SKYWATCHER-- CFL and Charger using wall outlet transformer

[joblessalex]

How exactly do you make a 555 timer circut? I have the parts, but no instructions. plz help.

[rroge5]

its called a inverter. your making a invert,it would be cheaper to buy one, but that wouldnt be fun =D

[sparkfishes]

As with all your video this is great BUT, PLEASE, PLEASE Do your diagrams in MS Paint and add them as a slide the hand written ones are un readable- see my slides I use Ms Moviemaker its free

[Lidmotor]

sparkfishes---Thanks for the tip on how to make better circuit diagrams.

[Edsan91]

LOL i was looking around for skywatcher telescopes while ur video came up lol amazing stuff u got here! I like other poeples inventions and stuff like that lol was is it though? is it like a battery to charge things and stuff or something like that lol anyways great stuff. I sub now :D diagrams are actually good cause I can read them. But maybe using software may be a lil better. Great video 5 stars. and a sub

[jackscholze]

Lidmotor,  great work. I was wondering why you have to modify the CFL at all, since it already designed to run

at 110V AC or so?

thanks and aloha

[Drevtoobe]

Hey Lid, hate to be a bad guy but there is a law that says "the sum of all voltage drops around a loop is zero."

If you put a big fat 25-volt electrolytic capacitor in place of the super cap, the circuit will run, but you will notice that the CFL side starts to get weaker and starts to fliker (a reasonable assumpton),

Simple reason: Suppose the 12-volt batt has charged the cap to 6 volts. The circut is now only powered by (12-6) volts, because you add voltages as you go around the loop.

[Drevtoobe]

When you "travel through" the cap the usable voltage for the CFL circuit goes down by the cap voltage. So eventually the CFL circuit will end up "starved for voltage" and will stop working.

The energy put into the cap came from the battery. The battery had to do work to "push" current into the capacitor. The higher the voltage on the cap, the harder it is for the battery to "push" current into the cap. Think back to the tank of compressed air analogy.

[Drevtoobe]

When the cap votage eventually equals the battery voltage, there are zero available volts on the "far" side of the cap. By the same token, with the cap voltage is the same as the battery voltage, the battery can push no more, and all current flow stops. I know that you know that, just for completeness.

[Lidmotor]

Well this was another learning experience. "The sum of all voltage drops around a loop IS ZERO!!!!" A little research and some experimenting told me that. It was still a fun project and interesting to see how the energy flows around the loop. Round and round she goes and where she stops only the depleted battery knows. lol

[crusaderrabbit60]

Well I'm going to guess that this is a type of inverter...Might I be close.MMMM I don't know....Electronics not specialty...But very interesting....

[gmeatdaddy]

Five Stars Lid,  I'd like to know if these super caps charge up quickly like a regular cap or if these take longer?.In any event,Thx for another good video

-gmeatdaddy

[Lidmotor]

gmeatdaddy---Thanks. The little super caps charge up like regular caps but the higher the Farad rating of the cap the slower they charge. Too high an amp flow in is a bad idea as is shorting them when they have a charge. Costly mistakes.

[Drevtoobe]

Hey Lidmotor,

You are in the Zone. lol Probably you get a self-oscillator with the motor because it acts something like a Joule Thief. You have transformer consinting of the upper and lower coils of the motor, and a transistor to amplify a feedback signal running through the transformer - sounds more or less like a "hidden" Joule Thief embedded in your motor design to me.

[Drevtoobe]

For your backwards transformer setup, may I juggest that you plug it back into the wall and measure the true AC output voltage from the "normal" secondary. Then you measure the voltage in the wall socket. That will give you the precise turns ratio for the transformer. Kind of fun considering everybody wants to know the individual coil specs, you can get the real transformer spec by measuring it yourself.

[Drevtoobe]

What's the point to all of this madness? Assuming that you are pulsing 12 volts into the "backwards" primary, then you woud know what the open-circuit output voltage from the "backwards" secondary would be.

For fun, assume the transformer turns ratio is 40:1. Then the open-circuit output voltage from your secondary would be a (40 x 12) = a 480 volt square wave. This initial high voltage is high enough to initaiate a burn in the CFL and then your output instantly drops to the burn voltage.

[Drevtoobe]

I am going to guess that the burn voltage for the CFL is around 100 volts.

The man is in the Zone!

[Lidmotor]

Hey---I am using this thing on the boat already. Thanks for the tip on how to measure it off a wall socket. I also like your name-- "Hidden Joule Thief" for the little motor in self- oscillation. I am actually getting better results than a regular joule thief circuit.

[Can101276]

Another awesome video, keep it up!

[jackscholze]

Lidmotor - Great work, certainly magical technology happening here. Please provide details about your 555 setup and values. Also about the beautiful simple self-oscillator, My windings wont self-oscillate, perhaps I need to wind them more carefully. Did you use 26 gauge

I know they are supposed to oppose each other, and wound opposite sense.

Very fine things you are doing,

never stop !!

Aloha

[Lidmotor]

Jack---I just grabbed an old 555 timer circuit that I had handy. If you look back in my videos you will see several or just google it. The circuit is used as a driver for tesla coils or flyback transformer experiments. The little pulse motor circuit is just two Radio Shack magnet wire coils. Use the red and green one. I gave a pretty good description of how to build it aways back. Stop this video to see how to wire it. The neo magnet and the white led may have something to do with it.

[megavox]

You can probably run another supercap on the negative side between batt. - and 555 timer - the + on cap towards 555 timer and cap - towards - batt ~ reminds me of a good old tesla battery switch, oh yeah ! never stop, cheers lidmotor ;~}

[Lidmotor]

megavox---Strange that you would make that observation and comment. I though of the same idea this morning---why not catch this on the other side of the battery as well? Another experiment.

[Lidmotor]

harpbloke----The credit for this goes to SkyWatcher (aka Tyson) over at the Energetic Forum. I sure liked what I saw here.

[harpbloke]

12v x 0.200w =2.4w ? wow, thats a good amount of light for 2.4watts, brilliant