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Author Topic: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.  (Read 158523 times)

jeanna

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EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« on: December 29, 2009, 03:50:36 AM »
This is a new place for posting about getting your EER to fire up a joule thief.

I have not yet been able to do this even with a germanium transistor, but I sure do want to.

jeanna

jeanna

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2009, 04:08:02 AM »
Quote from: freepow  date=1262055096
@ Jeanna

Ok,  1x EER  =  .7 - .9 vdc  at ~4 mA
      2 x EER in parallel  = .7  -.9 vdc  at ~7 ma
I will now try to do what you said...

I think 7mA is a better start for any joule thief.
It is really fabulous that you are starting the oscillations and getting the spikes high enough with 4mA.

These are the special isolated tubes you made are they not?

Does it work to put them in series?
I always get a very weak response when I am using a joule thief and the battery is down below 1 volt.
This is when I am using the secondary, of course.
So, I am definitely not discouraged.
 I am amazed.
You are doing great!

jeanna

jeanna

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2009, 04:17:24 AM »
Quote from: lasersaber  date=1262054437

I have just started building joule thiefs.  I get totally lost in the joule thief thread every time I start reading it.  Is there a joule thief that you would recommend for me to use with my earth battery?  I have the 5 for 1 toroid from electronics goldmine.  Right now I'm pretty happy just lighting a single bright LED. If I could get lots of them lit then my earth battery might have some practical usefulness right now.  I have over 30 milliamps to play with so I should be able to do it.  Any advice you might have would be greatly appreciated.  If I get it working I will post videos of it here on overunity.  Maybe we should start a thread for earth battery specific joule thiefs.

Thanks

Lasersaber,
You have so many mA for the primary Joule thief you will have ZEEROO problem getting it to light many many more.

I have not found a good tuning for the 5/$1.
 I got my best results using 6T6T, but I think others found a better arrangement.

Maybe someone else can help with that?


Meantime, did you see my tuning suggestions I just gave to freepow?
 I will bring them here in a sec.
First of all, are you using a secondary on the joule thief toroid?

Please start there, and let me know what happens.
Others are surely able to add to this.

thank you,

jeanna

edit
I said the following to freepow to help get the toroid tuned better for the low volts extra low mA from the EER:

Quote
Take the primary down as far as 2T,8T,
If the light goes out or gets dimmer anywhere on the way to 2T stop and add the last turn back.
then start to reduce the 8T and watch the brightness.

The amps draw is related to the initial transistor switching, but if it is too little the volts off the secondary will be too low.

(I am coming to this realization:)
The amps are not being drawn by the leds off the secondary, but they need to have a high spike.
That high spike is derived from the initial amps draw that makes the first JT oscillations.
 So, the higher the spike you can get for the least joule thief input the brighter the leds will shine.

The leds are drawing the frequency down, and when that gets too low, the lights will be too dim.

As the volts go up, the frequency goes down, and with an EER you have high frequency.

freepow

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2009, 04:17:46 AM »
Ok Jeanna, I am going to draw a diagram of my very basic Joule thief for my EER...
I've built better one's than this, but it was just a basic one for my EER
Hope this helps you...

The tubes are as follows... 1x EER =  3/4 inch copper pipe at 19 3/4 inch long and a thin 1/4 inch galv-steel rod 19 3/4 inch long, both in ground,  the copper and steel is only about 2-3 inches apart.

The other EER is the same, but about a foot from my 1st EER.

In series they kind of cancel each other out so the volts stay the same, but in parallel I get nearlly double mA's.

jeanna

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2009, 04:47:34 AM »
Yes, freepow, this sounds exactly right.
When I did the probes in the ground and connected them for amps, my volts always went down at the same time.

Anyway, you are doing this exactly right, so see what you can get from 2x or if you want to see the very best tuning possible for your toroid, continue to do the steps I outlined.
And stay with the 1x EER until it is very highly tuned.
The extra amps of 2x EER should not throw off the tuning, but if you perfect it now, you can get better results later...IMO anyway.
 I just copied those suggestions here to make things easier.

I think this is really exciting.

jeanna

lasersaber

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2009, 05:30:03 AM »
Jeanna,

I guess I will order some 6T6T toroids.  Do you any suggestions for a place to order from?

I have no secondary on my current joule thief.  Here is a video showing my current setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4D_oj_S6c

Pirate88179

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2009, 05:30:24 AM »
I think Lasersaber would be a good addition for posting in this topic.  He is up to 50 mA's and counting.

Great idea for a topic Jeanna.

Bill

Pirate88179

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2009, 05:36:42 AM »
Actually, in looking at it, I think this topic should be in the Joule Thief topic area.  What do you think?

Bill

lasersaber

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2009, 05:36:45 AM »
Pirate88179

50 is what I am shooting for.  My highest before the freezing weather was 38.  I will get there sooner or later.

Pirate88179

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2009, 05:38:44 AM »
Laser:

Well, with the progress you have made so far, you will get there very soon I imagine.  I am also glad you are posting videos to show your experiments.  This is good for all of us.

Bill

freepow

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2009, 05:56:23 AM »
@ Jeanna, I Have tried your idea on reducing turns etc. LED would not light, so I went back to my normal Bif winding and LED lights...

At least I can now make (garden lights) LOL,  with 1x EER  and free power too !

But I still am trying to get LED brighter, then use many to light house.

jeanna

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2009, 06:05:14 AM »
Jeanna,

I guess I will order some 6T6T toroids.  Do you any suggestions for a place to order from?

I have no secondary on my current joule thief.  Here is a video showing my current setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4D_oj_S6c
Please let me explain,
You already have a toroid on your joule thief, I believe.

The way you make a secondary for it is you wind  30 turns of mag wire, (then remembering to sand the ends off) you then connect the ends to the ends of a led.
There is often a polarity and so if it doesn't light one way try it the opposite way.

Please try this now, if there is still daylight,  and let me know.

thank you,

jeanna

Bill,
It can go either way, but everybody interested in both looks here.
Plus it was in the EB arena where it was suggested.
Those only interested in JT don't bother to look here.
(do you want to moderate another thread?  ;D)

edit
Lasersaber,
It seems you have a LOT of turns on your toroid already.
I am not sure there is any place free for a secondary.
Please let me know the specs of what you have made there.
thanks,
j

freepow

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2009, 01:03:25 PM »
@ Jeanna

I got a scope shot of my 1x EER running a Joule thief with 11,11 turn Bif + 30 turn secondary = 5.6 volt spikes and a frequency of 909 khz.

jeanna

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #13 on: December 29, 2009, 05:55:42 PM »
Wow, those are amazing numbers.

I assume this is still with no base resistor. .....fantastic.

Your frequency is high and you can use that to make the lights if you can get the volts higher.
The easiest thing to do now, is to make as many more turns as possible. edit: I mean on the secondary.

If I were doing this, I would add 10 at a time and test  after each addition.

cool,
another thought is...
If the permeability of your toroid is too low for what is happening, you will need more turns.

So, can you add as many as 30 more turns in your toroid?

jeanna
« Last Edit: December 29, 2009, 09:26:43 PM by jeanna »

lasersaber

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Re: EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.
« Reply #14 on: December 29, 2009, 07:07:13 PM »
Jeanna,

I have 22 turns on it.  I think I could tighten them up and have room for a secondary.  I did try powering this with just 11 turns and it worked fine.