Joule Thief Single Cell LED Driver

Background

Definition

To be called a Joule Thief I think a circuit needs to be able to start when it's input voltage is below 1.0 Volt.  That's because one volt is one of the definitions of a dead single cell battery.  So if a circuit can start up on less than that it's stealing energy that would have been thrown away if the "dead" battery was put in the hazardous waste.  The lower the starting voltage the more energy a circuit is capable of stealing.  But coupled with low starting voltage a circuit needs to have enough output current to do something useful, like lighting a LED or powering something useful.  For example there are some MOSFETs that can be used to make a multivibrator that will start at 0.16 Volts, but if it can't drive anything that circuit is not a Joule Thief.

A blocking oscillator is a circuit that can be made into a Joule Thief by selecting parts that allow low voltage starting and is the most common circuit.

Most inverter circuits will not start at low enough voltages to be called a Joule Thief.

The Joule Thief is very similar to the  Flyback Converter (Wiki) but it does not have metallic isolation between the input and output.
The Forward Converter (Wiki) is more efficient than the Flyback Converter.

4734658 Low voltage driven oscillator circuit, John E. Bohan, Jr (Honeywell), Mar 29, 1988, 331/117.00R, 331/117.0FE, 331/185, 331/66- will start and run from a PowerPile thermoelectric generator (i.e. starts around 0.1 Volts)
4696639 Self-energizing Burner Control System for a Fuel Burner, John E. Bohan, Jr (Honeywell), Sep 29, 1987, 431/59, 431/90, 331/66, 137/66, 431/42 - complete circuit including the oscillator.

EEVblog #664 - Peltier TEG Energy Harvesting Experiments - LTC3108 data sheet has info for 100:1 transformer suppliers.

Honeywell Powerpile 750 mV thermopile (Wiki) (see my battery page for output data)
These are used to supply electricity to a heating gas control valve by means of a thermostat and are powered by a gas pilot flame.  So the heating is independent of the AC mains power.

Alternatives or additions to Blocking Oscillator (flyback oscillator)

There are some circuits used with very small solar cells to power motors that make use of a voltage detector IC such as the Panasonic MN1381, Maxium MAX8212, Microchip TC54, etc.  These CMOS circuits close a switch to ground when the voltage falls below some minimum voltage (they come in many voltages or allow setting the trip point with external resistors).  This way an energy storage capacitor can be charged by the very small solar panel then discharged into the load.  An example is the MSE2.  Note that the solar panel is connected directly across the storage capacitor.

Miller Solar Engine Solarbotics.com

The Panasonic poly crystal solar cell generates electricity even when it's cloudy.  The motor runs once every six minutes for about six seconds.  When in direct Sun the motor runs for about six seconds with a pause of a few seconds. Note: the business card size assembly instructions were for a different version MSE and incorrectly showed the two TO-92 components with the flats up. You can see (click photo for a larger version) that the diagram on the board shows the flats down.

The Brown Fluxgate patents are based on a blocking oscillator that's modified to use less power, prolong battery life.

Note an induction coil generates a back EMF or kick when it's drive current is interrupted.  Automobile spark ignition engines use "spark coils" to step up the vehicle low voltage DC to many kilovolts to fire the spark plugs.

Flip Flap Solar

Note that the energy storage capacitor is in parallel with the solar cell in the Miller Engine.  Solar cells deliver current that's directly proportional to the light level into a short, so the current causes the capacitor voltage to ramp up.  When it gets to some preset voltage the trigger circuit connects the capacitor to the load.  This way loads that take currents much higher than the solar cell can supply can be used, but on an intermittent basis.

The solar cell is a model SC-3012-2A  amorphous silicon solar cell (Wiki) which work well in low light (indoor) applications.  These are used on the Lighthouse and Solar Showcase.

Big Clive: Flappy solar ornaments have an interesting history - eBay search term "Flip Flap Solar".  Big Clive points to the Novel Electric Motor  Kundo clock as history, but I think the Flip Flap Solar figures are really a Miller Solar Engine.

Fig 1 When in direct sun it runs all the time. But, when indirect light it waits then runs for a short time. = Miller Engine.

Fig 1 Large capacitor (470 uF 10V) stores energy until a set voltage then it is connected to the load.

There may be some history relating Flip Flap Solar mechanisms to Electromagnetic pendulums:
Also See Quartz Clock patents,  Pendulums, Time & Frequency, Kundo clock
ADI engineering Solar powered motion toy tear-down - The needed plot is the voltage across the capacitor/solar panel.  I expect the trigger voltage to be the same under different light conditions.
Really nice "flip flap" pendulum kicker - with schematic, 7:50 -

@:4:13 Big Clive comments on schematic. S9014 silicon NPN TO-92 8550 silicon PNP TO-92 ? coil data ?

Kundo ATO Electromagnetic "Electric Clock"

This may be the first electromagnetic pendulum driven clock to use a transistor (Wiki, Wiki).
See the 1961 US patent 2974265 below that applies to this clock as well as other patents in that table.  It preceded the 1974 US patent 3783550 for the Novelty Electric Motor by a dozen years which in turn came before the Flip Flap Solar figures.

Started at 2:56pm 9/13/2019 now to wait and see what the rate is for my local gravity.  Note that all clocks that are regulated by a pendulum are also measuring the local value of gravity.  To get them to tell accurate time they need to be adjusted.  I expect the end user's gravity will pretty much never be the same as the gravity at the clock factory.
At 4:27 the Kundo shows 4:29, so running 2 minutes fast in 91 minutes i.e. 2/91= .0219
Saturday 9/14/2019 @2:00pm the Kundo shows 2:18pm, 18 minutes fast. i.e. 18/1384 = 0.1300
Sunday 9/15/2019 @2:40pm the Kundo shows 3:15 pm  The actual time has advanced a day (1440min + 40 = 1480 minutes) and the Kundo time has advanced a day & 57  min (1440 + 57=1497 min), so rate = (1497-1480)/1480=0.0115.

Date - Time	Delta	Kundo	K. delta	delta Fast	Rate
9/13/19 14:56	min	9/13/19 14:56	min		min/day
	91		93	2	31.6
9/13/19 16:27		9/13/19 16:29
	1293		1309	16	17.8
9/14/19 14:00		9/14/19 14:18
	1480		1497	17	16.5
9/15/19 14:40		9/15/19 15:15
	1475		1493	18	17.6
9/16/19 15:15		9/16/19 16:08
	1383		1400	17	17.7
9/17/19 14:18		9/17/19 15:28
	1366		1380	14	14.8
9/18/19 13:04		9/18/19 14:28

Date - Time	Delta	Kundo	K. delta	delta Fast	Rate
9/21/19 13:47	min	9/21/19 13:47	min		min/day
	1717		1731	14	11.7
9/22/19 18:24		9/22/19 18:38
	1330		1344	14	15.2
9/23/19 16:34		9/23/19 17:02
	1264		1274	10	11.4
9/24/19 13:38		9/24/19 14:16
	1447		1461	14	13.9
9/25/19 13:45		9/25/19 14:37

Adjustment

Lowered bob one full turn (12 tick marks) and slightly raised the pawl and shimmed the right side of the case so pendulum swing is more symmetrical.
Restarted at 9/18/2019 13:15 with hands reset.

Too Much Voltage?

I've made two more attempts to regulate the clock and it's still running 14 min/day fast.  It may be the case that using a L91 Lithium AA battery is too much voltage and is overpowering the motor?  The L91 starts out at 1.7 Volts and stays above 1.5 Volts for a long time.  The E91 Alkaline AA battery starts at 1.5 Volts and goes down from there much faster.  As it is the clock makes a "thump" sound when the pendulum is all the way left or right, depending on the left to right leveling adjustment.  There is not sweet spot where the "thump" goes away.

