Joule Thief Measurements: Base Resistor

After selling out of both of the Multi-LED Joule Thief and the Joule Thief Candle on Tindie it became necessary to not only make more but to update both models. Before updating I wanted to make a few measurements of the circuit to better understand how I could increase its performance by changing the resistance of R1 connected to the base of the NPN transistor.

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Bicycle Announcer

The Problem During short instances of nice weather in upstate New York I enjoy going for a bicycle ride on the local multi use trails. I have to pass pedestrians or slower bicycle traffic and find it to sometimes be a hassle to get their attention. During one of my rides I got to thinking […]

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DPS5015 Power Supply Enclosure

I designed a printable enclosure for my DPS5015 power supply. The case is a tight fit but results in a nice compact unit with minimal footprint. An external DC power supply is needed, I plan to use my large Sorensen 150V linear power supply for this. As with most of my designs the first iteration […]

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Mantis Microscope Repair

A recent dumpster dive netted me a Vision Engineering Mantis Microscope. The Mantis will be extremely useful for soldering SMD parts and general PCB assembly and repair. I was lucky that the objectives had been thrown out with the unit, a 4X and 8X objective. I am unable to find the model number of this Mantis but it is not a new microscope. The Mantis had not aged well, small cracks are appearing in the plastic housing and the mounting bracket is broken into unusable plastic scrap.

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