PHYSICS PROJECT

JOULE THIEF

DONE BY-

Certificate

This is to certify that DIVYA DHARSHINI.U of class

12th Sec.- A has successfully completed the project
work on physics for class XII practical examination of
the Central Board of secondary education in year
201516.

Signature:

Acknowledgement
I would like to sincerely and profusely thank
Mrs. Nalini and Sowmya madam for the
valuable guidance, advice and for giving useful
suggestions and relevant ideas that facilitate an
easy and early completion of this project.
And would also like to thank my parents and
my friends for helping me with my project with
every possible help they could get me.

INDEX

INTRODUCTION
DESCRIPYION OF OPERATION
WORKING
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
DESCRIPTION OF CIRCUIT
COMPONENTS
PRINCIPLE
EXPERIMENT
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

A joule thief is minimalist Armstrong self-oscillating

voltage booster that is small, low-cost, and easy to
build, typically used for driving light loads.

It can use nearly all of the energy in a singlecell electric battery, even far below the voltage where
other circuits consider the battery fully discharged (or
"dead.

The circuit works as a variant of the blocking

oscillator that forms an unregulated voltage boost
converter. The output voltage is increased at the
expense of higher current draw on the input, but the
integrated (average) current of the output is lowered
and brightness of a luminescence decreased.

 The light-emitting diode will blink at this rate, but the

persistence of the human eye means that this will not
be noticed.

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION
The circuit works by rapidly switching the
transistor.Initially, current begins to flow through the
resistor, secondary winding and base-emitter junction
which causes the transistor to begin conducting
collector current through the primary winding.
Since the two windings are connected in opposing
directions, this induces a voltage in the secondary
winding which is positive which turns the transistor on
with higher bias.
With the primary winding effectively across the
battery, the current increases at a rate proportional to
the supply voltage divided by the inductance.
Transistor switch-off takes place by different
mechanisms dependent upon supply voltage.

 As the current ramps up it reaches a point, dependent

upon the material and geometry of the core, where the
ferrite saturates (the core may be made of material
other than ferrite).
The resulting magnetic field stops increasing and the
current in the secondary winding is lost, depriving the
transistor of base drive and the transistor starts to turn
off.

WORKING
The current in the coils stops increasing for any
reason, the transistor goes into the cut-off region .
The magnetic field collapses, inducing however
much voltage is necessary to make the load
conduct, or for the secondary-winding current to find
some other path
When the field is back to zero, the whole sequence
repeats; with the battery ramping-up the primarywinding current until the transistor switches on.
The transistor dissipates very little energy, even at
high oscillating frequencies, because it spends most
of its time in the fully on or fully off state, so either
voltage over or current through the transistor is
zero, thus minimizing the switching losses.
The switching frequency in the example circuit
opposite is about 50 kHz. The light-emitting diode

will blink at this rate, but thepersistence of the

human eye means that this will not be noticed.[3]

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

U - BATTERY
T- NPN TRASISTOR
D- LIGHT EMITTING DEVICE
R - RESISTOR
Tr- TOROID

DESCRIPTION OF CIRCUIT
COMPONENTS
BATTERY- An electric battery is a device consisting of
two or more electrochemical cell that convert stored
chemical energy into electrical energy

NPN TRANSISTOR- It is one of the two types of bipolar

transistors, consisting of a layer of P-doped
semiconductor between two N-doped layers when there
is a positive potential difference measured from the
emitter of an NPN transistor to its base as well as
positive potential difference measured from the base to
the collector, the transistor becomes active

TOROID - It is a surface of revolution with a hole . The

axis of revolution passes through the hole and so does
not intersect the surface

LIGHT EMITTING DEVICE (LED) - It is pn junction

diode, which emits light when activated.[4]When a
suitable voltage is applied to the leads, electrons are
able to recombine with electron hole within the device,
releasing energy in the form of photons.

RESISTORS- Resistors act to reduce current flow, and,

at the same time, act to lower voltage levels

PRINCIPLE
The two windings are connected in opposing directions,
this induces a voltage in the secondary winding which is
positive which turns the transistor on with higher base

EXPERIMENT

AIM- to glow the light emitting device with help of the

dry battery

REQUIREMENTS Transistor
Resistor
Toroidal inductor
LED - any color
Battery
PROCEDURE solder the 1k Resistor to either of the unsoldered
wires coming from the inductor.
Solder other end of the resistor to the base lead of
the transistor.
On the transistor used here, that is the middle lead.
Next assemble the circuit
Solder the anode of the LED (the longer leg) to the
collector lead of the transistor AND the remaining
wire from the inductor
Solder the other leg of the LED (the cathode) to the
emitter lead of the transistor.
Connect the two soldered wires coming from the
inductor to the positive (+) side of the battery

 Connect the uncut LED leg (the Cathode) to

tnegative (-) side of the battery. The LED should
light brightly.

OBSERVATION

RESULT Thus the light emitting device glows with the

help the dry battery