Photos

Fig 1 Clock in glass case.	Fig 2 Front: Glass case removed (note open clips and holes for case pins).	Fig 3 Back
Fig 4 1.5 Volt Battery came separately wrapped	Fig 5 Two PNP transistor circuit. It's not clear if the metal case is part of the electrical circuit. Only a red and black wire come from the two coils.	Fig 6 Left Reat including temperature compensated top tube.
Fig 7 "Kieninger & Obergfell, Made in Western Germany". Germany was divided between 1945 and 1990 (Wiki).	Fig 8 "Kundo Electric"  "Made in     Germany" There is a space between "in" and "Germany" caused by the bottom of the numeral "6".	Fig 9 Front close up
Fig 10 Front close up	Fig 11 Right Side: Pendulum locked as received from shipping. Note pendulum is lifted from normal position. temperature compensated top tube	YouTube:  https://youtu.be/9EK1MLA6igk
Fig 12 Horolovar long life Clock Battery 1.5 Volt The Horolovar Company: Size 8 or 9 Dual Prarllel AA battery adapter	Fig 13 Back side.  Note mounting screw at lower right. This mounting bracket probably fits a number of Kieninger & Obergfell clocks in addition to this one.	Fig 14 (from eBay) showing how the battery holder mounts. Also note the leveling feet.  Need to determine thread spec.
Patents		FR375188A (eSpaceNet) Pendule électrique libre sans échappement ni rouages, Charles Fery, 1907-03-01, -
		2974265 Electric clock, Thoma Fritz, Kieninger and Obergfell, March 7, 1961, 318/132 368/157 310/32 446/484 968/463 - Kundo ATO Electronic Clock     Cites:     Publication number  Priority date  Publication date  Assignee  Title US537769A *1895-04-16 harbison - electric meter that uses a pendulum, with coils disposed in a similar fashion, but not at all a clock. FR986536A *1949-03-11  1951-08-01  Hatot Leon   Elselectric and advanced clock systems Clocks - This is a very similar mechanism, but seems much more complex and it uses mechanical contacts. US2644893A *1952-06-02  1953-07-07  RCA Corp Semiconductor pulse memory circuits US2695381A *1952-07-241954-11-23  Foxboro Co  Follow-up type of measuring apparatus FR1090564A *1953-09-171955-03-31Hatot Leon Ets  Improvements to schedules mechanisms and similar apparatus - most likely a development of FR986536A. Note these use PNP transistors and run from a 1.5 V battery. The circuit is very similar to the Novelty Electric Motor which is dated 1974. Fig 5 Shows the generator (sense) coil (2) wound close to the armature (9) and the motor coil (3) would on top of the generator coil (2).  Note the magnet (10) is near the right end of the armature (9). The right side of the armature on the clock shows as a North magnetic pole while there is no indication on the left side of the armature.  A lot of effort went into arranging the components to maximize battery life and to correct for temperature effects on the transistor. Figures 2 & 3 show the transistor and resistor located inside the coil assembly so only the battery would be separately located making for a very clean design. The early patents in class 318/132 are related to electric jackhammers.  Then come tuning fork related.
		3014168 Electronically controlled clock, Thoma Fritz, Kieninger and Obergfell, Priority: 1955-12-28, 318/132; 310/15; 368/157; 968/476; 310/27 Patent Figures 7 & 8 relate to temperature compensating the pendulum using a bi-metal strip (23).  See photo Fig 11 above. Notice in patent Fig 6 the stabilizing resistor (6) in parallel with the motor coil (3).
		3015054 Electronically controlled motor, Thoma Fritz, Kieninger and Obergfell, Priority: 1956-01-14, 318/47; 318/130; 310/46; 318/132; 368/158; 968/476; 318/400.26
		3005305 Electric watch, Thoma Fritz, Kieninger and Obergfell, 1961-10-24, - very similar offset permanent magnet and 2 coils
		3168690 Clock power-device, Marius Jean Lavet, Jacques Jean Gustave Dietsch, Leon Hatot SA, App: 1954-08-31, Pub: 1965-02-02, -
		3724200 Electronic clock with low power consumption, S Donner, Kieninger and Obergfell, 1973-04-03, - for use with solar cells.

Patents related to Kundo, Kieninger and Obergfell

2254476 Electric clock, Jesse E Eshbaugh, Donald W Randolph, General Motors, Sep 2, 1941, 318/132 310/39 313/156 313/161 313/323 368/168 968/475 -
2831114 Transistor amplifier with bias stabilization, Adrianus Johannes, Wilhel Marie, Priority: 1954-11-25, 331/116M 310/36 318/132 331/66 331/154 331/176 968/475 968/477 318/130 318/160 - driving a PM disk in clock

Cites:

Publication number  Priority date  Publication date  Assignee  Title

US2680160A *1951-09-15  1954-06-01  Bell Telephone Labor Inc  Bias circuit for transistor amplifiers

FR1090564A *1953-09-17  1955-03-31  Hatot Leon Ets  Improvements to schedules mechanisms and similar apparatus

Family To Family Citations

US2647958A *1949-10-25  1953-08-04  Bell Telephone Labor Inc  Voltage and current bias of transistors

BE505739A *1950-09-12

NL167001B *1951-01-31  Koninkl Mij Tot Het Uitvoeren  A process for dredging and transporting dredge species.
Cited by:

Publication number  Priority date  Publication date  Assignee  Title

US2957116A *1957-06-14  1960-10-18  Hurd Lock & Mfg Company  Mechano-electric clocks

US2962643A *1955-04-26  1960-11-29  Omega Brandt & Freres Sa Louis  Time-piece

US2970277A *1957-10-07  1961-01-31  Gen Motors Corp  Bridge biasing transistor circuit

US2972114A *1957-12-23  1961-02-14  Motorola Inc  Amplifier circuit

US3005958A *1958-06-26  1961-10-24  Statham Instrument Inc  Temperature-sensitive bias network

US3010075A *1958-09-10  1961-11-21  Hamilton Watch Co  Electric watch

US3014168A *1955-12-28  1961-12-19  Kieninger & Obergfell  Electronically controlled clock

US3015054A *1956-01-14  1961-12-26  Kieninger & Obergfell  Electronically controlled motor

US3026458A *1957-07-11  1962-03-20  Siemens Ag  Electric clock drive

US3054966A *1959-07-15  1962-09-18  Gen Electric  Crystal controlled oscillator with temperature compensating means

US3061784A *1958-12-22  1962-10-30  Motorola Inc  Bias control circuit

US3095529A *1959-06-10  1963-06-25  Suisse Horlogerie  Device for electromagnetically maintaining oscillating movement

US3095528A *1958-05-24  1963-06-25  Suisse Horlogerie  Electromagnetic device for maintaining the oscillatory movement of a balance wheel comprising a hair spring

US3112418A *1958-06-20  1963-11-26  Renault  Devices for gradually establishing an electric current, notably for controlling electromagnetic clutches

US3117265A *1959-07-11  1964-01-07  Movado Montres  Electromagnetic system for the maintenance of the movement of a movable member

US3149318A *1959-09-11  1964-09-15  Specialties Dev Corp  Temperature compensated sensitivity control network for disturbance detecting apparatus

US3156857A *1958-12-17  1964-11-10  Herr Fritz  Electrodynamic rate regulator arrangement for clocks

