Energy in Joule Thief



Author: Andor Saman

Content

Energy in Joule Thief circuits

Our intend is to examine the energy flow in a "Joule Thief" circuit. How energy can be harvested, how efficient is generating cold electricity in such a circuit. Some people describe their implementation and claim to have COP > 1, but the most of them fail to achive this result.

Test equipment and resonance frequency

The oscilloscope 1 GHz, can generate frequency till 2 MHz. The schemata for meassurement is shown in the next picture.

Fig.1: How to meassure the resonance frequency

We use bifilar coil on toroid, not a pancake coil. The resonance frequency for this coil is cca. 124.7 kHz. Use the quadrant signal with 50% duty cycle to find it. The output signal (CH2) is like the sinus signal. This can be seen in next picture. The"ouput signal" in this text means the voltage meassured on the bifilar coil.

Resonance freq.
with 50% duty cycle
Resonance freq.
with sinus signal
Fig.2: Resonance frequency 124.7kHz, with quadrant and sinus signal

Looking the pictures, the output signal (the voltage on the coil) is much greater using the quadrant signal, as the output feeding the coil with sinus signal. This means, than the bifilar coil model is more like parallel LC circuit, and not a serial LC one. This is the first practical result.



Changing the duty cycle

The table shows capturing the coil voltage by different duty cycles on the resonance frequency. The duty cycle will be decreased.

Resonance freq.
50%
Resonance freq.
35%
Resonance freq.
25%
Resonance freq.
15%
Resonance freq.
6%
Resonance freq.
50%
Fig.3: Decreasing the duty cycle at the resonance frequency

The first and the sixth picture are the same. The 5th picture showns a higher voltage than all previous pictures, but it isn't true. Here you see much better the form of the output signal.
The peak-to-peak voltage is decreasing: 2.06 - 1.87 - 1.53 - 1.03 - 0.48 Volt.



Using the coil in the simplest Joule Thief circuit

Using the coil in a very simple Joule Thief circut has given an unexpected result. The power source was 2 x AA battery (3 Volt imput), the transistor a good old one. The last was a LED, added a 100 Ohm resistor.
The coil had 2 x 20 turns on a torrodial ferrit, outer diameter 2 cm, height 2 cm, cca. 0.9 microH. Material is unknown.

The circuit works on the half of the resonance frequency.

So the next step was the investigate the LC behaviour on the first subfrequency (f / 2) of the coil, and to find out something about the quality of the resonancing circuit.



Meassuring on the first subfrequency

The first subfrequency of the bifilar coil's resonance freuency (f / 2) is cca. 62.4 kHz.
The current of the transistor will be changed thought changing the resistor on the transistor base.

Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Joule Thief
changing transistor baasis current
Fig.4 Changing the base resistor in a Joule Thief circuit

Decreasing the base current means slower frequency and much higher voltage peak. On the 6. picture you see Vpp as much as 198 Volt, and this created with a 3 Volt power supply. This is 66 times greater than the power supply voltage.

The quality of the resonance is not good. Looking the next picture

Fig 5: Quality of resonance (damped simple harmonic oscillator)

the damping coefficient may be cca. 0.15 for the warm electricity.



Innovationen

There are a lot of circuit design using the oscillator type as used in Joule Thief. From all these I have found two design, which are hopefully interesting. The first is from "LaserSaber", the second is from "Akula083". These are nicknames.



LaserSaber

"LaserSaber" claims to make a circuit, which can load the supply battery, and so it is able to generate permanent light. The circuit is shown below.

Fig.6: Permanent light circuit by LaserSaber

I call primary coil where the collapsing magnet field will be ganarated. Interesting is the 50 times grater turn number of the secondary. In my experiments there was a 66 times greater voltage generated by a frequence below the first subharmonic, so there is a voltage of 66 * 50 * 1.2V possible, which is about 4 kVolt. The sondary coil must must have an isolation for 5 kVolt! So, this is only for people with high voltage experiences.
The cold electricity from the primary coil will be directed to the last bulb via the two diodes. The cold electricity on the second coil will be directed to the battery via the topmost diode and via the collector-base diode of the transistor below.

