monster yet efficient and simple joule thief

Hi,every one Im shams and this is my first instructable but im not new on instructables.hope you will enjoy.....
This is da one and only the famous circuit we all know as joule thief.it is a blocking osc.In some site people say it can produce votage from 3-6 volt.But they r wrong it produce 40+ volt not kiddin.u will need a digital multi meter to see it.My joule thief can operate from 0.5 volt in single cell mode but it needs above0.9 volt in monster mode.In this mode you can run 6leds on aa and 8 leds on d cell.And i know ur al thinkin that im jokin cuz 40 volt will fry the leds right? so for the answer check this url :http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/LEDTorchCircuits/LEDTorchCircuits-P1.html.

Step 1 Tools and parts

Now go to ur junk box and search for this parts.
1.bread board(for testing)
2.leds any brght led(white,blue,uv)
3.toroid core(big one for power smaller one for mobility)
4.resistors(from 50R-2k ohm)
5.2n2222.(for single led and super efficency)
6.bd 135(medium-low power)
7.tip 32(high power)
8.tip 3055 or 2n3055(monster power.tip 3055 is better cuz it is smaller than his bro)
9.a zener diode (cuz it got lower voltage drop)
10.10-20uf cap (50volt is good for the circuit)
11.one battery (button cell=mobility,aaa=mobility,aa=power,d=highpower)
12.jumper wire
13.28no super enamel coated wire(magnet wire)
14.mosfet (not tested but it should work)

Comments

[admin]

This is a great Instructable, but you need to add a main image of the final project to the intro step. Please do that and leave me a message when you have so that we can publish your work. Thanks!

[jomac_uk]

Another Circuit Shams stolen off the internet, this time it was taken from Colins site www.TalkingElectronics.com in Australia. You are just a thieving pretender Shams, you take other peoples hard work, and pass it off as your own, but this time ive emailed instructables, and ive sent an email to colin as well, with a link to this project so he can see how his hard work has been stolen....you dont even have the manners to acknowledge the work that you steal, is someone elses, you just pretend its your own

[shams]

and...look i ve given the address on my first page of talking electronic and where i get it from..........this is instructables.com bro...here people write instructions step by step how the have made something.....so this instructable is as others.....

[shams]

nope ...look there are all the links and address on the shematics...so i didnt stole it.....and whats ur prolem really ??....why are you after me ??...cant you oil ur own machine ??

[jomac_uk]

YES...you did steal it, it clearly says on the cappels site, that everything is copyright (c) It ALSO says that you CANT use any material WITHOUT the owners consent!!

You just cut and pasted someone elses work WITHOUT their permission, and YES it is THEFT

Why are we after you, as you put it? because you are a THIEF of other peoples work, probably incapable of designing your own!!...and yes there are a few of us now that will be following your future work to make sure its not been stolen from someone else!!!

[shams]

go ahead man....do what you do...say what you say.....i have no headache for you.........

[Dick Cappels]

I hope that in the future, Instructables shows the courtesy of asking copyright holders for permission to use copied material.

The web page on my site that sorts out a lot of the details and contain tips to debug the circuit:

http://cappels.org/dproj/ledpage/leddrv.htm

[azthinks]

Not bad for a 14-year-old! But I can tell just by looking... that is waay too many windings on the toroid to be efficient. Longer wires have higher resistance. Even just 5-10 turns should be OK. And try thicker wire to lower the resistance. Check out http://azthinks.com/JT_resources.html for more joule thief hints.

[acmefixer]

Lotta confusion here. Two different schematics, 3055 is not used here. The second schematic shows a 10n capacitor, but I've tried this circuit and it works without the cap, but goes dim when I add the cap. I recommend not to use it.

[shams]

just replace 2n4401 with 3055........my one doesnt go dim.How many turns have u used ? and whats the size of your core ?

[acmefixer]

The number of turns I use depends on the core material.  I try to keep the inductance of each winding at least 100 microhenrys.  Some cores are low mu (permeability) and need at least 20 to 30 turns.  Some high mu cores only need 5 to 8 turns.  See my blog here for some of the cores I use.  And here is a higher power supercharged JT I built last week using some new stuff I bought.

Keep the resistance of the toroid windings low.  Your JT will lose brightness if it is too high.    If you can measure it with a cheap DMM, a half ohm for instance, then it is too much.  Heavier wire helps, too.  You can wind the core with a second or third primary winding and connect the two or three windings in parallel.

As for substituting the 2N3055 for the 2N4401, you will have to do more than that.  The 2N4401 has a gain of several hundred, the 2N3055 is lucky to have a gain of 100.  If you leave the resistor at 1000 ohms, then the 2N3055 will conduct less than a third of the current of the 2N4401.  You have to allow more base bias current by lowering the resistor to 330 ohms or maybe less.

Have fun.  Best of success in building your Joule Thief.

[build a BOOM]

I see that U are using old telephone wire. I used that stuff all the time, after I got a 3 foot section from a garbage can. It had over thirty, yard long wires.

[xombie88]

Great instructable, but you could improve the language. A lot.

