Talking Electronics Led Torch

This project illuminates a white LED and
explains how a transformer works . . .

Conventional torches come in all shapes and
sizes.
From a single AAA cell to 4, 5 and 6 "D"
cells, as well as "lantern" and
"fisherman's."
This project uses a white LED to produce
illumination equal to a small torch.
White LEDs have different "characteristic voltages." A
1,000mcd white LED used in this project had a
characteristic voltage of 3.5v and a 3,000mcd white
LED had a characteristic voltage of 3.2v. Both LEDs
were driven at 20mA and the 3candala LED produced
a brighter, whiter light while the 1candella LED had a
yellowish ring around the edge of the illumination.
A LED torch is one of the simplest projects you can build and it's very
interesting as it uses a super-bright white LED.
In the history of LED production, red LEDs were the first to be invented and
their output was so dim you could barely see if they were illuminated. You
needed a darkened room to see them at all.
Then came green, yellow and orange LEDs.
As time went by, the brightness improved and it came to a point where the
output would shine into the surrounding air. These were called Super-bright
TALKING ELECTRONICS LED Torch http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/LEDTorchCircuits/LEDTorc...
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LEDs.
Then came the blue LED. At first it was dull, but gradually the output
increased to a dazzling glare.
With the combination of red, green and blue, manufacturers had the potential
of producing a white LED.
This was the dream of all LED manufacturers.
Since the illumination produced by a LED comes from a crystal, it is not
possible to produce white light from a single crystal or "chip." The only way
was to combine red, green and blue. As soon as the output of blue came up
to the quality of the other colours, a white LED was a marketable product.
The more-recent way to produce while light is to illuminate a blue LED and
surround it with a yellow phosphor coating. The yellow and blue combine to
make white light. This is called subtractive mixing of colours. When paints are
mixed the combination is called "additive."
White LEDs are now with us and their output makes them a viable alternative
to the globe.
There is an enormous array of LED torches on the market, from $2.00 "give-
aways" to $200 "rip-offs."
Although a LED torch is passable for illuminating an area, it certainly does not
have the illuminating capability of a $10 lantern, using a 6v battery.
A LED torch is more of a "fun-thing" to see how far LEDs have come in the
past few years and see what can be done with a single cell and an handful of
components.
When we first decided to produce a LED torch project, we wanted to fit the
circuit into a 2-cell torch but a white LED requires about 3.4v to operate, and
two cells produce only 3v. So we had to think of a number of ways around the
problem. That's why we have produced a number of circuits.
As you know, a LED will not operate on a voltage below its characteristic
voltage. It simply will not operate AT ALL.
This characteristic voltage depends on the type of LED and is about 1.7v for
a normal red LED, while a super-bright LED is about 3.1v - 4v.
The exact characteristic voltage varies with the colour, the intensity of the
LED, the current flowing and the way it is manufactured. This feature cannot
be altered after it is manufactured and the EXACT voltage must be delivered,
otherwise the LED will be not work or if the voltage is higher, it will be
destroyed. This is the cold, hard fact. The supply voltage must exactly match
the characteristic voltage.
This sounds a difficult thing to do, but a simple solution is to add a resistor in
series and the voltage across the LED will sit at the exact value required by
the LED, while the extra voltage will appear across the resistor. According to
Ohm's Law, a current will flow though the resistor and this will also flow
though the LED. This applies when the circuit is supplied with a DC voltage.
All we have to do is create a voltage higher than 3.4v and we can drive one of
the latest SUPER-HIGH-BRIGHT white LEDs with a single cell, using a
step-up-voltage circuit.
This will produce a series of pulses to the LED and the brightness will be
slightly higher than if a steady DC voltage is applied. These are the things we
will be covering in this project.

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This project explains the operation of a "transformer" in
flyback mode. A transformer is one of the most
complex items in electronics. Even a simple
hand-made "transformer" requires a lot of
understanding to see how it works. This project will
demystify some of the features.
The web is filled with circuits similar to "CIRCUIT A" below.
Here are 3 circuits:
Although they work, the performance and efficiency can be increased an
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amazing 300% by simply adding a capacitor.
We will look at the Joule Thief circuit and show the improved design.
The first circuit in this discussion is the simplest design.
It consists of a transistor, resistor and transformer, with almost any type of
LED. The circuit will drive a red LED, HIGH BRIGHT LED, or white LED.
The circuit produces high voltage pulses of about 40v p-p at a frequency of
200kHz.
Normally you cannot supply a LED with a voltage higher than its
characteristic voltage, but if the pulses are very short, the LED will absorb the
energy and convert it to light. This is the case with this circuit. The
characteristic voltage of the LED we used was very nearly 4v and this means
the voltage across it for a very short period of time was 4v. The details of the
transformer are shown in the photo. The core was a 2.6mm diameter "slug"
6mm long and the wire was 0.95mm diam. In fact any core could be used and
the diameter of the wire is not important. The number of turns are not
important however if the secondary winding does not have enough turns, the
circuit will not start-up.
The transformer is configured as a BLOCKING OSCILLATOR and the cycle
starts by the transistor turning on via the 2k7 base resistor.
This causes current to flow in the 60-turn main winding. The other winding is
called the feedback winding and is connected so that it produces a voltage to
turn the transistor on MORE during this part of the cycle.
This winding should really be called a "feed-forward" winding as the signal it
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supplies to the transistor is a positive signal to increase the operation of the
circuit. This is discussed in more detail in Circuit Tricks.
This voltage allows a higher current to flow in the transistor and it keeps
turning on until it is saturated.
At this point the magnetic flux produced by the main winding is a maximum
but it is not expanding flux and thus it ceases to produce a voltage in the
feedback winding. This causes less current to flow into the base of the
transistor and the transistor turns off slightly.
The flux produced by the main winding is now called collapsing flux and it
produces a voltage in the feedback winding of opposite polarity. This causes
the transistor to turn off and this action occurs until it is completely off.
The magnetic flux continues to collapse and cuts the turns of the main
winding to produce a very high voltage of opposite polarity.
However this voltage is prevented from rising to a high value by the presence
of the LED and thus the energy produced by the collapsing magnetic flux is
converted to light by the LED.
The circuit operates at approx 200kHz, depending on the value of the base
resistor and physical dimensions of the transformer.
The circuit draws 85mA from the 1.5v cell and the brightness of the LED was
equivalent to it being powered from a DC supply delivering 10 - 15mA.
Before we go any further, there are a number of interesting circuits on the
web.
The following two circuits need explaining. The first circuit is identical to our
"Circuit A" except the design engineer did not do his homework. He only
added 8 turns to the 100uH inductor and found the circuit did not start-up. His
solution was to add another transistor and tie the base to the collector. What
a waste of a transistor!
The second circuit is a very inefficient design. The second transistor is being
turned on via a 1k resistor on the collector of the first transistor and when this
"turn-on" current is not required, it is being shunted to "deck."
Our circuit uses the "oomph" of the secondary winding to saturate the
transistor and this produces the highest efficiency.
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Here is a circuit from one of the major chip manufacturers:
Apart from the circuit being enormously complex and expensive, 62mA is too
high for many white LEDs. The maximum current must be kept to 20 - 25mA.
The first "poor design" got me thinking. Maybe the signal at the transformer
end of the 220R needs to be stabilised to improve the performance of the
circuit. I tried a transistor and it did not work.
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But I actually thought of placing a small capacitor at the join and taking the
other end to the 0v rail. This will allow rail voltage to enter the feedback
winding of the transformer but prevent the signal generated by the winding
being lost through the 2k7 resistor.
The following circuit is the result:
The brightness of the LED did not alter but the current changed from 85mA to
28mA.
The circuit instantly became 300% more efficient.
I could not believe it.
When I put the CRO across the LED, I realised why. The frequency of the
circuit changed from 200kHz to 500kHz. The LED was getting more than
twice the number of pulses per second.
That's why you cannot trust anything or anyone. This improvement has never
been presented in any circuit on the web. Obviously no-one has done any
experimenting at all.
If the brightness of the LED is equal to a DC voltage of 4v and a current of
10mA, the circuit we have produced is slightly more efficient than delivering a
DC voltage to the LED, even though there are some losses in the transformer
and transistor.
This proves the fact that LEDs driven with a pulse, are more efficient than
being driven by a DC supply.
Here is a photo of Circuit B constructed by a reader. He used a toroid (a
circular magnetic circuit - or ring) and this has lower losses because the
magnetic flux does not emerge (come out of) the end of the core. The
magnetic flux keeps circulating. However if the flux is not very high, it does
not saturate the core and there are no losses and the slug performs almost
the same as a toroid.
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This bike flasher uses a single transistor to flash two white LEDs from a
single cell. And it has no core for the transformer - just AIR!
All J oule Thief circuits you have seen, use a ferrite rod or toroid (doughnut)
core and the turns are wound on the ferrite material. But this circuit proves
the collapsing magnetic flux produces an increased voltage, even when the
core is AIR. The fact is this: When a magnetic filed collapses quickly, it
produces a higher voltage in the opposite direction and in this case the
magnetic field surrounding the coil is sufficient to produce the energy we
need.
Wind 30 turns on 10mm (1/2" dia) pen or screwdriver and then another 30
turns on top. Build the first circuit and connect the wires. You can use 1 or
two LEDs. If the circuit does not work, swap the wires going to the base.
Now add the 10u electrolytic and 100k resistor (remove the 1k5). The circuit
will now flash. You must use 2 LEDs for the flashing circuit.
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BIKE FLASHER - AMAZING!
THE IMPROVED BIKE FLASHER CIRCUIT
The original 30 turns +30 turns coil is shown on the right. The circuit took
20mA to illuminate two LEDs.
The secret to getting the maximum energy from the coil (to flash the LEDs) is
the maximum amount of air in the centre of the coil. Air cannot transfer a high
magnetic flux so we provide a large area (volume) of low flux to provide the
energy. The larger (20mm) coil reduced the current from 20mA to 11mA for
the same brightness. This could be improved further but the coil gets too big.
The two 30-turn windings must be kept together because the flux from the
main winding must cut the feedback winding to turn ON the transistor HARD.
When the transistor starts to turn on via the 100k, it creates magnetic flux in
the main winding that cuts the feedback winding and a positive voltage
comes out the end connected to the base and a negative voltage comes out
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the end connected to the 100k and 10u. This turns the transistor ON more
and it continues to turn ON until fully turned ON. At this point the magnetic
flux is not expanding and the voltage does not appear in the feedback
winding.
During this time the 10u has charged and the voltage on the negative lead
has dropped to a lower voltage than before. This effectively turns off the
transistor and the current in the main winding ceases abruptly. The magnetic
flux collapses and produces a voltage in the opposite direction that is higher
than the supply and this is why the two LEDs illuminate. This also puts a
voltage through the feedback winding that keeps the transistor OFF. When
the magnetic flux has collapsed, the voltage on the negative lead of the 10u
is so low that the transistor does not turn on. The 100k discharges the 10u
and the voltage on the base rises to start the next cycle.
You can see the 100k and 1k5 resistors and all the other parts in a "birds
nest" to allow easy experimenting.
This is the first circuit you should build to flash a white LED from a single cell.
It covers many features and shows how the efficiency of a LED increases
when it is pulsed very briefly with a high current.
The two coils form a TRANSFORMER and show how a collapsing magnetic
filed produces a high voltage (we use 6v of this high voltage).
The 10u and 100k form a delay circuit to produce the flashing effect.
You can now go to all the other J oule Thief circuits and see how they "missed
the boat" by not experimenting fully to simply their circuits. That's why a
"birds nest" arrangement is essential to encourage experimenting.
Note: Changing the turns to 40t for the main winding and 20t for the feedback
(keeping the turns tightly wound together by winding wire around them)
reduced the current to 8-9mA.
The circuits we have presented above use a single transistor and a
transformer to provide feedback. This feedback is a form of REGENERATION
to turn the transistor on HARDER and HARDER to produce the maximum
efficiency.
An oscillator can be produced with two transistors and an inductor, but there
are some design-features that need to be applied to produce an efficient
circuit.
The first circuit is a POOR DESIGN.
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Poor Design - see text
In the circuit above, the base current is constant and will be very small
through a 10k resistor.
Base-current is effectively wasted current or "wasted energy" and should be
kept to a minimum.
The circuit consumes 10mA and the LED will see less than 4mA.
By reducing the 10k base bias resistor to 470R the circuit-current increases
to 25mA but the LED is still not at full brightness.
Secondly, the base-current is shorted to the 0v rail via the first transistor and
is completely wasted during part of the cycle.
But the main problem with the circuit is the fact that the driver transistor is not
driven into full conduction at any part of the cycle and the circuit has very little
efficiency.
To solve this problem, the two transistors are connects so the "turning-ON" is
provided by a transistor and it effectively reduces in resistance to a small
value to turn ON the driver transistor.
Theoretically a current-limiting resistor should be added in the base of the
driver transistor (about 47R) but this made no difference to the current taken
by the circuit.
2-Transistor Joule Thief Circuit
The circuit turns ON via the 220k resistor and the voltage on the collector of
the NPN transistor drops to nearly 0v. This action causes current to flow
through the inductor and at the same time the 1n capacitor is brought towards
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the 0v rail and this turns ON the first transistor slightly harder. This action
continues until the driver transistor cannot be turned on any more.
The 1n charges a little more and the current through the base lead reduces
slightly. This action turns OFF the first transistor slightly and the driver
transistor is turned OFF a slight amount.
The voltage on the 1n rises and very soon both transistors are fully turned
OFF.
The magnetic flux in the core of the 1mH inductor collapses and produces a
voltage in the opposite direction.
This voltage is added to the 1.5v rail voltage and the final voltage is high
enough to illuminate the white LED.
This keeps both transistors OFF and when all the magnetic flux has been
converted to energy to illuminate the LED, the voltage on the collector drops.
This lowers the top plate of the capacitor and since the capacitor is slightly
charged, the bottom plate drops to a voltage less than rail voltage. This action
turns ON the first transistor to start the next cycle.

With this we turn to a surface-mount chip that has been designed to carry out
the exact same task as circuit B. The chip is called PR4401. The following is
the promotion advert for the chip:

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I could not find any sales literature on the internet, but the manufacturer
requires 9,000 pieces to be bought at a cost of 36 cents per piece. This
comes to $3,240 if you want to incorporate it into your project.
I have described the pro's and con's of this chip in another article "Circuit
Tricks" and you should read it and work out what they really mean.
When you build circuit "B," you will realise the specifications given in the .pdf
for the chip, could be improved. We have achieved a supply current of 18mA
for an equivalent brightness of 10mA. The chip requires 25mA. So, all the
technology in the world has not surpassed a hand-made circuit.
The advantage of our design is the ready availability of components and you
can change them to suit your own application.
If you want to increase the brightness, the 2k7 can be reduced to 1k5.
If you want to drive 2 LEDs, they can be added in series:
Adding a 100u across the battery will increase the current by 4mA and the
brightness will increase slightly.
When 2 LEDs are placed in series, the current drops from 28mA to 23mA and
the brightness from each LED is slightly less. This circuit is operating at about
the maximum capability of the transformer. The actual limiting factor is the
size of the "core." It can only "hold" a certain amount of magnetic flux and
return it to the windings during the collapsing part of the cycle. A larger core
will allow three or more LEDs to be illuminated.
The "high efficiency" of this circuit is due to the "pulsing of the LED." When a
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LED is pulsed with a high current for a short period of time, the brightness is
equivalent to a lower, steady, current. That's why a current of 23mA from the
battery will illuminate 2 LEDs with an equivalent brightness of about 8mA of
steady current. It is very difficult to compare the brightness of one LED
against another and these results are the best you can make by visual
inspection. We are not driving the LEDs to their maximum but the output is
very impressive.
The secret of this circuit is the transformer.
We normally think of a transformer as a device with an input and output, with
the voltage on the input and output being connected by a term called "turns
ratio."
If the output has more turns than the input, the output voltage will be higher.
This is called a step-up transformer. If the output has less turns than the
input, the output voltage will be lower.
This applies to "normal" transformers where the voltage is rising and falling at
a regular rate, commonly called a "sinewave."
But the transformer in this circuit is different.
The voltage applied to it is not rising and falling smoothly, and thus it does not
work in normal "transformer mode."
The voltage is being applied and then turned off. When the voltage is applied,
the primary winding (the 60 turn winding) produces magnetic flux. When the
voltage is turned off, the magnetic flux collapses and produces a VERY HIGH
voltage (in the REVERSE DIRECTION), in all the windings.
Our transformer is really a coil in flyback mode with a feedback winding.
The feedback winding delivers a voltage to the transistor to turn it on
HARDER. If the winding is connected around the wrong way, the circuit will
not work.
The other important factor about the transformer is the core material. There
are many different types of ferrite. Ferrite is a type of iron which is powdered
very finely so that the magnetic lines that pass through the particles do not
create eddy-currents. These eddy currents absorb the magnetic flux. The
material we have used is F29 and this is suitable for high frequency
applications.
The circuit also employs a term called RE-GENERATION. This is the effect
where a circuit is turned on slightly by a component (the 2k7 base resistor in
this example) and then the transistor turns itself on more and more until it is
fully turned on. The feedback winding is configured so that the voltage it
produces (actually the current it produces) is fed into the base to turn the
transistor on.
Thus the feedback winding is very clever. It produces energy and is delivered
in a particular direction - in other words it can be a positive or negative
energy. In this case it produces positive energy, to turn the transistor on
harder.
This is called POSITIVE FEEDBACK as it turns the transistor ON during the
active part of the cycle.
Now we come to the MAIN, PRIMARY or FLYBACK winding.
This winding produces a high voltage during part of the cycle (the FLYBACK
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part of the cycle) and this is passed to the LED.
If the LED is removed, the transformer produces a high voltage with a low
current, but when the LED is inserted, an amazing thing happens. The energy
from the transformer is converted to a lower voltage with a higher current.
What actually happens is the LED absorbs the energy and turns it to light as
soon as the voltage rises to 3.6v.
We could achieve the achieve the same low-voltage, high current
requirement, with less turns, but the number of turns has actually been
determined so the core does not saturate.
The voltage for the LED is produced when the transistor is switched off and
the magnetic flux in the ferrite core collapses.
The speed of the collapse produces a very high voltage in the OPPOSITE
DIRECTION and that's why a positive voltage emerges from the end
connected to the LED. These two facts are important to remember.
The other important fact is called "transformer action." This is the action of
magnetic flux.
When a voltage is applied to a winding of a transformer or a coil of wire, a
current will flow and this will produce magnetic flux. If another winding is
present, the magnetic flux will cut the turns of this extra coil and produce a
voltage in it.
However, there is a very important point to remember. The magnetic flux can
be: EXPANDING, STATIONARY or CONTRACTING.
When the magnetic flux is expanding, a voltage will appear in the second
winding mentioned above.
When the magnetic flux is stationary, NO VOLTAGE will appear in the second
winding.
When the magnetic flux is contracting a voltage will appear in the second
winding with REVERSE POLARITY.
The size (the amplitude or "value") of the reverse voltage will depend on the
speed of the collapsing magnetic flux. If the flux collapses quickly, the
amplitude will be very high.
That's how the transistor turns itself on and on until it is fully turned on. At this
point the current flowing through the circuit is a maximum but the flux is not
expanding so the base of the transistor does not see the high "turn-on"
energy and thus the transistor suddenly turns off.
The magnetic flux collapses and the transistor sees a reverse voltage on the
base to keep it turned off until the flux is fully collapsed. The current through
the 2k7 enters the base to start the cycle again.
From this you will be able to see how the transistor and transformer work.
Now we come to the problem of flashing a white LED, using a 1.5v supply.
The following circuit performs this task:
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The oscillator charges the 100u via the 1N 4148 diode and when the voltage
reaches about 10v, the BC 547 transistors "zeners" (breaks down) and
conducts. Energy in the 100u is then dumped into the LED to make it
illuminate. This causes the voltage across the 100u to drop and the transistor
comes out of conduction. The oscillator then continues to charge the 100u to
repeat the cycle.
The zener voltage of the transistor is not 10v as approx 4v is dropped across
the LED. This conforms with an article on the web that said the emitter-
collector junction is equal to a 6v2 zener.
The 330R charging resistor produces a fast flash and the 1k produces a slow
flash.
The current for the circuit is approx 22mA and any type of LED can be fitted.
Measuring the current-consumption of a circuit is a very difficult thing to do.
When you insert a a meter into the positive line (or negative line) of a circuit,
you introduce extra resistance and the operation of the circuit will alter. You
may think the low resistance of an ammeter will not affect the performance,
but quite often the "ammeter " is really a "milli-amp meter" and the "shunt
resistance" on the 200mA scale can be 4 - 7 ohms. This is quite considerable
when a circuit is operating on 1.5v and drawing 30mA. This can be a loss of
100mV to 200mV and the current taken by the circuit will alter considerably.
That's why the best approach is to place a 1 ohm resistor in line with the
positive of the battery and measure the millivolt drop across the resistor. Each
millivolt drop will correspond to 1mA flow and this will change the circuit
conditions as little as possible. The following circuit shows how this is done:
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A 100u electrolytic across the circuit will reduce the impedance of the supply
and keep the circuit working as normal as possible.
As a point to note: The White LED Flasher circuit did not start-up on a flat
AAA cell.
Solution: take two flat cells and connect them in series and see how long the
LED will flash. You will be very surprised. The circuit will draw about 30mA
and the LED will flash very quickly.
The circuit will continue to work on two very flat cells until the flash rate drops
to one flash per second.
This type of circuit puts a very heavy "strain" or "noise" on the power supply.
In other words it puts a heavy demand on the battery for a short period of
time.
This is not a problem if the only item connected to the battery is the flasher
circuit. But if the battery is also driving a circuit such as an mp3 player or
microcontroller, the high-frequency noise may upset the operation of the
electronics.
The oscillator transistor needs to sink a very high current for a very short
period of time (as mentioned above) and thus it must be a "high-current" type.
A "high-current" type improves the efficiency of the circuit. If the transistor
cannot sink the transformer to the 0v rail, it effectively becomes a "resistance"
in the network. Suppose the supply is 1500mV (1.5v , 1v5) and the transistor
can sink to 500mV, 30% of the voltage is dropped across the transistor and
thus the circuit is using only 66% of the incoming energy. If the transistor can
only sink to 0.75v, the circuit is using 50% of the incoming energy.
Some transistors can sink to 0.3v and thus the circuit is more efficient.

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Now we come to the stability of the circuit. The circuit is very unstable and
very unreliable. Touching the components with a finger changes the
frequency of the flash-rate and connecting CRO to the collector of the
oscillator transistor inhibits the flashing. The oscillator keeps working but the
zener transistor fails to operate.
This circuit is totally unsuitable for a commercial design and it reminds me of
some of the original transistor flasher circuits. They required precise values of
resistance and did not work when the supply voltage dropped.
Fortunately someone came up with the flip-flop flasher and changed
everything. It is totally reliable and operates under all sorts of conditions.

Now we come to the design of a higher output circuit, to satisfy those who
want to use a larger cell and drive 2 or 3 LEDs to maximum brightness.
To drive more LEDs, a higher output is needed. We have already mentioned,
the limiting factor with the circuits above is the transformer. To achieve a
higher output, the size needs to be increased. This is quite easily done by
getting a larger core. It is the core that determines the amount of flux that can
be stored. When turns are wound on a core, the result is called an inductor
and when a second winding is added, the result is called a transformer.
Most of the inductors and transformers we use in the circuits in this article
have an open magnetic circuit. This means the flux escapes out one end of
the core and in general the result is not very efficient. But it has proved to be
satisfactory.
An improved core is called a "pot core" and consists of two halves as shown
in the diagram below:

The magnetic lines go around the "magnetic circuit" as shown in the diagram
above and pass through an air gap. The air gap is to compensate for the DC
across the coil (transformer). If the air gap is closed up, the inductor will
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saturate before the circuit is fully conducting and this may make the inductor
less effective. All this theory is very complex and you really have to try the
component to see the effect.
Our circuits use a simple "in line" inductor as shown above or a "bobbin" as
shown below in the third item. The photo below shows the "slug" transformer
used in circuits A, B, and C and the "bobbin" transformer used in circuit D.
The size of each transformer gives some idea of the relative output. The
centre inductor is a 10mH choke. This is unwound to get the bobbin for the
transformer.
The bobbin is re-wound with 35 turns of 0.5mm wire for the primary and 20
turns for the feedback winding. The two pins connect to the primary and the
20 turn-winding is wound on top, with flying leads. The gauge of the wire is
chosen so that the windings completely fill the bobbin. The feedback winding
can be a thinner gauge, without any detriment to the operation of the circuit.
By the appearance, you could expect up to 5-10 times more output from the
bobbin.
But with a higher output, you need to provide some form of energy-limiting
circuit to prevent damaging the LED.
The following circuit provides current limiting so that the LED will produce
maximum brightness for the voltage range 1.5v to 0.9v.
This gives a choice to suit a variety of torches. The smallest penlight torch will
only have enough room to drive a single LED while the larger "C" and "D" cell
torches will drive two or three LEDs.
There are some slight differences between each of the circuits and you need
to read the article if you want to deviate from any of the layouts we have
given.
For instance, the 2SC 3279 transistor is capable of sinking 2 amps and this
makes it a better driver for circuit-2 but its collector-emitter voltage is only 10v
and it may zener in circuit 3, where the voltage is very near this value.
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Circuit-1 drives one LED from a single cell
Circuit-2 drives two LEDs from a single cell
Circuit-3 drives three LEDs from two cells
The circuit includes a feature called "current regulation." You can also call the
feature "voltage regulation" as both have the same effect of controlling the
brightness of the LED.
It can also be called a "constant brightness" arrangement.
It's a feedback arrangement consisting of a BC 547 connected to the base of
the main transistor.
20 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
When the voltage across the "detector resistor" rises above 0.7v, the BC 547
turns ON and prevents the main transistor operating.
This allows the LED to produce a constant brightness over a wide supply
voltage. The circuit will theoretically work to 0.8v.
Do not remove the current regulating transistor as the circuit will over-drive
the LED when the supply is 1.5v. The excess current will instantly destroy the
LEDs.
The actual operation of the circuit can be explained in a little more detail.
When the circuit is turned on, the oscillator transistor produces a high voltage
from the inductor and this is rectified by a diode to charge a 100u electrolytic.
When the voltage rises to over the total characteristic voltage of the LED or
LEDs, they turn on and current flows though the 39R "detector resistor."
The voltage across the 100u will continue to rise and since the characteristic
voltage of the LEDs has been reached, any further voltage rise will appear
across the resistor. As soon as this voltage reaches 0.7v, the feedback
transistor begins to turn on. The feedback transistor acts like a variable
resistor as shown in the diagram below and some of the current from the
feedback winding is passed to the 0v rail, through the transistor. The
oscillator transistor sees a reduced "turn-on" effect and the output of the
stage is reduced.
In this way the brightness of the LEDs can be kept constant throughout the
life of the battery.
The circuit is actually being "pulled back" when a fresh cell is connected, by
the action of the feedback transistor. As the voltage from the cell reduces, the
oscillator circuit will not be able to produce a high output and the action of the
feedback section will not be needed. Eventually the voltage of the cell will be
so low that the LED will start to dim. This is the end of the life of the cell.
Caution: Do not allow more than 25mA to flow though a white LED (unless it
is being pulsed) as it will be instantly DESTROYED. Other LEDs (such as
low-brightness red LEDs) are much more tolerant - but white LEDs are easily
damaged.
21 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
A number of circuits similar to this project have been presented on the
internet. One circuit had twice the number of components and used 4
transistors.
The art of designing a circuit is to make it as simple as possible, while
providing all the needed features. It is pointless making a circuit complex, as
it simply adds to the cost and makes fault-finding more difficult.
But a note near one of the circuits was really annoying. It said the circuit "had
not been tested, only a simulation was run." While these simulation
programs work in a number of applications, they certainly cannot take into
account the characteristics of an inductor. This is one item that no-one can
predict. It's performance depends on so many variables.
If you think you can design a circuit such as this on a simulator, and it will
work, you are kidding yourself.
Electronics is not that simple.
Transistors exhibit different characteristics according to the current flowing
though them and a circuit such as ours requires the main transistor to pass a
very high current for a short period of time.
Fortunately, J apanese transistors are capable of passing a high current while
some Philips transistors will fail to pass the test. The gain of a transistor
under these stressful conditions cannot be determined from a data-sheet.
Circuits should never be presented in an article unless they have been tried
and tested.
A simulation program cannot possibly take into account the effectiveness of
an inductor in any particular situation, even though the inductance is known.
There are hundreds of ways to produce a 10uH inductor, or any inductor for
that matter.
It can be air-cored or ferrite cored. The windings can be thick or thin wire. The
core can be made of several different materials. On top of this it will depend
on the frequency of the circuit.
The output voltage of an inductor that has been specially designed for a
particular circuit can be 100 times higher than an incorrectly designed item.
That's why it takes a considerable amount of "trial-and-error" to produce an
ideal inductor or transformer.
The output voltage has a lot to do with the "Q-factor" or quality factor and this
is a value that is associated with the way the inductor or transformer has
been designed. The "Q value" is basically the ratio of the supply voltage
compared to the output voltage.
No simulation program can "guess" the value of "Q" and since the operation
of the circuit is entirely dependent on this value, it has to be constructed.
I would not even attempt to put this type of circuit on a simulator.
There are many ways to go about designing an inductor or transformer.
You can sit down and study the theory of inductance, the effectiveness of
ferrite material at different frequencies, the use of different wire gauges and
the associated inductance formulae.
If you think you will be able to produce an inductor for this circuit entirely from
theory, (with the first prototype working perfectly), you are kidding yourself.
There are a number of parameters you cannot specify in the formulae.
22 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
Even if you did come up with an answer, no electronics-designer would be
satisfied with the first result. He would need to see the prototype and add or
remove turns to see the effect. He would use thicker or thinner wire and note
the effect. He would carry out all sorts of experimentation, including
monitoring the battery current while noting the current though the LEDs to
work out the efficiency of the circuit.
It could take 50 or more prototypes to arrive at the best design.
So, where do you start when designing a transformer or inductor?
No-one really knows where to start.
It all comes from trial-and-error and guessing a starting-point.
The easiest way is to copy an existing design.
But if you don't have something to copy, you can begin with say 10 turns.
Note the output voltage and current taken by the circuit.
Increase the winding to 20 turns. Again note all details. From the figures you
can work out if you are going in the right direction.
Continue collecting data with both additional turns and reduced turns as,
sometimes, an unusual feature suddenly arises.
Keep working until you are satisfied with the results.
Even if you have studied inductor theory, you will still have to carry out the
practical side of things.
Nothing takes the place of actually "doing-it."
In our 3 circuits, there are many different combinations of windings that will
work.
The reason is the circuit is non-critical.
You have to understand the operation of an inductor in an entirely different
way to the theoretical model to see how it operates.
This is called a "loose" circuit and a wide range of primary windings will
produce the same result.
For example, a primary winding of 35 turns will produce the same LED
brightness as 55 turns and the current from the supply will be the same.
The output of the transformer (on no-load) will be more than 200v and thus
the circuit must not be operated on no-load as the voltage may damage the
transistor.
If the LEDs are removed, the circuit will charge the capacitor to more than
45v and this is above the operating voltage for a 100u/25v electrolytic.
If you remove the LEDs and turn the circuit on, then re-solder the LEDs, they
will be damaged. This is because the electrolytic will have charged to 45v.
Thus it is very difficult to experiment with the circuit to see how the
transformer charges the electrolytic.
You will have to follow our explanation:
HOW DOES THE ELECTROLYTIC CHARGE?
The electrolytic is charged by pulses from the inductor.
In circuit-3 the voltage across the electrolytic is 10v and it is delivering current
to the three LEDs at a constant rate of 17mA.
23 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
CRO waveform - output of inductor
In the CRO diagram above, the pulses (or spikes) occupy about 10% of the
total time.
The area under the graph (under each spike) is shown in orange and this
represents the energy supplied to the electrolytic.
The inductor is capable of producing a very high spike when in flyback and
this voltage allows a burst of current to pass though the diode and charge the
electrolytic.
When the inductor is operating under no-load, it is capable of producing a
spike of more than 200v, but this voltage is not allowed to be produced when
the load is connected. The voltage-spike is limited to the characteristic
voltage across the LED or LEDs, plus the voltage drop across the diode and
minus the battery voltage. The voltage will be about 9v.
If we are drawing 17mA for 100% of the time, we must deliver 10 times 17mA
for 10% of the time to keep the electrolytic charged. Thus a current of about
17 x 10 =170mA is needed to pass through the diode to charge the
electrolytic.
The other feature of the diode is it prevents the voltage on the electrolytic
being discharged to the 0v rail via the transistor when it is turned on.
The frequency at which the circuit operates is determined by the inductance
of the inductor. The cycle start when the power is applied and the transistor
turns on to allow current to flow though the main winding. This produces
magnetic flux in the feedback winding to turn the transistor on harder. This
continues until the transistor is turned on fully and maximum flux is produced.
But the flux is not expanding flux and thus it does not cut the turns of the
feedback winding and the transistor does not get the full turn on current into
the base.
The transistor is turned off and this causes the magnetic flux to collapse. This
flux is in the opposite direction and it produces a reverse voltage in the
feedback winding to keep the transistor fully turned off.
The main winding also produces a voltage in the opposite direction and it
delivers a pulse of energy to the electrolytic via the high-speed diode.
As soon as the magnetic flux is spent, (converted to electrical energy) the
cycle starts again.
The combination of these two operations creates the length of time for one
cycle.
In our case the circuit operates at approx 90kHz.
24 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
There is a lot of hype and confusion about the light output of some super-
bright LEDs.
Sometimes there is very little difference when you compare the output of 1cd,
3cd and 6cd (6,000mcd) LEDs, when supplied from wholesalers.
One of the reasons is the difficulty in identifying each LED. They have no
markings and if they are not kept in their correct bag, they can get mixed up!
There are literally dozens of different types.
Secondly, the difference in brightness is due to the angle at which the
light-beam emerges from the LED. This is due to the lens inside the LED
and/or the way the LED is potted, producing a divergent beam or a narrow
beam.
Almost all LEDs have a different illumination intensity, color and spot-size,
depending on the manufacturer, beam angle and quality of the chip producing
each color (efficiency).
Some have a blue appearance in the centre of the spot white light while
others have a noticeable green fringe.
This project is an ideal way to test 2 or 3 LEDs at the same time. Since they
are in series, they pass the same current and the intensity control will allow
you to vary the brightness and compare the outputs.
When experimenting, keep a record of the type of LED by paining it with red
or while nail polish. Keep the same reference on the bag from which they
came. This will prevent them getting mixed up.

Type: Gain: Vbe Vce Current Case
2SC3279 NPN
140 to
600
@0.5A
0.75v 10v
2amp
BC337
BC338
NPN
60
@300mA
0.7v
45v
25v
800mA
BC547
BC548
BC549
NPN
70
@100mA
0.7v
45v
30v
30v
100mA

Firstly you need to decide on the type of housing you want to use. This will
determine the circuit you will use, the number of LEDs and the shape of the
PC board.
It's best to get a kit of components as the core for the inductor is supplied
with winding wire and these are normally difficult items to get.
If you want to use the project for experimentation, circuit-3 has an adjustable
brightness control.
The only extra components you will need are red LEDs to take the place of
the white LEDs, when you are setting up the circuit.
25 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM

If the circuit does not work, you have two choices. You can buy another kit or
carefully work though the assembly and see where you made the mistake.
Things like the orientation of the transistor, diode and LED need to be
checked but the general reason for the project not working is the connection
of the transformer. Simply reverse one of the windings.
It does not matter which way the windings are wound on the ferrite core. By
simply reversing one of the windings, the transformer will work. Do no reverse
BOTH windings as this will not solve the problem.
Before experimenting with any of the circuits, there are a number of things
you must be aware of.
The inductor is capable of producing a very high voltage when no load is
connected and this can cause damage to the oscillator transistor, the
electrolytic and/or the LEDs.
We have already mentioned some of the ways the components can be
damaged and the most critical component is a white LED. It will not tolerate
excess current, even for a fraction of a second. Ordinary red LEDs are very
tolerant and this gives you a false sense of robustness.
The circuit is capable of charging the electrolytic to more than 45v and if a
white LED is connected when the electrolytic is fully charged, it will illuminate
very brightly and die.
The situation does not occur when the circuit is operated normally and this
means experimenting with the circuit is risky if you don't know what you are
doing.
One solution is to use 2 red LEDs to take the place of each white LED.
You can take all current, voltage and efficiency measurements with the red
LEDs and when the circuit is operating as required, the LEDs can be
replaced with a white LED.
Don't let the sensitive nature of a white LED deter you from experimenting -
simply substitute them.
This project has been specially designed for experimenting. The main reason
for using a hand-made inductor is to allow different arrangements to be tried.
One point you will have to remember:
The energy from an inductor in flyback mode depends on the amount of
ferrite in the core. The core supplied in the kit can only supply enough energy
to fully illuminate 2 white LEDs.
When 3 LEDs are used, the maximum current it can supply is about 15mA.

26 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM
au$xx.60 plus $3.50 post
us$xx.60 plus $5.50 MAX post
Order kit
8 - 330R all 1/4 watt 5%
resistors
3 - 2k2
2 - 10k
1 - 47k
1 - 100n surface-mount capacitor
1 - 100u 16vw electrolytic
1 - 1N 4004 power diode
3 - BC 547 transistors or similar
9 - 3mm bi-colored LEDs
1 - 3mm red LED
1 - 3mm green LED
2 - tactile switches
1 - 18pin IC socket
1 - PIC16F628 Tic Tac Toe
microcontroller IC
1 - SPDT slide switch
5cm very fine tinned copper wire
50cm - very fine solder
1 - 3cm double-sided tape for battery
box
1 - 4-AAA cell battery holder
4 - AAA cells
1 - TIPC board
Kits for Tie can be obtained from
Talking Electronics:
http://www.talkingelectronics.com

27 of 27 12/1/2013 2:01 PM

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Talking Electronics Led Torch

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This project illuminates a white LED and

explains how a transformer works . . .

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