US3176171A *1961-03-14  1965-03-30  Suisse De Rech S Horlogeres La  Electromagnetic oscillatory drive

US3178644A *1961-06-19  1965-04-13  Automatic Radio Mfg Co  Transistor vehicular radio receiver operable over a range of power supply voltages

US3195065A *1963-06-26  1965-07-13  Statham Instrument Inc  Temperature stabilization of transistor amplifiers

US3277394A *1963-03-12  1966-10-04  United States Time Corp  Temperature compensated electromechanical resonator

US3351833A *1962-06-29  1967-11-07  Diehl  Compensated transistorized electric clock circuit

US3356919A *1963-12-09  1967-12-05  Reich Robert Walter  Transistor circuit for the operation of electronic clocks

US3359473A *1965-02-25  1967-12-19  Negri Emillio  Self-starting electronic oscillating device for clockworks

DE1801444B1 *1968-10-05  1970-07-23  Kienzle Uhrenfabriken Gmbh  Electronic switch

US3524117A *1967-11-021  970-08-11  Reich Robert W  Transistorized amplifier for electronic clockwork motor

US3530664A *1966-11-25  1970-09-29  Ebauches Sa  Electronic timepiece

US4080552A *1976-09-22  1978-03-21  Facet Enterprises, Inc.  Hybrid blocking oscillator for an electromagnetic fuel pump

US4728871A *1985-11-01  1988-03-01  Andrews Roger W  Novelty electric motor

Family To Family Citations

DE1207886B *1957-07-11  1965-12-23  Siemens Ag  Electronic clocks drive

BE572724A *1957-11-06

DE1175160B *1958-01-08  1964-07-30  Smith & Sons Ltd S  Time measuring device

DE1235825B *1962-11-08  1967-03-02  Kienzle Uhrenfabriken Ges Mit  electronic car clock

2895095 Electronic d.c. motor, James H Guyton, General Motors, Priority: 1954-11-01, 318/127 310/36 310/68R 318/128 318/132 322/3 368/158 368/175 968/475 327/110 327/530 318/400.26 30/43.92 331/116M - electromagnetic drive of balance wheel
2907940 Timepiece comprising an electromagnetically maintained oscillating regulator, Beyner Andre, Priority: 1957-03-09, 318/132 310/15 318/128 968/476 - one transistor circuit to drive balance wheel.
2909732 Device for maintaining mechanical oscillations, Adrianus Johannes, Wilhel Marie, Priority: 1954-11-06, 331/116M 331/154 318/132 - single transistor EM drive of balance wheel
3040225
3100278 Electromagnetic pendulum drive, Reich Robert Walter, Aug 6, 1963,
Cites:

Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title

US2777950A *1953-03-231957-01-15 Motorola Inc Oscillator - resonate reed, similar to a tuning fork oscillator.

Cites:
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title

US2396224A *1943-06-16 1946-03-12 Rca Corp Oscillation generator - Vacuum Tube tuning fork

US2547027A *1948-01-02 1951-04-03 Motorola Inc Vibrating reed controlled oscillator - Tube type

US2692337A *1948-12-29 1954-10-19 Bell Telephone Labor Inc Oscillation generator - various transistor circuits

US2814769A *1955-05-25 1957-11-26 Gen Electric Electronic power supply and clock motor - transistors used for battery powered clock

Cites:
2719944 Commutatorless direct current motor, Harrison D Brailsford, App: 1954-06-10

US2829324A *1954-12-08 1958-04-01 Gen Motors Corp Low voltage electrical motive means - car battery powered clock

US2843742A *1954-11-06 1958-07-15 Philips Corp Device for maintaining mechanical oscillations - transistors, electric clock, phasing of pulses
3225536 Electric clock, 1965-12-28 - electromagnet drives pendulum or balance wheel.

Solar Path Lights

12 June 2013 - Got a Solar Path Light form Home Depot (bar code: 609839495522) for $2.88 and took it apart.  It contained:

AA battery rated at 250 mAh (tested 269 mAh)
QX5252E TO-94 (4 lead) IC
100 uH inductor (Red, Black, Brown, Gold = 200 uH 5%)
45 x 45 mm solar panel Open Circuit Output Voltage: 2.6
LED, warm white, with long leads (i.e. very weak if no heat sinking)
PCB about 1/4" x 1"

Solar Path Light schematic with QX5252E The QX5252F is in a different package and has an additional terminal for a CdS photo resistor to allow setting the turn off and turn on brightness.
QX5252 Waveform at Lx (between L and LED) with LED On (Solar Panel in dark). From Rigol Scope - The Channel 1 yellow icon at left is at 0 Volts with a scale of 1 Volt/square.  The negative going spike goes to - 480 mV The positive spike is at +4.12 V. Frequency 101 kHz The flat bottom is at 0 Volts (FET On - charging inductor) A little over 2 uS on time.
Opened Rayovac and Energizer 9V battery showing AAAA cells. Note the energizer has loose AAAA cells, but their polarity is backwards, i.e. point is negative. There's three jumpers in the energizer base each connecting 2 cells. The snaps on the Energizer are not on the center line, but are offset 0.5mm. A cleaver way to lower the cost, i.e. no Nickel tab & no welding.  You also can remove individual cells.	If you look at the schematic you can see it matches the PCB.
Walmart IDC IDC577105 (Westinghouse) Path Lights for less than $1	The solar panel on this unit is 30mm x 30mm, smaller than the 45mm x 45mm panel op the Home Depot light.
This light has the QX5252E mounted as a Chip On Board (Free Dictionary) on the back of the PCB. The battery is a 2/3 AA size and is rated 150 mAh, the lowest capacity I've seen. I wonder how long and how bright this light is? 100 uH inductor.	Comparing the Home Depot and Walmart solar path lights The Home Depot on the left is a warmer light. My tripod repair part has not arrived, expect it tomorrow. This is a hand held 2.5 second exposure @ ISO 1000

The mode of operation is not a classical Joule Thief, but rather an Induction Coil. (Wiki).  The energy stored in an inductor is given by:
Energy equals one half the product of the inductance and the current squared. (Wiki)

When the Sun is shining the solar panel charges the battery because the voltage on the SBat terminal is higher than on the Bat terminal.
Note: the battery voltage is much less than the forward voltage of the LED so only a very small current flows through the LED and inductor during charging.
Note: the QX5252 terminal Lx is open during charging.

At night the voltage at the solar panel drops below the battery voltage enabling the light circuit.
The FET turns on shorting out the LED and connecting the battery and inductor in series, thus charging the inductor.
When the inductor is fully charged the voltage at the Bat terminal has dropped from about 1.4 V to zero at which point the FET turns off.
When the FET opens the inductor generates a voltage kick that's added to the battery voltage to turn on the LED for a very short time.
The voltage (with no load) is equal to the inductance times the rate of change of the current (Wiki).
After the inductor is out of energy no current flows through the inductor or LED.  If it's still dark the cycle starts over.

This Solar Path Light retailed for $2.88 at Home Depot meaning that it is a very low cost product.  This circuit is lower in cost than one that uses a two winding transformer like the classical Joule Thief.  Another way they get the cost low is using a way undersized battery, i.e. 250 mAh.
I'm guessing that inside the AA case is really a AAAA battery (Wiki), see the photo above of opened Rayovac and Energizer 9V batteries showing the 6 AAAA cells inside.

