01s gate (only 1 digit past the decimal point doing this).

btw, I looked in the box and my original receipt from JDR was in it.  1/28/1991 (my 26th birthday) and it cost me $199.95 from them.  So, my 50 to 80 dollars was way off (must have been something else I purchased but never got back from the flood/fire of 2006).

TinselKoala

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2013, 04:51:25 PM »
Data sheets:


Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2013, 04:54:34 PM »
We crossed posted it seems.

btw, I looked in the box and my original receipt from JDR was in it.  1/28/1991 (my 26th birthday) and it cost me $199.95 from them.  So, my 50 to 80 dollars was way off (must have been something else I purchased but never got back from the flood/fire of 2006).

The S8055 has a higher amp rating and from what I saw, when I looked yesterday, it had better gain too.

TinselKoala

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2013, 04:56:13 PM »
1712.5Khz using the 0.01s gate (only 1 digit past the decimal point doing this).

Yep. I counted just about 6 full cycles in 3.5 microseconds (7 full divisions). 6/0.0000035 = 1714285.714285... and respecting sig digs that's 1.7 MHz. Pretty good for eyeballing a YT screenshot of an analog scope, eh?

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2013, 05:05:11 PM »
Yep. I counted just about 6 full cycles in 3.5 microseconds (7 full divisions). 6/0.0000035 = 1714285.714285... and respecting sig digs that's 1.7 MHz. Pretty good for eyeballing a YT screenshot of an analog scope, eh?
Yes, I am amazed to be honest.

You are EXACTLY the type of viewer I love having on my channel.  They can see and set forth because frankly I try to explain as best as I can but I have always only given most of the story to something and, just like a teacher, expect you to do just a little leg work.  That is in real life though and on my YT vids I sometimes forget to give all of the answers and besides I can't know what some guy in Zimbabwe is wanting out of the video, hehe, though I do try and give as much info as I know.

I love all of my viewers and just wish I had more to be honest but I don't know how to get them as I have never been a salesman type.

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2013, 09:06:18 PM »
Well, I just finished with this thing in Multisim and it does not have 2 components I need to simulate this 100%

Ffirst it doesn't have any solar cell models of any kind.  So, I just replaced it with a SPST switch to simulate what the Solar Panel is doing in the circuit.  POOF, I did that and it worked when you close it (this is exactly what a dark solar cell/panel would act like in this circuit).

Now, not having a model for the S9013 (I suck at model making because I change what is needed to the tee and it will be wrong no matter how many times I go over it) and using the BC337 in its place works but I know from the real world that will change brightness, frequency, etc... and it did.  I simulate this at 1845 Khz and my LED is not lighting up because it is simulating 2.5v from 1.2.

So, I know it works in the simulator at least but I am not done with this yet.

TinselKoala

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #12 on: October 15, 2013, 09:49:38 PM »
Schematic?

Pirate88179

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2013, 07:10:45 AM »
I posted these photos on the forum back in 2010 and I never could figure out what type of JT circuit my garden lights were using.  2 resistors on one side of a very small circuit board and a gray blob on the reverse side.  I was told by someone here that the blob covered the chip.  Someone else said it covered the transistor but, only 2 wires run to this blob and the blob is just about the diameter of a pencil erraser and maybe .070" high.

I had about 10 of this type and have used the circuit for making many other things but had no idea how it worked as a JT with no transistor, coil or chip.  (as far as I could see anyway)  This circuit would drive a nice 5mm ultrabright LED very well.  (The lights come with a 3mm led)

Bill

PS  I even made a device using this circuit and a cd driving 2 red leds spaced apart like eyes to scare away predators from my friend's chicken coop.  Hangs from a tree, charges by day runs all night.

Legalizeshemp420

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Re: Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2013, 04:25:26 PM »
I see 1 coil, 1 resistor and 1 IC (under the blob) in your pictures.