Thanks for hosting the contest again!!
This year, i have a brief idea of what id like to do but not the foggiest idea of how the idea works in reality.
So far (likely to change, but for now) i have some 23 and 30 gauge magnet wire, a few ferite beads?(maybe wrong word?) selection of transistors, assortment of leds, and a hope and a dream (but little understanding of HOW).
Ever notice when you remove a ‘dead’ aa battery from a device, its not 0.0volts, but approx .9volts( in my experience). Thats not dead - just below the threshold for said device. if only there was a way to deplete a not-so-dead cell (lets ignore the whole alkaleak situation here, im thinking apocolypse situation.
I’ve seen this done years ago (via big clive) but would like to make myself a vampire light. We all have 4,8,even15,000+ lumen lights now… shit my 4500lumen s2+ is still kicking almost 5 years later… BUT i dont have a single light that will suck a cell down to or close to 0v. Ever notice when you remove a dead’ aa battery from a device, its not 0.0volts, more like (approx) .9volts in my experience. Thats not dead - just below the threshold for said device. A great example: my tv remote is so finicky, it thinks the aa cells are dead at 1.3v.
I have a sofirn c01, which is realllllly close to what i want to make. BBBUUUUUTTTTTTT notice its ‘dead’ at .6v. I have watched big clive draining cells down to .3v and able to make his turn on at voltages over .6volts. my sofirn c01 will NOT turn back on under .8volts, but will drain down to .6v if left on. Sure, the light difference between .6 and .3v is almost nothing, but in pure darkness, you dont really need more then a couple lumens. couple lumens could be the difference between life and death (okay probably not but my point remains!)
tl;dr: crude flashlight/joule thief. maybe more if it works?