Battery	Size	Capacity mAh	Chemistry	Weight Oz
Solar 250 mAh	AA	269	Ni-Cad	0.5
Energizer E91	AA	3100	Alkaline	0.8
Imedion	AA	2100	Ready to Use Ni-MH	1.0
Energizer 522	AAAA	600	Alkaline	0.2

Note: capacity based on 25 mA load.
Wiki lists the capacity of the AAAA Ni-MH as 325 to 500 mAh so the "Solar" brand battery has low capacity even for a AAAA size, i.e. it's very cheap.

I upgraded my Solar Path Light by installing the Imedion Ready To Use battery which should increase the "hours of operation" from the sticker value of 1 hour to at least 8 hours.

Model LZ3W/LZ6W

	An Intermatic (Malibu) 600 mAh Ni-Cad that's totally dead.	This unit is still functional, both battery and electronics, but the top black plastic is turning to dust.
Old Unit with Discrete Parts Top	Old Unit with Discrete Parts Bottom This may be the circuit in one of the old patents.	23 July 2013- 7 out of 7 of these that were not working after installing a new battery were fixed by using a small file to clean the positive battery contact and the positive end of the battery, then putting a small dab of Silicon grease on the positive end of the battery.  The idea is that the Silicon grease will keep out the battery fumes that are making a very poor connection. To test this just put a small screwdriver blade between the battery positive end and the light battery contact with the solar panel down and shielded from light.  If the LED lights then that's the problem.

These have battery date codes of 2009 (it's June 2013) and are either dead or nearly dead.

To open place a knife blade gently between the black top and the narrow clear plastic ring and gently pry.  If it does now separate a little move a little and try again.  After a few tries you will be able to remove the top without any new damage (the Sun has already done a lot of damage).

Remove the old battery and install a fresh high capacity Ni-MH cell.

The removed batteries were:
Malibu 600 mAh Ni-Cad (65 each)
Solar 1500 mAh Ni-MH - still working
Hampton Bay 800 mAh Ni-Cad - still working
6 of 8 batteries dead - all Malibu 600 mAh

6 of 8 of the electronics units still light the LED when the solar cell is face down on a table (in the dark) and 1.3 VDC is applied to the battery terminals.
1 electronics still works even thought the surrounding black material has crumpled into dust.  It may be transplanted into a mechanically good but electrically dead unit.
Need to check the solar cells as a couple of them look like they may be dead.

Intermatic Inc Patents:

5041952 Control circuit for a solar-powered rechargeable power source and load - uses a 1767 filament lamp
5086267 Control circuit for a solar-powered rechargeable power source and load - uses a 1767 filament lamp
5221891 Control circuit for a solar-powered rechargeable power source and load - uses a 1767 filament lamp

The IC is a Chip On Board so it's not at all clear how the circuit works, but it does have a 2 lead axial inductor like the unit above.

History

I started looking into a Blocking Oscillator as one way to power a High Brightness LED from a single cell battery (Alkaline, Ni-MH or a No. 6 Dry Cell).  The early work is on the LED web page.  But it's getting more involved so am starting a new page.

Blocking Oscillators are also used in many other applications.  For example if you remove the LED and replace it with a series connected high voltage diode and capacitor and add a third winding with many turns you can generate high DC voltages like used for flash cameras.  With the 7 turn coil unit if the LED is removed the T1B pulse is about 85 volts.

The blocking oscillator is also used in some sea mines to power a flux gate magnetometer.  They can also be used to drive a piezo disk.
Single Use Cameras use a blocking oscillator to generate the flash High Voltage.

Working with the Fair-Rite toroid in 43 and 73 material everything seemed to work.  The transformer is wound on a toroid of the same type as used to wind inductors.
But the 85 material (square B-H) did not.  To investigate why a working unit using 73 material was measured again.  I suspect that a different winding is needed with the 85 material.  Here it is.

Fig 1 Schematic	Working 73 material parts: Core: Fair-Rite 2673002402 Transistor: SA1805 LED: LTW-77HC4 R1: 1k Supply Voltage 0.64 Volts. Fig 2 Base Waveform closed loop
Fig 3 Waveform at junction of T1A-1 & R1	Fig 4 Collector waveform self oscillating
Fig 5 Emitter Current	Emitter current measurement was made by inserting a 10 Ohm resistor between the emitter and ground.  This radically changed the operating parameters of the circuit. But you can see that the current is rising during the LED off time. In this case the voltage across 10 ohms gets to 320 mv or the current gets to 32 ma. Notice that in this case the current has a linear ramp back to zero lasting about 1 us, i.e. that's the LED on time.  Then there's a delay of about 3+ us before the linear ramp up in collector current.  Flagiusz sent me an improvement: "You can speed up transistor switching time by adding capacitor (ca. 1nF) parallel to R1 resistor."

Independent Coils

This showed up at Elektor magazine: One-Transistor Voltage Converter.  The circuit topology is very similar the Joule Thief, BUT there is no magnetic coupling between the coils. A 150 pF capacitor is in series with the 470uH inductor in the base circuit in order to get an oscillation.

Note that there are many coils that are 470uH.  Some look like resistors and others are wound on torroids and are quite large.  The difference is in the resistance of the winding which translates into efficiency. According to the article the voltage across the capacitor is a 35V pk-pk signal so by using diodes to rectify it you get the bipolar (+6 & -3 Volt) output.

Royer Inverter (Wiki)

This is a circuit that uses push-pull transistors to drive a transformer.  Good for applications that need 50-50 duty cycle.
Used to drive Flyback transformers (ZVS Driver) Zero Voltage Switching

			2748274 Transistor oscillator with current transformer feedback network, Alan R Pearlman, Clevite, Royer?
			2783384 Electrical inverter circuits, Richard L Bright, George H Royer, Westinghouse Electric Corp, 1957-02-26 -  Magnetic flux swings from positive saturation to negative saturation

This design depends on a saturable core material, i.e. with  a rectangular B-H curve (Fig 2 on sheet 1).
eBay search term: "High Voltage Boost Converter ZVS" - not Royer see article on it. just a boost converter
eBay search term: "40W DC-AC inverter 12V to 220V" - this is a Royer with a choke on the input - there are also 150W and 500W versions (eBay item 302490272292, YouTube - note 20 kHz,, NOT 60 Hz

	2915710 Magnetic coupled transistor oscillator, Arthur J Schiewe,  Chen Kan, Westinghouse Electric Corp,1959-12-01 - a Joule Thief version of the Royer - Magnetic flux swings from starting point to positive saturation and back.
	2954531 Transistor oscillator, Richard P Johnson, Avco, 1960-09-27, - improved Royer

YouTube: Dead car plasma unit (fixed) with schematic, 15:54 - correct start @3:58: better schematic than the Wiki page.

Google Group

Joule Thief - to promote circuits that work on dead single cell batteries.

Experimenter's PCB

Motivated by the Mini Maker Faire at the Mendocino County Museum on 25 May 2013 I'm designing a Printed Circuit Board that will allow changing all the components without soldering.  It will have a AA battery holder mounted on the board with solder pads to add an external battery instead of using the on board AA.  In a like manner it will be possible to solder wires for a external LED.

If you are interested in buying one of these printed circuit boards either as a kit to be soldered or already assembled let me know.

