Weekend Projects with Bre Pettis Joule Thief

Posted on Feb 5, 2014

Drive a blue or white LED from a low voltage. Normally, if you want to light up a blue or white LED you need to provide it with 3 3. 5 V, like from a 3 V lithium coin cell. But a 1. 5 V battery like a AA cell simply will not work. But using the Joule Thief, it works like a charm. Not only does it work with a brand new battery, but it works until the battery is nearly dead down to 0. 3 V. That`s well below

Weekend Projects with Bre Pettis Joule Thief

Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

the point where your other toys will tell you the battery is dead, so it can steal every last joule of energy from the battery (hence the name). To learn how to make one, watch the video, which is available in a variety of formats. The original site where we learned about the Joule thief shows you how to make a miniature version of this circuit, such that you can fit it in a tiny flashlight. However, in the video we show you how to make it big, large enough (1) to make with clumsy hands and (2) that you can see what we`re doing. In the circuit diagram for the Joule Thief, the common point of the toroid is the connection at the top of the hand-wound ferrite toroid, in the upper right of the diagram. This goes to the positive end of the battery. The other two wires from the toroid go to the resistor and to the intersection of the transistor with the LED. One other detail that you may need to know is the symbol and pinout of the 2N3904 transistor. In the symbol, the part with the arrow is the emitter , the collector is the end above it, that also connects to the LED, and the base is the wire leading off to the left, between the collector and emitter. (Also remember that the end of the LED with the flat side and short lead is the end that has the flat bar in the diagram. ) The pins, holding it so that you can read the text on the flat side are (left to right) Emitter, Base, and Collector. I particularly like this one...

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