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2013-03-15 “Joule Thief” Powered Search My Blog

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By .040 V Thermocouple
Joule Thief SMPS DC-DC Renewable Energy on March 16th, 2013 by admin - 5 Comments Blogroll
Documentation
I’ve been interested in very low voltage converters for Plugins
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quite a while. I blogged this document several years
Support Forum
ago in my late great watsonseblog. Almost a month ago Themes
I was commenting on a circuit, often called a Joule WordPress Blog
WordPress Planet
Thief, that was powered at 27 millivolts by a Peltier
junction and the heat from a guy’s body. They said that
the 2SK170 JFET was the best choice for the circuit. I
had ordered the G13599 tiny transformers from
Goldmine-elec.com and I wanted to try them with some
of these 2SK170 JFETs to see if the circuit’s LED would
still be putting out light at the 40 millivolts that my
thermocouple put out when it was hot. I ordered the
2SK170 JFETs from Futurlec and I’ve been waiting for a
month for them to arrive. Finally today they came in the
mail. They were all on tape, cut into lengths of ten Click more than once to enlarge
JFETs each. Each JFET was marked “K170 BL 1C”,
which means that they were 2SK170, with the Idss range BL, which is the middle range of 6 to 12
milliamps. I don’t know what 1C means, might be the manufacturer code.

In the original Youtube video the circuit used four of the JFETs in parallel to get increased current.
So I soldered four of them to some wire leads to connect all sources, gates and drains
respectively together in parallel. Goldmine shipped a paper with the pinout of the transformer
along with the parts. I connected the low resistance winding to the drains and supply positive. I
connected the high resistance winding to the gates and supply negative. I connected the LED
between the gate and drain, with the cathode (flat spot) to the gate. There is no resistor in my
circuit because there is no current flow into the gates, so they don’t need a resistor to limit the
current. I added the 470 uF capacitor across the supply leads; it’s optional but I highly
recommend that it be used.

The first time I tried it I found that the high resistance winding was connected backwards and the
LED would not light. I reconnected the winding correctly and the LED lit brightly at a half volt. I
kept reducing the voltage and it was still glowing at well below the 40 millivolts I was hoping for.
Success! I’m getting the same performance as the original circuit in the video. All I need to do is
put another 10 or more of them (a lot more?) in parallel to get the increased current. But then I
should try to get this circuit to generate enough voltage to drive a power MOSFET and let it do the
heavy lifting.

I still have to do a good closeup of the circuit. Some call this a Joule Thief, but it bears very little
resemblance to the original JT.

Update Mar 16 – I connected it up to a

peltier junction. The palm rest area on my
laptop next to the mouse pad is warm, so I
put the peltier on there with a piece of
aluminum as a heatsink and radiator. Now
the LED glows from the warmth of the
laptop. The voltage measured 34.2
millivolts. I have to find a larger piece of
aluminum to take away more of the heat,
and make the LED brighter. I’m building a
neater version on a piece of stripboard (see
Click more than once to enlarge
photos).

Veracity of photos – These are the actual photographs of the circuit running from very low
voltage sources: less than 0.1 volt, typically below 50 millivolts. The photos have not been
“tricked out” with Photoshop or any software to disguise any external power sources. They are
the real thing.

I’m starting on a third one. I did some

measurements and noticed some odd
behavior. The current increases as the
voltage increases, up to 0.95V, then as the
voltage increases, the current decreases,
which is the opposite of a normal Joule
Thief. The current reaches a maximum then
will not go higher, which is typical of JFETs,
since they are constant current when the
gate is at zero volts. Also, the frequency is
about 8kHz at the 40 millivolt point, and
Click more than once to enlarge
steadily decreases as the voltage rises,
down to 240 Hz when the voltage is at 1.5V.

I added a ZTX1048A – I connected the emitter to the sources, the collector to the drains. and the
base through a 1k resistor to the gates. I saw a definite increase in brightness when I connected
the base, but I’m using the one with four JFETs in parallel. I noticed two things. The added
ZTX1048A does not reduce the lowest point where the LED goes out. It’s still about 35 millivolts.
And it doesn’t change the plateau that is reached when the voltage is increased. Perhaps if I
remove three of the four JFETs and use only a single one with the transistor, it might do better.

But I think I should not be trying to increase the JFETs’ output. Instead, I should use the circuit
as-is, as the bootstrapper, to get the voltage to start a power MOSFET up, and then let it take
over. Once the MOSFET gets going, there is no limit to the amount of power it can boost from a
very low voltage. I have some IRLZ34s with about 30 milliohms internal res. That would allow
about 1 amp from a 40 millivolt thermocouple. But it takes a bit of AC current to drive the gate,
and that’s where things are a problem. Maybe use the JFETs to charge a 1000 uF capacitor, then
get it start up the MOSFET which will bootstrap itself into running.

Or perhaps I should add a 2N7000 MOSFET to the circuit to see if it will help. It has only a few
tens of pF gate capacitance compared to a thousand for the power MOSFETs and therefore is
much easier to drive. Update Aug 2, 2013 – I’ve been experimenting with the 2N7000 to find out if
I can get it to perform at very low voltage. Do a search of my blog for 2N7000 to see a circuit.

5 Responses

John Watson says:

2013/09/22 at 18:13

I just grabbed one of those transformers from Goldmine and man 3vdc in
200vac out.

“Tiny Inverter Transformer – Designed for tiny strobe lights this small inverter
transformer converts 3VDC into 200VAC when used with a simple 2
transistor circuit. Size only .4″ square x .35″ H. Has 4 pins. Complete with
schematic of a simple strobe using this transformer.
G13599”

Now, that can’t be right, can it? DC in to AC out unless it has something in it
as well.
Reply

admin
says:
2013/09/23 at 13:54
The transformer comes with a schematic of the circuit you must use
to get the 3VDC switched to pulses of AC, which are then stepped
up to 200VAC by the transformer.
Reply

John Watson
says:
2013/09/23 at 17:45
Yep, I know electronics and 25 years ago used a 555 timer to
pulse 5v to 750+ through a hand wound ferrite E Coilcraft E
core so I knew they weren’t telling the true story since a
transformer needs anything but DC.
Reply

John Watson
says:
2013/09/27 at 13:44
I received my package today and haven’t played with that
tiny transformer as of yet. What I did find out is they offer a
beautiful already wound Toroid with 18:18 (so 1:1) and when
I measured the ohms on each side it was .1 ohms. Worked
smashingly well in my circuit and the wire is pretty thick (20
or 22ga I think) so the toroid must be a darn good one. The
positive on it is that it has a base with the wires that are
through hole.
Reply

John Watson
says:
2013/09/27 at 15:57
Seems my frequency has dropped with the new toroid as I
can hear it with a fresh battery pretty loudly and with about
1.2v I can hear it slightly.

I purchased a 20mhz scope off of Ebay and can tell a lot

more of what is happening once it arrives.
Reply

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