This is a Joule Thief made from the schematic above just to try some parts. This is one way to experiment, but requires more experience than a purpose built board that has component markings. Parts used for this prototype: Transformer core: Fair-Rite 2673002402 9.65mm OD, 5mm ID, 73 material T1 & T2 windings: 10 Turns of 24 AWG magnet wire (about 5" for each winding) R1: 1 k Ohm Q1: Fairchild KSD5041, NPN transistor made for use in single use flash cameras for High Voltage generation from one AA battery.  This circuit will start at 0.5 Volts so can be powered by "dead" flashlight batteries, i.e. the battery doesn't work in the application but will power this circuit. D1: Warm White LED from Electronic Goldmine Stock No. G18242.  Warm White simulates a filament lamp or kerosene lamp and is a lot more pleasing to the eye than the "white" LEDs that have a lot of blue content.
The beta version has two socket configurations for Q1, one has the lead order E C B and the other E B C to match the two most common lead arrangements on TO-92 outline transistors. R1, Q1 and the LED have sockets so the components can just be pushed in. The transformer has screw terminals for all four wires. Test points for Vb and Vc, wires can be soldered to make it easier for oscilloscope test leads. Provision for soldering wires for an external battery marked + and -. An external LED can be used by plugging wires into the LED socket.	Beta Silk Screen layer
28 May 2013 - The PCB, sockets & AA Battery holder have arrived and been assembled.                         Waiting for the two dual terminal strips for holding the transformer wires.	29 May 2013 - on it's back working
29 May 2013 - on it's side working Ideas for Improvements: * move resistor to front edge of board so as to be easier to install * move transistor sockets to side edge of board so as to be easier to install * move LED socket to side edge of board so as to be easier to install * try 45 degree terminal strips - possibility easier for wire insertion * provide a jumper that can be opened to measure DC current & have bypass cap - added capability * provide for a third winding, HV rectifier and HV cap to make HV supply - added capability * provide for third and forth winding to make flux gate magnetometer (see Flux Gate Patents - Brown) * troubleshooting ideas for when it does not work???     1. reverse the transformer leads on one of the terminal blocks.     2. try a different know good transformer What should be included in Experimenter's Kit? * which NPN transistors * which toroid cores, material, size (unit show working has 4T #22 wire for both windings. (maybe a known working transformer?) * How much and what AWG size wire * resistors size and values Let me know.	29 May 2013 - on it's end working
	A second prototype with wire leads instead of a battery holder and different transformer screw terminals.  Connected to an HP E3617A power supply.

It turns out that the range of wire diameters that socket will accomodate is not large enough to handle the range of common parts so the idea does not work.

Circuit Operation

The LED is connected across the transistor Collector - Emitter junction so the collector voltage shown in Fig 4 is the same as the LED voltage.  Since the power supply is a single cell with a voltage between near zero and 1.5 Volts some boost is needed to light the white LED (Vf  nominal 3.4 Volts).  The boost comes from the collapsing magnetic field in T1.   Then the transistor is turned on and the collector to base voltage is very low  (32 mV in Fig 4).  The current in T1B starts ramping up until either the transistor saturates or the core saturates or maybe both are happening.  When the rate of increase of T1B current decreases that generates a voltage in T1A that turns off the transistor.

To estimate the collector current using the value of collector voltage.
The LED all by itself is measured first:

V	I	P
2.28	1	2
2.94	10	29
3.00	15	45
3.06	20	61
3.11	25	78
3.15	30	95

Core Current

For making calculations relating to the toroid the current through the coil is needed.
May 8 2008 (05/08/08) Triad CST206-3A 300T current transformer on order.  Expect by end of May.

Joule Thief circuit w/ Current Transformer Fig 6 Current Transformeer to measure Emitter (Collector) Current

Fig 7 Emitter Current Waveform

Current Transformer

Using the Fair-Rite 73 material transformer used above with two windings of 59 turns each (see above) with the center tap where the power supply was connected not used.
To calibrate a single wire was passed through the center and driven by the HP 33120 with a 10 V pk-pk square wave.  Since it has a 50 Ohm internal impedance the calibration current is 200 ma.  The scope displays 171 mV so the cal factor is 1.17 Volts/Amp.

This plot is not showing a linear ramp down from the peak current but instead a step. 

3 Nov 2011 - Note: The output of a current transformer needs to have a resistive load since it's output is a current, not a voltage.  By choosing the load resistor you can end up with a "nice" Volts/Amp conversion constant.  That's probably why the output looked wrong.

The current transformer is NOT DC coupled.  The DC level will average to zero.
The vertical channel has zero volts offset and is 100 mv per division. 
During the LED off time the current through T1B and the transistor C-E junction ramps up until the transistor is turned off.  That transition is the trigger point at the left edge of the scope.
Immediately after the transition the transistor current is zero which allows setting the DC levels on the waveform.  Adding 75 mv gives the DC levels.
0 ma at the left edge and ramping up to 180 ma.

Hcore = (0.4 * PI * Turns * Current)/ (effective length of core)
Hcore  = (0.4 * 3.14 * 7 * .18) / 2.18 =0.726 Oe 

The power supply is showing a current of 74 ma.
The emitter current does not include the LED current so a seperate measurement was made of the total current which turns out to have the same peak to peak value but looks more like a sawtooth (does not have as pronounced a flat part).  A linear ramp from zero current to 180 ma has an average value of 90 ma.  But this is over 32 us and the other 5 us of the period there is no current so the average current would be 32/(32+5) * 90 = 77 ma which is pretty close to the meter reading of 74 ma.

R1

Spice

This is the first time I've used Spice, a general-purpose circuit simulation program for nonlinear dc, nonlinear transient, and linear ac analyses.  It came from UC Berkeley.
I'm using the free version from Linear Technology called SwCADIII.  It has a a couple dozen NPN transistors built in.
After trying all the transistors (and adding the ZTX690B) here are some results along with the spice model parameters.

Note the energy stored in the inductor (that's needed to light the LED) is directly proportional to 1/2 * L * I^2.  So doubling the current does much more good than doubling the inductance.  The point where the current ramp up stops iscontrolled by the transistor parameters.
Fig 8 Gummel-Poon schematic

The model is a "T" configuration.  So RC gets added to RE for the collector emitter junction.
In the data below the ZTX1048 has RC and RE values that are 50 to 300 times lower than those for the 2N2222.  That alone may explain why it will allow more current to flow.

4 Ohms for RC + RE for the 2N2222 which limits the current to 1 Volt / 4 = 250 ma peak less than 125 ma for a ramp.

0.032 Ohms for RC + RE for the ZTX1048 plus the 0.030 in the inductor and battery total 0.062 Ohms for a current of 16 Amps peak.  So something else is the limiting factor.

By trying all the transistors some worked much better than others.
Modified Gummel-Poon BJT Parameters

