[dms-discuss] The Joule Thief - A simple maker project

[Roland]

Really enjoying these updates from everyone.

I have 5 or so CFLs I need to get rid of, I can bring them to the space
tomorrow.  They're working though, not dead in case that matters.

-Roland

On Thu, Oct 24, 2024, 4:31 PM Bill King via Discuss <
discuss at lists.davismakerspace.org> wrote:

>
>
>
> Today during MakerSpace hours, Julie and I made a Joule Thief. This is a
> simple, cheap electronics project that uses a "dead" (well, mostly dead)
> battery to power a small LED, which is a neat trick in that an LED needs ~3
> volts to turn on and the "dead" battery is well below that. The "magic" is
> in the way energy is stored in the coil's magnetic field and then dumped to
> the LED at a higher voltage 50K times a second. Because of persistence of
> vision, you see it as always on.
>
> The only parts needed are:
> 1 - 1K resistor
> 1 - 2N2222 transistor
> 1 - ferrite core
> ~2 feet of very fine wire
> 1 - single cell AA battery case
> 1 - nearly dead AA cell
>
>
> We can buy enough supplies to make 30-50 units for about $35.
>
> If you're curious you can google <joule thief> or see Big Clive's version
> (which is what we're making):
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K53beWYdIpc
>
> This project teaches soldering skills and some basic electronics and gives
> the participant something to take home. It takes about 15 minutes to wind
> the coil and solder the pieces together. I'll offer it as a workshop, an
> opening day project, or both.
>
> This prototype was made from parts salvaged from a compact fluorescent
> light bulb. If you have any dead CFLs I'd like to get them to make a couple
> more to work out the build process. Some of the parts will come from China
> so they're not immediately available.
>
> thanks,
> Bill
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Davis Makerspace Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.davismakerspace.org
> https://lists.davismakerspace.org/listinfo/discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.davismakerspace.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20241027/9f970451/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image_123650291.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2193317 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.davismakerspace.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20241027/9f970451/attachment-0001.jpe>