[shams]

Actually I am from Bangladesh.We speak English but my english isn't that good!!.. So sorry for my mistakes

[xombie88]

Well, look at your comment section. Your English here is excellent. But in the article you haven't bothered to write most words in their full forms :p

[shams]

thanks man! I'll try my best

[uberdum05]

After I wound it as well, the circuit did'nt work!!(Curse you....circuit =))

[shams]

try using 10 tap 10 winding.And which transistor you are using?

[uberdum05]

Im using a TIP31A, reading the datasheet it says it needs something like 350 Ma to turn on, maby its too much?

[shams]

no it's not too much but how much volts it need to turn on?I've also used this circuit with irf3710 mosfet.and check your winding.It must work.And sorry for late reply I was busy playin games.My dad bought a new gpu for me!!

[uberdum05]

It needs 5 volts to turn on, also what GPU make is your new one?

[shams]

Here read this it might help you!! Initially, I tried a BC107 transistor (because it was to hand) but it would only oscillate if I lowered the base resistor to 220 ohms and when I measured the current taken from the battery it was about 90mA - even before the LED was connected. A BC108 oscillated easily as did a H945 removed from a dead switcher - also a good source of coils/ferrites. But I was intrigued with getting the BC107 to run and added a small capacitor (22nF) across the base resistor to 'kick-start' the oscillations. It worked so well - with various transistors and coils that I was further intrigued to see how much I could increase the resistor value - hence the 20k trimpot. (The 22nF also got over the problem of the oscillator failing when I tried to add an ammeter in the battery circuit). I found it would continue to oscillate right up to 20k ohms and this also had the effect of reducing the supply current (osc only) from 90mA to 800microamps - very important if using batteries. The transistor used in this circuit can be any one of a wide variety of transistors. I recommend trying the 2N4401, 2N3904, and 2N2222, listed in no particular order. Dariusz Flaga in Poland, noted that the BC338 is popular in Europe and that its specifications, including voltage and current ranting, and saturation characateristics, suggest that it is a good fit for this application. Mr. Piggs in the U.S.A. (see the Solar Powered Garden Light, above), successfully used the BC547 on several prototypes. You can even use PNP transistors, but if you do, remember to reverse the battery and LED connections. I have received email from a couple of project builders who used very high gain transistors and had trouble with their circuits. Transistors with high DC current gain (hfe) tend to switch slowly and may operate inefficiently or not at all. Stay away from the very high-gain audio transistors in particular. The small capacitor across the base resistor, as shown in the Rusty Nail Night Light can speed up the transistor and make oscillation possible when you have low a inductance inductor, or if the transistors are a little slow. Speedup capacitors beyond .0033 uf (33000 pf) are probably excessive and may actually slow down the circuit by causing the base to be over-driven. If your circuit doesn't work, consider using a faster transistor.

[uberdum05]

would a darlington pair work well?

[shams]

It will work but it got very very high gain we dont want very very high gain we need single transistor high gain one.man why your JT is not working.I've tought about 20 kids to build this circuit on there own.It's a very simple circuit it should work!!!

[uberdum05]

it's a pain in the butt. I'm more used to building logic circuits with HCF4xxxBEY IC's and using computers.I have currently got an ICT job off my ICT manager, its awesome.

[shams]

wow man you are rolling very high!My bro is studying in electrical and communication eng.And I'm 16.I've started electronics in this year and in 2007 I was building a pulse jet engine and it worked!!And 2006 I was fully on thermal components(engines).I think in the fall 2009 i will be in atomic reaction

[shams]

Try bc547b or bc557b transistor.one is pnp other is npn.This transistors are very high on current gain.Use this for first time

[shams]

5 volts? oh you cant start that thing with that 10 turn transformer.you need atleast 40 turns to kick start that transistor with 1.5 volt.try using low power high gain transistors first.if that works then start with this big transistors.And your core must be ferrite!not soft iron core.My gpu is diamond hd4870 1GB cpu e8500 core 2 duo chipset DX48BT2

[uberdum05]

I got the stripped end of the wire stuck in my finger... OUCH

[shams]

Be carefull man

[uberdum05]

Will a TIP31A do??

[Subconscionaut]

Yr a totl Gnyuss bt itz knda hrd 2 Unrstnd wht U R. sying. Mebbe U cn take it EZ on sum f s OLD folkx?(mid-30's) Thnx. BTW Great Idea!

[shams]

thanks man.it is kinda hard because i am from another country.iam from bangladesh search da google

[junits15]

it is a little dangerous to be putting you're age at the end like that, anybody can see it. so I've heard from the evil mad scintist version if this that the wires cant cross in the torroid. is that true? (if you know)

[shams]

sorry junits15 i couldnt understand what do u mean by 'WIRES CANT CROSS IN DA TOROID' .Could you explain da sentence

[junits15]

lets say i use two diffrent colored wires for the it,that no two wires of the same color could be next to each other, but it dosn't matter because i got it to work! :D

[shams]

no there is no problem in crossing wire.it is just to look clean

[riddimdon]

great job shams!

[Digital_Anarchy]

do you wanna try listening in english as well as science. This istructable is very interesting but nigh on unreadable.

[shams]

yo digi guy i dont ve to listen to english,but u ve to cuz ur grammer is super damn