		Joule Thief Ic					990 ma	880 ma	300 ma	160 ma
	name	parameter	units	default	example	area	ZTX1048	ZTX690B	2N4401	2N2222
1	IS	transport saturation current	A	1.0e-16	1.0e-15	*	2.6E-13	1.5E-12	26.03E-12
2	BF	ideal maximum forward beta	-	100	100				4.292K	200
3	NF	forward current emission coefficient	-	1.0	1			1
4	VAF	forward Early voltage	V	infinite	200			60	90.7
5	IKF	corner for forward beta high current roll-off	A	infinite	0.01	*			.2061	.3
6	ISE	B-E leakage saturation current	A	0	1.0e-13	*		4E-13	26.03E-12
7	NE	B-E leakage emission coefficient	-	1.5	2		1.38	1.37	1.244
8	BR	ideal maximum reverse beta	-	1	0.1		300	123	1.01	3
9	NR	reverse current emission coefficient	-	1	1		1	1
10	VAR	reverse Early voltage	V	infinite	200		15	14.5
11	IKR	corner for reverse beta high current roll-off	A	infinite	0.01	*	6	1	0
12	ISC	leakage saturation current	A	0		8	1.6E-12	4E-13	0
13	NC	leakage emission coefficient	-	2	1.5		1.4	1.34	2
14	RB	zero bias base resistance		0	100	*	0.1	0.1	10	10
15	IRB	current where base resistance falls halfway to its min value	A	infinte	0.1	*
16	RBM	minimum base resistance at high currents		RB	10	*
17	RE	emitter resistance		0	1	*	0.022	0.045		1
18	RC	collector resistance		0	10	*	0.010	0.027	.5	3
19	CJE	B-E zero-bias depletion capacitance	F	0	2pF	*	559.1E-12	250E-12	24.07E-12	25E-12
20	VJE	B-E built-in potential	V	0.75	0.6		0.533	0.68	0.75
21	MJE	B-E junction exponential factor	-	0.33	0.33		0.299	0.36	.3641
22	TF	ideal forward transit time	sec	0	0.1ns		600E-12	0.77E-9	466.5E-9	400E-12
23	XTF	coefficient for bias dependence of TF	-	0					0	3
24	VTF	voltage describing VBC  dependence of TF	V	infinite					0	2
25	ITF	high-current parameter  for effect on TF	A	0		*			0	1
26	PTF	excess phase at freq=1.0/(TF*2PI) Hz	deg	0
27	CJC	B-C zero-bias depletion capacitance	F	0	2pF	*	136E-12	59E-12	11.01E-12	8E-12
28	VJC	B-C built-in potential	V	0.75	0.5		0.420	0.49	.75
29	MJC	B-C junction exponential factor	-	0.33	0.5		0.267	0.36	.3763
30	XCJC	fraction of B-C depletion capacitance  connected to internal base node	-	1
31	TR	ideal reverse transit time	sec	0	10ns		3E-9	18E-9	233.7E-9	100E-9
32	CJS	zero-bias collector-substrate capacitance	F	0	2pF	*
33	VJS	substrate junction built-in potential	V	0.75
34	MJS	substrate junction exponential factor	-	0	0.5
35	XTB	forward and reverse beta  temperature exponent	-	0				1.4	1.5	1.5
36	EG	energy gap for temperature  effect on IS	eV	1.11					1.11
37	XTI	temperature exponent for effect on IS	-	3					3
38	KF	flicker-noise coefficient	-	0
39	AF	flicker-noise exponent	-	1
40	FC	coefficient for forward-bias  depletion capacitance formula	-	0.5					.5
41	TNOM	Parameter measurement temperature	C	27	50

 Agilent has a 100+ page manual on the Gummel-Poon model.  Wiki Ebers–Moll model Wiki

vicbin posted these LED models on Candle Power Forums:
.model LuxStarW1w D(Is=2.52144e-017 Rs=0.769946 N=3.33836 Cjo=100p Iave=350m Ipk=500m mfg=Luxeon type=LED)
.model LuxStarW5w D(Is=3.2946e-017 Rs=0.774809 N=6.5979 Cjo=200p Iave=700m Ipk=1000m mfg=Luxeon type=LED)

Square B-H Loop Circuit Not Working

Transformer Winding 16T:4T

12 May 2008 - Using the same Fair-Rite material 73 core (p/n 2673002402) and winding the primary with 22 AWG (13") you can get 16 turns on in one layer.
This gives a 280 uH coil with about 18 milliohms resistance. (the HP 4328A can not measure this because Xl/R = about 100 and spec is <3)
The secondary (base drive) winding is 4 turns of 28 AWG (7") since that's the spool I grabbed first.  32 uH and a resistance (40 milli Ohms) far lower than the fixed resistors used in series.

The idea is to use all the first layer with heavy wire to maximize the energy stored in the primary.

Fig 10 Joule Thief 16T:4T 17 mat ZTX609B Collector Voltage

Fig 11 16T:4T Collector Current

LumiLED 1 Watt Warm White

Open Loop Analysis

Transformer Winding 5T:2T

Fig 13  5T-2T 28awg 73 mat 690B R1: 758 Ohms, Col volt

Fig 14 Collector Current

Testing Ferrite Cores

43 material 20T 29.6 kHz
43 material 30T 17 kHz Slow turn on, snappy turn off
43 material 52T 4.7kHz
73 material 57 Turns 3.2 kHz 38" 30 AWG 2.8 mH 0.36 Ohm This material must have a sharper corner on the B-H currve, it really snaps up. But when turning off it's slow.
14 Apr 2008 - stacked two of the 73 material cores and wound about 50 turns of a wire pair , i.e. to make a 1:1 transformer to see what would be different.
With 3.6 V the LED is brightest. But at that high a voltage the PS is capable of driving the LED directly so this plot does not have much meaning.
Dual 73 matereial cores 1.0 volt drive Collector waveform. voltage at top of waveform is 2.8 at bottom is 0.0 v timing same as base trace below.
Dual 73 matereial cores 1.0 volt drive base waveform. Voltage at top of waveform is 718 mv at bottom peak is -1.6 voltage at right corner of neg pulse is -400 mv negative pulse is 122 us wide positive top is 322 us wide period is 444 us freq is 2.25 kHz
Dual 73 core saturation test. Current displayed as voltage across 10 ohm. n.c. at center tap driving  T1A-1 & T1B-2 (see Joule Thief sch above) Drive from HP 33120A set for 1 kHz, Square wave 20 volts pk-pk from 50 ohms. Loop resistance a little more than 60 ohms. top & bottom of waveform are +/- 166 ma. Trigger at left edge of scope. after switching from + to - the current has a linear ramp for 152 us then saturation lets the current jump to - 166 ma.  The current just prior to saturation is about 1/2 square or 0.25 volts across 10 ohms or 0.025 Amps or 25 ma.  about 100 turns so saturation is at about 2.5 Amp Turns. The inductance readings on the HP4332 don't look stable.  Moving the meter away from the computer & monitor shows 6 mH center tap to either end, but no reading for the full winding. Resistance: 0.462, 0.463  & 0.925 Ohms
Wound on 4 feet about 47 turns and added to the collector side so primary is about 50 T and secondary is about 97 T.
Dual 73 mat 50T:97T Base 1 volt P.S. The left end of the top (intersection of H&V markers) is +650 mv and the right top is +743 mv.  Width of the top is 672 us. The left bottom is - 6.3 mv and the right bottom is about +218 mv.  Width of negative going pulse is 368 us.  total period 1.04 ms, freq 961 Hz
Dual 73 mat 50T:97TCollector 1 volt P.S. The top left point is +2.89 V sloping down to +2.53 V The bottom left is 0.0 volts ramping up to + 203 mv.
Theory of Operation - Joule Thief In the above collector waveform the LED voltage is the same as the collector voltage so the LED is on at the left edge. Starting in 1 3/4 squares where the collector voltage is zero the LED is off and the transistor is on hard with the current in the collector inductor linearly ramping up with a limiting value of (1.0 V - Vces)/ 0.977 Ohms (resistance of the 97 turn collector inductance).  When Vc gets to about 0.2 volts the core saturates  (5 squares in or after 672 us of ramping current.  At this point the current in the core is (1.0 - 0.2) / .977 = 0.81 Amp  so it's taking 0.81A * 97T = 79 Amp Turns to saturate.  The energy in the magnetic field should be 0.5 * L * I ^2.  Just prior to saturation the value of L would be about what it was when the current was zero and a number that's hard to measure with the HP 4332A (need the HP 4395A for this).  When the core has saturated it can no longer contribute more magnetic field so the rate of increase slows down.  This change in rate is what causes a voltage to appear in the other winding and turn off the transistor.  The base voltage goes a little below zero volts.   The transistor has been turned off so Ic = zero.  As the magnetic filed collapses it supplies power to the LED.  Just after saturation Vc is + 2.89, but 1.0 V of that is the power supply so the voltage across the coil is 2.89 - 1.0 = 1.89 Volts.  The LED has a good heat sink so the values measured below are fairly close to what's happening in the circuit.  The LED duty cycle is 368 us / (368 + 672) or 35% and the average current is about 37 ma for an overall average current of about 13 ma.  When the LED is driven directly from the power supply at 13 ma DC the brightness is about the same as from the Joule Thief circuit with 1.0 V P.S. Vled Iled 2.89 74 ma 2.53 < 1 ma The LED is turned on using the power stored in the collector coil and when that energy runs out the LED turns off and the core comes out of saturation. The Amp Turns for saturation are not consistent in the above data. What happens to the magnetic field energy, coil inductance and coil current when the core saturates is not clear.

