"Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover""
Watson A.Name - \"Watt Sun, the Dark Remover\" wrote...
I putzed around with an old germanium transistor ... [ snip ]
Here's a URL for a converter that takes an input of .3VDC and
converts it to 5VDC. It uses FETs to get around the .6V problem
with silicon BJTs.
http://www.ece.uvic.ca/~jbornema/Journals/064a-97ia-jmd.pdf
Can anyone tell off the top of their head, what the output
voltage is for those thermocouples that are used in furnaces?
This might run off one of them.
Perhaps someone else can answer the furnace-thermopile question.
John Damaschke's 100mW 300mV-to-5V dc-dc converter is
interesting.
In the article he touts the importance of MOSFETs in performing
the work of converting as little as 150mV of source voltage into
a nice 5V supply, but in truth this is a simple task given say 8
to 10V to run the MOSFETs. Damaschke created a 8.5V source for
the job, and that circuit is the real innovation. The tough
task of working with as little as 300mV at startup is provided
by a nifty JFET blocking oscillator, which creates sufficient
voltage to start running the 5V converter. Once the +5V output
voltage is well on its way, a MAX630 (RC4193) step-up converter
takes over, providing
8.5V for the FETs If high load conditions on the 5V output drag
the input thermopile down to as low as 150mV, the full converter
continues to work.
Damaschke says his blocking oscillator is similar to those used
in pacemakers, which are credited to Wilson Greatbatch's 1958
invention,
http://www.engology.com/eng5greatbatch.htm In
Greatbatch's own
words,