Why is ONE person allowed to hijack this thread, when others have been told to stay on topic many times over?  I do not come here to OU to learn about Obama or Anti Obama.  We all have our opinions about the guy but this is NOT the place to air them.
A new thread should be started for those interested in "discussing" the issue of Obama.
I thought this thread was supposed to be about the joule thief only.  Was I mistaken?

Hey, its no big deal.  But yes, you are mistaken as there were at least 4 of us discussing this topic, not one person as you said.  Throughout this entire topic we have, from time to time, strayed to a topic that was of some importance to several of the members.  I see no problem with that.

I agree that this should not be turned into a political discussion topic, but I have no fears of that happening.  As you said, anyone can open a new topic for that.  This was just a few of the longtime members of this group exchanging some information and opinions.  I think you will see that we will now be back on topic so, no worries.

Bill

Hi All
Not meaning to get back on topic..oh yeah I am.

I have a AA Kodak board and have a 240v 7w CFL unmodified running from it sorta, it is bright and has a high flicker rate sort of strobe like.
any of you experienced guys know why this is happening and is there a way to correct this, I have a feeling it may be due to the transformer being a little under powered,or the cfl may need modding, but thats just an uneducated guess, when I connect a  flicker flame globe to the same board it works very well, but cfl's I have problems getting a steady light, any one had this problem or know why this is occuring.

Wayne.

Hi Wayne

These boards operate at a far higher frequency than the 50Hz/60Hz that the CFL's are designed to work at... Bill was correct in suggesting a frequency problem. Depending on the circuit differences of these designs differing results and effects occur when attempting to operate an unmodified CFL.  Results will vary from either not working at all... to attempting to strike up (rapid flickering effect) You can get a reasonable light from them though by dismantling and removing the circuit board completely and drive the tube directly!!  In one of my earlier posts you can see how I held a CFL lit up by a camera flash board and  AA cell all built into the base.  Makes for a brilliant party trick...the amazing hand held lamp without wires!! 

Hi Guys

Thank you Crowclaw and Jim for the info regarding the cfl in strobe mode, however I did not manage to stop it from flickering, only option was to cut out the electronics from the cfl like was mentioned in this thread, it would have been nice to get off the shelf cfl's to work without the mod, but never mind I now have a 7w 240v cfl running from a kodak AA board with a modded cfl, its been on now for 14 hours running from a D battery, and makes a great night light.
Will post a pic of some of the other night lights I have been working on as someone out there may like to try a few designs, the little dude meditating has a RGB Led inserted into the candle on his lap which is really cool at night,this is a basic JT with AA and runs for about 3 weeks,  the clear tube with 2 blue leds is also a basic JT and is something I copied from one Bill designed sometime ago,it runs for just over a week, I should have reduced the number of turns in the coil on that one, as the light although has a nice effect with the hot glue covering the light seems to fade slightly in the centre, next one will be only 3 coils.
The last one is also a basic JT and has a bright white led, it lasts over 3 weeks on a AA, it has a blue shottie glass covering the led and an inverted candle holder over the top to diffuse the light, very nice at night.
I think the cfl's will be the way to go as far as light output is concerned, it is so far the brightest, but being a cfl it will most likely not last too long, I am doing a time trial on it now, after 14 hours D battery with no load is at 1.345v, this may last longer than I expect.

Wayne.
 

NO BATERY !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feRdjDglbq0

I want to ask for help in finding the type of transformer or coil.

A very creative circuit. It looks to me like you have two Joule thiefs running in parallel. If so, you should be able to remove one of the transistors and the circuit should still work. If that works then the input side of transformer is equivalent to a Joule thief toroid (two coils with a common end). In that case there is a second set of identical coils on the transformer you are using using for he second Joule thief.

Hi Tommy8482
Welcome to the Joule Thief thread.

Where did you come across this one? it seems to be driving the tube nice and bright.
The transistors look like they came out from the same stable to those that are in the disposable camera circuits. Nice big HI Voltage transformer there.

Jim

looks to me like a driver for a ccfl out of a scanner or such...

Tommy8482:

I spent a couple of hours last night trawling the net looking for info on that transformer and didn't find anything.
Only thing I could recomend, is you take it apart.
Find the top layer of winds, then locate the last turn and then undo each turn (keep a count) write down what end goes to what pin, keep doing this for each seperate coil/s until there are mo more turns left on the former bobbin, then you should have the info.
It's tedious and takes a fair time.
Hope this helps.

At All:
I found out that the tiny transformers out of disposeable cameras come apart more easily if you "boil" them in hot water, this soffens the glue so the 2 graphite halfs can come apart easier.
(Indestructables had this info)

Wilby:
Yes I think you are right, I can remember seeing one I took out of a very old scanner a few years ago, the tiny long thin tube was really something, so fragile, like a single strand of spaghetty!!!!


I don't know if anyone has noticed or not or if it is just me but my computer is taking forever to open Overunity webpages and it takes wayyyyyyyyyy to long, sometimes only the top half opens, the change came about because of the E-Bay twin screens have been added.
Has anyone else had this problem???

Lastly, I got a CFL to light up at last after several failures.
My public thanks to Pirate, Protonmom and WayneCL who have helped by sending me camera parts and parts.

I now have a voltage data logger which will be pressed into service, (my thanks to Wayne), but I'm learning how it works before I post some charts.

jim