Thoughts on optimizing windings on magnetic cores

Transistors

Motor Circuits

Novelty Electric Motor

It turns out that there's a strong similarity between the Joule Thief circuit and some "motor circuits".
Patent 3783550 Novelty Electric Motor by Roger Wayne Andrews, Jan 8, 1974 includes what amounts to the Joule Thief circuit, but instead of using a battery it gets the transistor base drive from a magnet moving past a coil.  That switches the collector circuit repelling the magnet from the coil.

3783550 Novelty Electric Motor by Roger Wayne Andrews, Jan 8, 1974, 446/484 -

2020 Oct 22 YouTube: bigclivedotcom: Scoping a perpetual motion ornament - includes the very interesting waveform of the drive coil (between the battery and emitter).  Note in the patent drawing the number of turns between the emitter and battery is smaller than between the base and emitter.  In the YouTube the drive coil ( Batt-E) is 25 Ohms and the sense coil ( E-B) is 2000 Ohms.  With a 6 V battery the drive current would be 6/25 = 240 mA.  A simple diode snubber is used ( Batt - E) and that cleans up the waveform.  It would be interesting so see the effect of other snubbers.  A Zener diode with a voltage a little below the transistor rating would allow more snap.  A resistor might also allow more snap.  Also see: Using a cap and series resistor to drive an L-R circuit.

This is very similar to how the Zendulum works.  The Kundo ATO Clock dates back to 1961 (early days for the transistor (Wiki). I bought one of the CK722 (Wiki) transistors in the late 50s or early 60s.
It's also the main principle of the Bedini (Wiki) and Newman (Wiki) "motors" that really are not motors in the sense that they convert electricity to mechanical motion, the way they are used is converting DC electricity to pulse electricity, very much how the Joule Thief converts DC electricity to pulse electricity.

Top Mystery
When the top is not spinning the current draw is less than a micro amp, but when spinning it more like 1 or 2 milli amps.  It also attracted a mosquito.

The operation may be improved by slightly tipping the unit rather than having it on a level table top.  The amount of off level of the base is critical for operation.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3 Just a tapped electromagnet, transistor and battery.

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/ELaNvIzOvMA

Note that the Miller Solar Engine circuit can be used to drive motors from very weak DC power from solar panels.

Magnet Motor - Kicker - same circuit shown in patent 3783550 above, but with very large home made coil.

Swinging Sticks Kinetic Sculpture

This appeared on the desk of Pepper Potts in the Movie Iron Man 2 (IMDB, YouTube: Strawberries Scene).

There are two versions.  The original version has metal sticks and will run for a year on 4 AA batteries.  It's about 10" from the table top to the fixed triangle point.

The "toy" version uses plastic sticks and runs for less time.

While one web page says it uses the circuit from patent 3783550 Novelty Electric Motor (see above) I do not think that's the case.  This YouTube (Swinging sticks kinetic sculpture circuit) has photos of the top and bottom of the board.  It does not contain a microprocessor, just discrete analog components.  Rather than the explanation given in his first YouTube (How Swinging Stick Kinetic Sculptures Work) that the two side coils are used to measure the speed of the main stick, I think the two side coils are used as the trigger for the electromagnet.  Note in the Novelty Electric Motor part of the coil is for sensing the magnet and part if for the driving electromagnet.  I think here there are two sensing coils and a separate central electromagnet.

The design is based on a double pendulum (Wiki) which exhibits chaotic behavior.
Wayne Schmidt web page for Swinging Sticks -

Fig 1

Fig 2 It's very important that you not bend the pivot axles when removing the sticks from the foam. It was supposed to be shipped with the sticks in the bag. How to take it apart? let me know

Fig 3 Running.

Fly Swatter

These electric fly swatters make use of the Joule Thief circuit with an extra transformer winding to generate the high voltage.  Some use a Cockcroft-Walton high voltage multiplier to increase the voltage (Wiki).

2881554 Fly swatter, Laine Thomas H, Apr 14, 1959, 43/137, 43/112, D22/124 - similar to a model A car ignition, i.e. a buzzer in the primary of a transformer.
4300306 Electrical screen, Richard H. Hudgin, Nov 17, 1981, 43/112, 174/117.00M, 256/10 - senses bug then turns on HV (expensive)
5519963 Electronic insect-killing swatter, Tsao-i Shih, May 28, 1996, 43/137, 43/112 - uses 1,000 VDC or more (HV source not specified)
5886886 Voltage multiplier for a power supply unit of an electronic insect-killer device, Shie-Ning Teng, Mar 23, 1999, 363/59, 361/749 - why granted?

Underwater Locator Beacons

A patent for an early ULB mentions a squegging oscillator circuit which turns out the be the Joule Thief, blocking oscillator circuit.  The Wiki page has a couple of patents: Golf Ball and 1424065 Signaling System (super-regeneration (Wiki) by Edwin Armstrong (Wiki)

Golf Ball

3782730 Golf ball, S Horchler, EURONICS Ltd, 1974-01-01, - "...an electric squegging (Wiki) oscillator circuit", 10 kHz to 10 MHz operation - for finding lost golf balls.  Various circuits to get different duty cycles in the 100:1 to 1000:1 range in order to conserve the battery.

Wildlife Tag

73 Magazine, Jan 2003: Squegging: Now It Helps Us Track the Birds.
A  rudimentary L-C Hartley oscillator has harmonics in the VHF frequency range, sounds like a bird chirping.

Medical Cardiac Pacemaker

3057356 Medical cardiac pacemaker, Greatbatch Wilson (Wiki), 1962-10-09, 607/9,D24/167,623/3.1,331/112 - Fig 1. Single transistor version with limited power output; 10 Volt pulse 1mS long at up to 3 mA at aprox. one pulse per second. Fig 2. Two transistor version with more output power cited as prior art by RelaxAcizor.

YX8018 Solar Boost Driver

This is the IC commonly used for Solar Path Lights.
These require a 2.7V solar panel (eBay: "DIY solar panel (mono,monocrystalline, monocrystaline)"), typically 3x3cm with a short current current of 17 mA.
But a panel with more capacity, like the eBay: "DIY Toy 5V 30mA", should also work. These are under $6 for 10 pcs, free shipping.
The inductance value sets the LED current (330uH: 3.4 mA, 12uH: 82 mA).

