have you ever made a joule thief

where can i buy the parts ??? http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/joulethief

i hate throwing out batts thet have juice left in them

any of you guys made one

i bought transistors, resistors and warm white leds off ebay. Have yet to arse myself to actually wind up the coil required for the assmbly. I bough 2N2222 transistors i think. Have to find them one of these days...

You can get the bits at Maplins there are a few branches in scotland

best link about em

http://www.bigclive.com/joule.htm

You can get the coils in the new compact flourecent bulbs, just be carefull of the mercury filled tube you dont want to break. Or you can go for old computer power supplies they have a selection in them too.

You can usually scavenge the coils or ferrites and use the coated wires from small transformers.

I've made a few and to be honest the big clive original is simple without all the junk other more 'expert' electronics folk have stuffed in to make em more efficient. My first one ran for 16 days on a AA that read 1.2v at start, it was very bright up till about 9 days then started tailing off, was very very low at 16 days then cut off. Battery was down to .5v

Same circuit from big clive works with old cr123 too

more links

and this is good http://ledcalculator.net/ if you want to make a paklight clone, you need a small plastic box from maplin (90p) a 9v connector (scavenged) and a resistor (few p from maplin) oh and an led (old mouse for red)

Here in the US, there's a discount store (Dollar Tree, all items are 1 USD) that recently started carrying solar garden / driveway lights:

http://www.dollartree.com/Spring-Fling/garden-and-outdoors/Plastic-Solar-Lights/400c333c333p308983/index.pro?method=search

They're excellent for harvesting for projects, as they contain a AAA NiCd, a solar panel, and a Joule Thief circuit.

I've seen this type of light in other stores for 2-3USD for the last few years... if you've seen them near you, they might work for your needs. Here's a discussion about a very similar one:

I really love Instrucables, where else can you learn how to make pretzels and a lazer cutter!

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The house I grew up in was next door to the house that Joule lived in for the last 10years or so of his life.

I lived there longer than I've lived anywhere else so I thought I'd look it up on Google Maps.

It was a beautiful big Victorian house...the f*ckers have demolished it and built offices!

While that's sad for me, at least Joule's house is still there. Joule living in Sale is as far as anyone can tell the only intresting thing that ever happened in Sale.

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