Can A Coin Cell Make 27 Volts?

We have all no doubt at some point released the magic smoke from a piece of electronics, it’s part of what we do. But sometimes it’s a piece of electronics we’re not quite ready to let go, and something has to be fixed. [Chris Greening] had a board just like that, a 27 volt generator from an LCD panel, and he crafted a new circuit for it.

The original circuit, which we think he may have drawn incorrectly, uses a small boost converter IC with the expected inductor and diode. His replacement is the tried and tested joule thief, but with a much higher base resistor than its normal application in simply maintaining a battery voltage. It sucks 10 mA from the battery and is regulated with a Zener diode, but there’s still further room for improvement. Adding an extra transistor and using the Zener as a feedback component causes the oscillator to shut off as the voltage increases, something which in this application is fine.

It’s interesting to see a joule thief pushed into a higher voltage application like this, but we sense perhaps it could be made more efficient by seeking out an equivalent to the boost converter chip. Or even a flyback converter.

8 thoughts on “Can A Coin Cell Make 27 Volts?

    1. BigClive is an internet legend. Along with Mike’s Electric stuff, Bill Beaty, Jeri Elsworth, Benkrasnow and a half a dozen more I am surely missing. If it weren’t for them I would not have had any fun at all as a teen.

  1. I’m guessing ultimately the limit in how low and amperage and high a voltage you can achieve is governed by the requirement to get the magnetic field strong enough in a coil to have an effect in the circuit.

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