Make a Joule Thief Coil Without a Ferrite Toroid

Intro: Make a Joule Thief Coil Without a Ferrite Toroid

There are many different articles and videos to be found online that will teach you how to build a Joule Thief circuit and power LEDs off of dead batteries. Most of them, however, call for some form of coil made using a ring, or toroid, made of ferrite. This can be rather daunting to newcomers to electronics, as "ferrite toroid" sounds rather impressive and exotic at first.

The truth is that a ferrite toroid coil is just a simple coil with two windings wrapped around a ring made of ferrite (iron). Toroids are often used because the ring shape is very effective at storing electromagnetic energy, but you don't actually need a toroid to make a Joule Thief. A simple coil with two windings around a central core will work just fine.

In reality, ferrite toroids are actually fairly easy to come by, as they can be purchased online from a site like Mouser for less than a dollar or found in the guts of such items as old microwaves and ceiling fan control panels, but just in case your dad won't let you tear the microwave apart and you don't feel like paying shipping on a $0.70 item, I'm going to show you how to make a simple coil for a Joule Thief using a few simple items you can find around the house.

Note: If you have any common sense, you will likely not get hurt in the making or usage of this project. If you do, however, it is you own fault and I accept no responsibility for any harm incurring as a result of your attempt at this project.

The image on the Intro step is not mine. It comes from this video here, which provides a good tutorial on how to make a basic Joule Thief.

STEP 1: Materials and Tools

The items you'll need to make this coil are simple:

Materials:

A length of thin magnet wire. I used about 25 feet of 30 gauge.

A magnetic core. Anything that will stick strongly to a magnet will work. I used a hacksaw to cut the end off of an old drill bit, but a bit of a nail or other iron object will work. You might try the piston from an old sprinkler valve solenoid. Try and make it about a centimeter long, cutting it if you have to (obviously, be careful).

Two buttons. I took these off of a dress shirt. You could also use some little discs or squares of plastic or even carboard if you want. These will serve as endstops to keep the wire wrapped tightly around the core.

Superglue. Shouldn't need to elaborate there.

You might also want to use a bit of adhesive to secure the wire on the coil after you finish winding it. Nail polish topcoat works very well for this. You could also use a dab of silicone or hot glue. I would advise against using superglue, at it will get everywhere and some people claim it eats through the ceramic insulation on the wire.

Tools:

Needlenose pliers, or small wire pliers. If they don't have a wire cutter built in, you'll need wire snips or a way to cut the wire (I would advise against simply tearing at it like a caveman until it breaks).

Sandpaper. This will be used to strip the ends of the magnet wire. You can also use nail polish remover or a razor blade to do this.

A hacksaw or some other means to cut your core down to size (assuming you need to, of course).

STEP 2: Build the Core for Your Coil

To do this, we're essentially just going to glue the buttons onto the ends of the iron core.

Firstly, take a hacksaw, razor knife (be careful!) or wire snips and make a small notch in one of the buttons. This will help when winding the wire around the core.

Next, use a drop of super glue to glue the button onto the end of the core. Try and get it as centered as possible.

When the glue dries, flip the core over and glue the second button to the other side, again making it as centered as you can.

Let the glue dry, and you have your core.

STEP 3: Winding the Coil.

To start, cut a piece of magnet wire about 20-25 feet long, and bend it exactly in half so that you have a small loop with two longs ends trailing from it. Be careful, as these will tangle and kink very easily.

Place the loop into the notch you made in one of the buttons on your core, with about two inches sticking out. This will make it easier to wind by keeping the wire from moving.

Wind the two trailing wires side-by-side around the core. Wrap them tightly, moving up and down the core so that they evenly cover the length of the metal with several layers. Try to keep the wires from twisting or kinking to ensure smooth windings (not terribly important to the overall function of the coil, but makes it easier to wind and fix errors and helps prevent the insulation from wearing off the wire, causing a short).

