Solar Joule Thief ---LEWEY

This is a close look at my 3rd 'Automatic Solar Joule Thief' "Lewey". His is different than his brothers "Hewey and "Dewey". He uses a Lithium battery and a super capacitor. Besides a solar cell for charging he also has an external charging port to recieve energy from other sources. This port also allows me to use a volt meter to see the condition of his internal battery and capacitor as well as the output of his solar cell.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Joule Thief
• Solar energy
• LED lighting
• Electronics

[thelonewolf267]

where did you get those frickin cool led lights. and your vids on joule thiefs are awsome

[Lidmotor]

thelonewolf----They are out of a squeeze dynamo fladhlight.  They sell them on Ebay. I get mine at a dollar store.

[GManGT]

I don't consider myself to be an expert. So all the joule thief does is up the voltage from one source to a higher useful voltage?

The have low cost ICs that do this now; they call them upconverting ICs. I keep searching YouTube to try to find any energy saving benefit of a joule thief but haven't seen any.

[Lidmotor]

GManGT---Thanks for the tip about the "upconverting IC".  I can use that.

[Lidmotor]

Yikes!! -- I hope that "Lewey" wasn't looking when I watched that video.  I'll make sure that he doesn't get too much juice and go up in flames.

[Lidmotor]

harpblocke---After I got done with all three they reminded me of the little mechanical creatures in the movie "Batteries Not Encluded". In that movie the little machines did reproduce.

[harpbloke]

gosh, they're breading !!!! ha, replithiefs ?

great work.

thanks again

[Lidmotor]

crusaderrabbit60-----Sound like you have a great setup for your energy needs. The 'joule thief' is a simple efficient LED circuit that was designed to "steal" the last bit of energy out of an almost dead AA battery.. Google it or punch it up here. It has been around for years

[crusaderrabbit60]

What is a joule thief..This looks interesting..as well as your video on a bedini motor running on supper caps...I curently power my home with solar power..And a steam engine when solar is lacking....

[Lidmotor]

Yeah---Good way to cap it off. I hadn't seen that. It would be funny if it wasn't probably going to happen. Sooner rather than later I fear.