Electric OU: TK-Akula 3V LED Test 1: Running on Capacitors
Here I am still testing the partially-completed Akula 3V Perpetual Flashlight circuit. I don’t yet have the Dc-Dc converter MC34063 chip, so I am just testing portions of the circuit.
The LEDs run for some little time on just the charge in the capacitors. I used a 3300 uF cap instead of 2000 uF for the input reservoir/filter, so this adds to the time. The LEDs run on the 1000 uF capacitor when the coil wires are not shorted, and when they are shorted the 3300 uF cap runs the LEDs and charges the 1000 uF cap.
No doubt this behaviour will change once I have the 34063 in place.
Meanwhile it’s pretty interesting. Let’s imagine that Akula used a supercap of several Farads in the circuit somewhere. This would run the LEDs for quite some time, I think, and might give one the illusion of “perpetual” running.