Ron sure knows how to build the suspense for his yet unreleased "closing the loop with a small solar panel" video. I have some thoughts on this regarding efficiency.  A typical white LED is about 27 percent efficient in terms of converting electrical energy into light energy, and a typical  commercially available polycrystalline or crystalline solar panel, about 10 to 20 percent efficient.  Assuming Ron is able to efficiently couple the light from LED's to solar panel he will be lucky to recover an efficiency of 2.7 to 5.4 percent. (My guess is that 1 to 2 percent would be more realistic.)  If Ron is able to pull this off, it would be a most impressive demonstration, as it means he is not only winning the fight, but winning with over 9 out 10 fingers tied behind his back!  Of course, to really impress us, the solar panel would feed a capacitor and not a battery, and all other significant light sources turned off or blocked, so as not to feed the solar panel.   Anyway, even if it turns out the solar panel dosn't provide enough power to close the loop, perhaps the loop can be closed with a couple of ceramic capacitors feeding a full wave bridge etc. perhaps trading the nice isolation provided by the solar panel, for higher efficiency.  Finally, I am thinking about designing an experimental circuit board, that anyone could download the data file for, and have made online, or make themselves.  (This would be for experimental, non commercial use only and layout copyright would go to Dr. Stiffler). Let me know if you are interested or have any thoughts on this, like where to put extra capacitance etc.

Hi Ben,
nice to see your picture now with the 30 neon bulbs.

Can you tell us more about this ?

Did you also get the core from this Ebay seller
Mr. Lowe from Middletown, OH 45044 ?

Do you now see much more amplification with it ?

How much power did you put in there to drive
the 30 neon bulbs and at what frequency ?

What is you voltage p-p to drive this from your signal generator ?

Can you , if you hit the resonance frequency of the core
lower in the input signal generator  voltage , without the neon bulbs
reducing their brightness ?
If yes, to what level ?
Many thanks.

Ron sure knows how to build the suspense for his yet unreleased "closing the loop with a small solar panel" video. I have some thoughts on this regarding efficiency.  A typical white LED is about 27 percent efficient in terms of converting electrical energy into light energy, and a typical  commercially available polycrystalline or crystalline solar panel, about 10 to 20 percent efficient.  Assuming Ron is able to efficiently couple the light from LED's to solar panel he will be lucky to recover an efficiency of 2.7 to 5.4 percent. (My guess is that 1 to 2 percent would be more realistic.)  If Ron is able to pull this off, it would be a most impressive demonstration, as it means he is not only winning the fight, but winning with over 9 out 10 fingers tied behind his back!  Of course, to really impress us, the solar panel would feed a capacitor and not a battery, and all other significant light sources turned off or blocked, so as not to feed the solar panel.   Anyway, even if it turns out the solar panel dosn't provide enough power to close the loop, perhaps the loop can be closed with a couple of ceramic capacitors feeding a full wave bridge etc. perhaps trading the nice isolation provided by the solar panel, for higher efficiency.  Finally, I am thinking about designing an experimental circuit board, that anyone could download the data file for, and have made online, or make themselves.  (This would be for experimental, non commercial use only and layout copyright would go to Dr. Stiffler). Let me know if you are interested or have any thoughts on this, like where to put extra capacitance etc.

There have been recent breakthroughs in solar cell research. This article mentions efficiency of 42%
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=49483     This of course does not mean a trial sample is readily available but there is hope.

Dave

78ma from the 12V battery. Only had 67 LEDs. Estimate the circuit could light up to 200 LEDs.

Ossie

Wow that's impressive, 67 LEDs look pretty blinding, what happens when you put 200?

Sorry to be a bother, but does anybody know where to purchase BaFe cores? The original eBay seller doesn't seem to sell them anymore.

If obtaining cores proves to be a problem, does anybody know how I'd go about making my own cores from BaFe powder?

Hmm, i've seen coils like that around before, but I thought they needed to be Barium Ferrite? If not, I could probably grab some from the local electronic components store. Can anybody confirm those coils working?

Hi Harti
The reason the voltage drops on the test circuit at self resonance is that the measurement circuit  is in SERIES with the coil. 

Yes,but in the circuit diagram he is showing it being measured across the 50 ohm load resistor.

If the series LC circuit atresonance has about less than 1 Ohm impedance, all
voltage should be at the 50 Ohm resistor, so the voltage should
be maximum at resonance, not lowest... or do I mix something up here ?