Solar Powered SEC

This is Dr. Stiffler's SEC running on a 2 watt /12 volt solar panel. There is no battery and the system is drawing 80ma. Nothing special except that it is running three fluorescent tubes, a fan, a Joule Thief, and 8 leds. Oh--- and the Joule Thief and 5 of the leds and being powered wirelessly.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Dr Stiffler SEC
• Energy
• Lighting
• solar energy
• Joule Thief

[eroutt]

is there an easy to follow guide to try this? it looks simple! all i have to say is wow! nice job:) now we have to see if we can run a house with this! could you imagine what this could do for off the grid living!!!!

[Lidmotor]

eroutt--- No easy to follow guide on this one. Google---- 'Dr. Stiffler SEC' There is alot of information out on his design. MHR202 is his channel here.

[mmsglobe]

Hi Lidmotor, you made one more great video !! Congratulations !!

One question: Is there a way to increase a bit the output from solar panel, to say 15V for brighter FL out of the SEC ?

[Lidmotor]

mmsglobe---- I might try two of those little solar panels in series to get a higher volatge. I would then have to run that through a voltage regulator to hold the voltage down a bit as to not blow up the parts. Higher voltage on this circuit means more light.

[harpbloke]

awesome stuff lid ! and the others, and DR S !!!!!!

[Lidmotor]

harpbloke--- This is kinda like getting into an exotic car and going for a quick spin. You will never know what it is capable of doing but it is still fun to drive around the block.

[sdfab]

try shining all that light youre getting onto the solar panel!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Demoman42]

great video ! i like it.. ;)

[Drevtoobe]

I can assure you that the scope won't be harmed by low voltage - high frequency, it's only high voltage at the probe inputs that can be harmful to the scope's input amplifiers.

I noticed that Gotoluc has a digital multimeter with six digits of precision after the decimal point. That is an _awesome_ piece of manna from heaven.

[Drevtoobe]

I'm guessing that the SEC frequency is in the 2-10 MHz range and the bandwidth of your scope is at least 50 MHz, possibly 150 MHz (it's a high-end scope for it's time). So your scope should have no problem showing something.

The voltage directly across the diodes will show you the frequency, but not the waveform itself.  Because it's a relatively high frequency from the SEC, the actual EM waveform is probably very close to pure sinusoidal. "very close" still means tons of harmonics.