Super Duper Joule Thief LIGHTS 10 BULBS.

[AllPhase]

Amazing Circuit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3YWB-noPNo#t=512

[ion]

Not so amazing and not so new. Back in the mid 50's we lit 4 foot fluorescent lamps from a tiny blocking oscillator similar to this large one from a small 1.5 volt flashlight battery. (as a Halloween prank, we paraded the streets waving the things, wires running down the arm inside our coats to the oscillator) Ahead of the Star Wars "light sabers" by over 10 years LOL)

What Lasersaber does not tell you:

Power input  vs. power output measurements with  accurate instruments. If he alludes to more power out than input why does he not loop it for a real show of something amazing. The lamps he is using can fool the eye by having a slight reduction in intensity and draw significantly lower power at reduced voltage. I dare him to try this exercise with a single 60 Watt incandescent lamp. Guarantee it will not run very long if at all.

An open ended core (magnetic dipole) at anything more than a few hundred milliwatts power level will radiate EM into all nearby electronic devices interfering with radios and TV's especially AM in violation of the FCC limits. Does he address this in his claims?

This is just a step up blocking oscillator, discovered over 75 years ago or more. We know today's super capacitors can store a lot of energy. In the end his 3 lights only run for about 3 and 1/2 minutes. This is amazing?

Most of the folks building "joule Thief" blocking oscillators make the mistake of using tiny cores and switching at high frequencies. Unfortunately losses per cycle are high and efficiency low.

The trick which most switchmode designers already know is that with a very large core of the right material type, avoiding saturation loss, and a low operating frequency, switching losses are far lower, improving efficiency. In most cases this is cost prohibitive and leads to a rather large bulky, not very cost effective device, but it can be the most efficient way to transfer power if cost or large size and weight is not objectionable.

Lasersaber could get the same efficiency with only one core with a small air gap instead of the stack with large air gap.