ShiningIC - Solar Outdoor Lighting - Power Bank -

1.2 V single Ni-MH battery
Model	Vin V	IoMax mA	IiMax mA	Idark uA	Ichip uA	VbMin V	kHz	Ext Comp	Pkg	Features
YX8018C	1.5 0.85	150	360	1.3	23	0.85	260	L	TO94 SOT23-6	Adaptive, over-discharge protection 83% Datasheet2018, datasheet2016, YouTube,
YX8012	1.5 0.9	100	100	8	1.3 Off	0.85	770	L	SOT23-5	Low power consumption, light touch switch, available multilayer inductor 83%
YX805F	1.5 0.73	150	150	30	18	0.73	100	L	TO94 SOT23-5	Over discharge protection, high current 83% Datasheet1,
YX805C	1.5 0.8	50	50	30	18	0.8	600	L	TO94 SOT23-5	High cost performance, low current, low inductance 83%
YX8051B	1.5 0.8	120	120	23	14	none	260	L	TO94	83%
YX807	1.5 0.8	150	150	30	19	0.8	100	L	TO94 SOT23-5	Over-discharge protection, current reduction curve, extended lighting time on rainy days Dims as battery voltage lowers 83%
YX8071	1.5 0.8	150	150	30	19	none	100	L	TO94 SOT23-5	Falling flow curve, extending lighting time on rainy days Dims as battery voltage lower 83%
YX8055B	1.5 0.82	80	350	4	21	0.82	280	L +2C+R	SOT23-5	LED current up to 80mA, suitable for high Lumen products, synchronous rectification 90%
YX8301	3.3 0.7	400	400	16	150	none	350	L+2C 22uH 1uF 10uF	SOT23-5	Synchronous rectification outputs constant voltage and high current, suitable for high Lumen products 90%
1.2 V single Ni-MH battery solar light string
YX861B	1.5 0.9	100	350	25	20	0.85	180	L+C+2R	SOP8	Steady light or flashing light, the flashing time can be adjusted separately 1~200 LED parallel string
YX8615H	1.5 0.9	100	300	25	20	0.8	120	L	SOT23-5	Constant light or flashing is optional, flashing frequency is fixed at 1HZ, and external components are saved 1~200 LED parallel string
YX8628H	3.3 0.9	300	400	8	8.5 Off	none	350	L+2C+R	SOP8	Solar application is suitable for two-way stepless LED light string, light touch function switch 8 functions, long press to turn off YX8628H adopts a dual-channel bridge output structure design, which greatly simplifies the system structure. Only two cables are needed to realize the dual-color LED light string drive application, which reduces one output cable compared with the traditional application structure. The maximum output current capability of up to 300mA can meet the ultra-large-scale LED light string drive application (if VOUT is connected to the load, the sum of the LED output and the load output must be less than the maximum output capacity); it provides 3.3V constant voltage output. 90% Running water/marquee
3.2/3.7 V single-cell Lighium Iron Phosphate & Lithium battery
YX8180	4.2 2.5	500	20	37	4.2 3.7	2.7 2.5			SOT23-5	3.2V/3.7V lithium battery power supply optional
YX8183	4.2 2.7	400	600	37	4.2 3.7	2.7 2.5			SOP8	3.2V/3.7V lithium battery power supply optional, with EN enable
YX8183H	4.2 2.7	500	20	38	4.2	2.7			SOT23-5	3.7V lithium battery dedicated
YX8183L	3.7 2.5	500	20	33	3.7	2.5			SOT23-5	3.2V lithium iron phosphate battery dedicated
YX8184	4.2 2.7	600	20	30	4.2	2.7			SOP8	3.7V lithium battery, timed current reduction (dimming), battery reverse connection protection
YX8184L	3.7 2.5	600	20	30	3.7	2.45			SOP8	3.2V lithium iron phosphate battery, timed current reduction (dimming), battery reverse connection protection
YX8185	5.0 2.5	3000	500	3 Off	4.2 3.6	3.0 2.6			ESOP8	3.2V/3.7V lithium battery power supply optional, three-stage dimming, optional brightness, optional timing
YX8186	5.0 2.5	3000	?	3 Off	4.2 3.6	3.0 2.6		3xNMOS +++	ESOP8	3.2V/3.7V lithium battery power supply optional, three-stage dimming fixed, charging can be external MOS current expansion

Web page about the YX8018 - YX8019 - YX8051 - YX801 - YX8122 (MPPT) - QX5252 -  YX805F (YouTube: 6 parallel strawhat LEDs)  -

On order: 10ea: 5V, 30 mA, 53x30mm Solar Panels; 20ea: YX805 TO-94 Solar Light boost converter; 10ea: YX8018 Solar Light boost converter; 5ea: 2V, 160 mA, 60x60mm Solar Panels;

Energy Harvester: TI bq25570 (bq25570.pdf)
Big Clive.com: How many LEDs in series can a solar circuit drive?, 6:51 - YX8018 4 cell: 2V solar panel, Ni-MH cell, inductor & <=4 LEDs with the stock inductor. - Solar insect trap teardown - with schematic, 5:57 (YX8018) - Ni-MH button cell battery, 470 uH;

6120165 Outdoor solar lamp, Ram Shalvi, Solar Wide Industrial Ltd, 2000-09-19, - uses boost inductor
6563269 Rechargeable portable light with multiple charging systems, Mark I. Robinett, Don Snyder, 2003-05-13, - 3V battery, boost inductor
10847992 Apparatus for a solar pathway light, Gary Osborne, 2020-11-24, - mentions the YX8018 (811) and has a lot of details of it's operation.
11754239 Apparatus for a solar light, Gary Thomas Osborne, 2023-09-12, -

Metal Detector

This YouTube: Como Hacer Detector de Metales Muy Fácil y Super Simple!, 11:55 - shows the schematic @ 2:08, But what's not shown are the dots on the two coils, i.e. which end is wired to what.  @7:30 It turns out that by flipping one coil you can get the correct coupling between them.  The two coils (50T and 60T) are wound with 0.3mm wire on a form that's a little over 3" diameter, like the one used on the DT-832 metal detector.  The LED in the base circuit of the transistor is an aid in setting the pot.

Patents

Blocking Oscillator (Wiki)
Also see Flux Gate Magnetometer Patents, Radiosonde Patents,

	2211852 Blocking oscillator apparatus, Geiger Max, Telefunken, 1940-08-20, -
	2547890 Electrical circuits, Milton D Rubin, Raytheon, 1951-04-03, - tubes, RADAR AFC
	2745012 Transistor blocking oscillators, Jean H Felker, Bell Labs, 1956-05-08, -
	2780767 Circuit arrangement for converting a low voltage into a high direct voltage, Janssen Peter Johanne Hubertus, 1957-02-05, -
	2881380 Voltage converter, Kruger Bodo, US Philips, 1959-04-07, - for operating tube circuits including GM tubes.

Pendulum Driver

YouTube: Easy Driver, 5:46 - The Pendulum Driver assembly  contains the electromagnet coil, a pair of transistors and AA battery holder.  It's labeled: LT-1-2PK.
It is part of the larger Cnlot Pendulum Drive Unit.
Big Clive.com Classic simple clock pendulum circuit, 6:12 - Joule Thief circuit, pendulum has permanent magnet at tip.
Pendulum Clock Movement---- Pulse Motor, 4:27 - uses the LT-1-2PK.
Pendulum Clock Movement ---- Non-Stop Spinner, 3:29 - works at 0.6 V @ 5uA! to 2.5V @ 500 uA.

Related

Battery - thermopile
DC PM Motors -  Lighthouse,  Solar Showcase
LED - flash cameras
Flashlight -  E10 socket
Fluxgate patents
Geek Stuff
Quartz Clock patents
Pendulums
Rigol Scope
Generator - Solar AA Charger & USB Power Source
Solar Panel
Time & Frequency
Zendulum - pendulum made of ball on curved track

Links

Back to Brooke's PRC68, Products for Sale, Alphabetical List of Web pages, Flashlights & Patents, Electro-Optical Gadgets,  Electronics, Home pages