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Joule thief running a CFL?
I've seen a lot of videos of people making joule thieves to power CFLs, with only one or two cells. (These actually work, right?) However, most of them require large (larger than a soda can) inductors and/or ignition coils and transformers. Is there any joule thief (or circuit) out there capable of running a CFL at full brightness, with around 6V, but at the same time being as small and uncomplicated as possible?
Comments
10 years ago
You want something like this:
www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/FluorescentInverter/FluorescentInverter.html
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Answer 10 years ago
Would've been great...if it ran on less than 6 volts, and didn't have a large inductor...
Reply 2 years ago
Yes, you can run it with 3 volts at full brightness:
just create a joule ringer first. The joule ringer is a joule thief in which, the resistor (which is connected to the transistor's base) is replaced by a incandescent light bulb.
In your case, you will need to rrplace the joule ringer's bulb with your joule thief-CFL power input terminals.
3 years ago
ya it is just add a third coil to the joule theif torid thingy but wrap it long enough to have around 110 to 120 v.
10 years ago
Yes it is possible. I don't have a diagram right now to do it but I used to have a small camping lantern that ran two small conventional florescent lights on 4 d cells.
The electronics were very small and the coil was not very large. I doubt that the coil will have to be very large.
I'll look later and see if I can find or figure something more on this.
Answer 10 years ago
That'd be greatly appreciated.
P.S: You seem to be answering a lot of my questions, and your answers are usually the best. Thanks.
Answer 10 years ago
Here's a youtube video of a flor. light running off a single pinlight showing that it can be done but not how to do it.
Here's a site with several battery powered fl llights. You might get enough info here to convert one of these circuits.
Here's a great "Make" article.
Answer 10 years ago
That youtube video is a good example but provides no help with where the wires are connected
Answer 10 years ago
The same principle applies, adjust the number of turns in the inductor (which you can find in old radios) It's the same principle, just bigger than your average Joule-thief..
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