When you have about two inches left of the wires, take your wire snips and cut the loop of wire coming out of the side of the coil in half. You will now have two separate wires wound around a single magnetic core. Twist them gently together in order to secure them.

Finally, use sandpaper, acetone or a razor blade to remove the insulation from the ends of the four wires. You can now use a bit of nail polish or silicone to glue them in place and keep the coil from unraveling.

STEP 4: Implementing and Troubleshooting

You now have a coil that will work in a Joule Thief circuit. Use a multimeter or continuity tester to determine and mark which wire end is connected to which and to make sure there isn't a short that has all four wires connected together. If everything checks out, then connect the coil to your Joule Thief using alligator clips, a breadboard, soldering iron or some other method. This should work fine for a simple Joule Thief circuit, but you can always make one with more wire and windings to get more inductance and more power if you need to.

STEP 5: Defy Physics and Power Your Devices With Dead Batteries!

You get the idea.

Comments

[nooreldok2022]

Thank you... Please, I want to know the number of turns of the primary and secondary transformer for each coil and the diameter of the wire, and is it suitable for the round ferrite imitation extracted from the power supply of the personal computer or not
(Attached is a picture of the aforementioned heart)
Thanks for the useful and valuable information

[nooreldok2022]

Please respond as soon as possible because I am in dire need of this department

[didiersee]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

[GWSC]

They will not work without a core made from a magnetic material. Its operation depends on the magnetic material becoming "saturated", that is it cannot have its magnetic field increased any further.

[traperwaze]

Can General magnet does it?

[HizonP]

It does not work, I use a nut and bolt with 2N2222A transistor can you please help me

[alaafprojs]

ANY Iron core????

[dric19]

can i replace the drill bit with few piece of round magnet which has the same size?

[El Mano]

No, it probably won't work very well. For the coil to work, the current in the wire has to create a magnetic field. If you're trying to create a coil using a magnetized bit of metal, the field produced by the current will be fighting the field from the magnet.

[GWSC]

I have made a number of these using a TV balun core. Cheap and effective, simply wind using the 2 holes. I have only used the 6mm ones, but the 14mm should also work. The 6mm ones make things smaller and are cheaper. They should be available at most good electronics suppliers. I have put a link so you can see what they look like. Good luck.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/Passive-Components/Ferrit...

[richardebueramosii]

This is so helpful. Thanks for this! I may sound dramatic but this gave me more hope on making a Joule thief for my personal project. Well, I really am having hard time finding a ferrite toroid... and thanks, now I can finally make the circuit. Kudos!

[AH Electronics]

Also I tried this one with air core, an AA battery as the core, and also a screw as the core, and it worked with all of them. (But probably not as good as the drill bit core). So anyone who can not find any nails or screwdriver tip, try using the batter as the core, or use an air core which is basically an empty core. By the way, really nice and clear instructions, so kudos for that!

[richardebueramosii]

Wow, thanks for that info!

[El Mano]

Thank you.

[Georjutty]

Should I care about connecting the four wire from the core to which or where parts of the circuits?

[El Mano]

Yes. They have to be wired in a specific way in order for the circuit to work. The easiest way to achieve this in my experience is just to wire the coil in and test it. If it doesn't work, take the two ends of one of the wires (ex, the two wires I marked black with a sharpie) and switch them, leaving the other two the same. I find usually this fixes any problem. You also want to make sure you have your transistor orientated properly, with the collector and emitter connected to the right parts of the circuit. If you're not sure which is which, google a schematic of the particular transistor you're using.

[Luigi Pizzolito]

Cool!

[holtt]

This has been my go-to Joule Thief circuit. I'm currently making about 100 of them for basic lighting for an event, and couldn't imagine trying to wind that many coils/toroids!

[El Mano]

No, that would be ridiculous. You'd spend more on wire than on the event lighting.

[billgeo]

"Defy physics" with a well known and understood circuit from the 1910s!

Yeah... all joule thief instructables should have at least a link to a page

that shows how the thing works!

Its fun to make something, but it's even better if you learn something along the way...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief