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Stan’s Legacy

Mutten

4 posts · 3 more in threads this archive does not carry · writing between Feb 2009 and Feb 2009

An identity on Energetic Forum as it was harvested, not an account on this site. Nobody here has claimed it, and nothing connects it to a person by name.

amigo wrote:

Mutten,

nice work, you could say you succeeded against all odds (seeing that doc is not posting on OU anymore)

You really need to make a variable inductor for the oscillator (body with a ferrite slug) so that the LC tank can be tuned precisely and with lower current consumption.

Using store bought inductors is easy at first but can be painful most of the times because component values are limiting the tuning options.

Also, LCR meter is definitely a good item to have , I find myself using it more and more lately, almost as much as a DMM.

Otherwise it's really fun seeing a neon bulb light up brightly from a single transistor oscillator that has no usual step-up transformers in it and relies on resonance.

Try emailing doc Stiffler, perhaps he still has some SEC 15-3 boards around his lab? Having a board is much easier because he designed it in such a way to provide necessary capacitance in the circuit.
Could only find those tunable coil forms at one website, had to have a minimum of $15 ( to not get charged $10 handling fee ) so I grabbed some various ferrite cores to play with along with.

161007-14-Slug-Tuned coil forms-Electronic Surplus Inc.Offering obsolete IC's, discretes, motors, relays, switches, pots, and much, much more! Always looking for your excess inventory.


@amigo
Question, what size wire and how many turns are on the coil form for the SEC15?

Been searching through the OU forum but I can't seem to locate the info.

@Vortex sorry missed your question, as far as I know the Doc is using a modified SEC15-3 ( that circuit I linked to) to power the cool white lights and small incandescent. What the modifications are I'm not sure, but in the videos it looks like there is a larger air core coil attached to it. Won't be able to do much till my coil forms get here.

Success!

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I think I had the chokes backwards, they weren't labeled when I got them from Jameco. Automatically assumed the smaller one was 10uH, and the larger being 22uH. Still not sure to tell you the truth, haven't looked for a color chart yet

I don't have a tunable inductor yet. tried using some coiled solid copper but no luck yet, popped another choke on it off the base and it worked.

not very bright with what I have right now, but it gets brighter when I touch it, and even more so when I clipped on a CFL to see if it would light it.



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Amp draw goes down to about 60 mAmps when I clip on the CFL and the neon gets brighter.

This is a cool little circuit.

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amigo wrote:

I have been following the SEC developments from the start and been replicating them successfully. But with this last Cool White experiment I have not had much success. Sometimes I can't even get my neon bulb to light up, even though there are oscillations, while other times it shines bright, and yes when I touch it it gets brighter. LEDs are not a problem it seems just the higher voltage items.

Same goes when using a beaker filled with water, and aluminium foil around it. I do not know whether this, or my body when using fingers, act as an antenna or not as I am not verse in RF that much.

There's definite ultrawide band oscillations, as I can see the harmonics on the spectrum analyzer but to what amount do these harmonics matter I am not sure.

Looking at doc's videos, his spectrum shots do not look that much different than mine, yet he's lighting flourescent lights and all I can light is a small neon bulb or some LEDs. I have been using various medium to high amplification transistors (150-300 hFE) and they all impose different impedances affecting the resonant frequencies of LC tank in the base.

Something is missing and I do not know what but I plan to find out (by emailing him, hehe)...

I've followed the SEC thread on OU.com for a long time now and just now had some time to get parts and get one together.

So I've got this thing breadboarded and I can't seem to get it to work.

Its drawing 30 milliamps but the neon isn't coming on. not sure what I am doing wrong. I'd ask for some help over there but the thread seems dead and the Doc seems to have closed his website.


I'd love to get my hands on one of those SEC 15-3s he was selling a long time ago.