The working frequency, the data and the winding if the coils, the load (in Watts) are not given, so the replication of this circuit is not a trivial one.



Akula0083

Akulak0083 (also known as annula0083) has published a lot of circuit, I have chosen this one.

Fig.7: 1 Watt Generator by Akula083

There are some potential problems with it.

• On the video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cqk7fijGG8 ) he is dismounting the coil, you see a board, where there is an integrated circuit, what is not in the schemata.
•On the video, you don't see any pancake coil.
• I am not pleased with his excuse, the the resonance frequency depens on the earth's magnet flux. If it is so, than this is bad engineering. He is a much better engineer that he would be satisfied with such a solution.
The pancake coil in the schemata is realized as coil with 5-6 turns on a copper plate, perpendicular to the other coils. There are no data given about the coil, so replication is difficult.



About the theory

All these meassurements are made with warm electricity. If we want to achive an overunity effect, we should scrutinize the cold electricity in these messurements. This is very hard, because we don't have a good meassure equipment for the generated cold electricity.

First, about the theory. Here I will emphasize only some critical point in the theory around the Joule Thief circuits.



Cold electricity

The key points are the theory of the cold electricity and radiant waves, which have been here for more than 120 years. Some of the points are listed here:

Radiant wave and overunity - based on work by Nikola Tesla

As early stated, we cannot meassure the cold electricity with simple instruments. They are designed with the warm electricity in mind. To "consume" this type of energy we can use only devices, which do not operate as resistance, and which have a non-lineal voltage-current behaviour, as LEDs, Neon-Lamps. Do not use resistance and coils. It is possible the usage of special electro motors with special coil, but there is very little information about this type of load.

The simples method for the meassuring of this type of electricity is to use LEDs. Their brightnes is a good signal about the quantity of the cold electricity.



Problems and Questions

There are some critical point in the assumption, that a Joule Thief based circuit design can easily be used for self-running generator. First, we need two definitions.

Electric explosion: Phenomena manifest themselves when the criteria for voltage or potential difference is instantly disrupted, as with a short circuit.

Electrical collapse: Phenomena manifest themselves when the current path is interrupted. The field is attempting to maintain current by producing whatever EMF required.

These are two different effects: the rapid discharge of a capacitor, and a rapid interruption of current. Tesla has designed his "Tesla Transformator (Equipment)" using spark to create the first phenomenon, and using at least two special matched coils to intensify the gathering of energy. Tesla said, to get the most energy out of the system, you must use very sharp pulses. This means, he used booth phenomenas: electric explosion (on the capacitor) and electrical collapse (collapse of the electromagnetic field).
His isvestigation had shown, that the electrical pulse - the power for the process - must be as short as possible, working on the "resonance frequeny of the coil".

There is an engineering task: how to design the primary coil, which builds a very strong magnetic field in a very short time.

But the direction of the potential change has no significance. See the "blue spike phenomena" by Nikola Tesla. Tke key point is, that the direction of the rapid change must be the same over the time. Then, and only then, cold electricity is generated. Only the cold electricity is the "new created" or "added" energy in the system. The hight voltage spike on the other end of the coil can do some "work", but the real benefit is the "cold electricity" created by the cirtuit.

Interpreting the results

It is a bad way using Joule Thief circuit and hoping on COP > 1.

It is possible to construct a circuit basen on Joule Thief with COP > 1, but it depend more on luck then on construction.



Literature

[1] Peter Lindemann: The Free Energy Secrets of Cold Electricity
    Published By:    Clear Tech, Inc

[2] Nick Kraakman : Pulse Motor Generator Design Considerations
    https://waveguide.blog/pulse-motor-generator-design-considerations/