Tindie

Easy Joule Thief Soldering Kit

(18 Reviews)

The perfect night-light, and a great way to learn how to solder.

Designed by MakersBox, Ships from United States of America

2016-07-31T12:38:41.306Z-Joule Thief.jpg

2016-07-31T12:38:41.306Z-Joule Thief Parts.jpg

2016-07-31T12:38:41.306Z-Joule Thief Back.jpg

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The perfect night-light, and a great way to learn how to solder.

The Joule Thief is a clever little circuit that can light a LED with a battery that is nearly dead. It does this with a pair of opposing magnetic fields. I like this circuit because it is simple to...

Quantity	Price
1	$5.00
2-9	$4.50
10-19	$4.00
20+	$3.50

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.00)

Documentation: (4.00)

Shipping: (4.00)

Communication: (4.00)

William | May 27, 2019

Easy to build, works great.

Good quality parts, excellent directions. Might be a little difficult for a first time soldering project, the battery clips are large which is harder to solder. Also winding a toroid transformer is of higher difficulty.

I like how this can be built for AA or AAA batteries. I have a lot of old AA batteries, so I did it for AA.

It worked the first time. The LED is really bright, I can see to not trip over the junk in my ham shack with it. I find is makes a nice light to put over my keyboard so I can read the keys at night. I just wedge it into the debris on my computer desk with the LED pointing at the keyboard.
The LED is still glowing when the battery is below 0.5 Volts. If I turn it off when the battery reads 0.44 Volts, then it won't turn back on immediately. If I let it sit for 5-10 minutes then the battery Voltage goes up a little and it starts again.

Elias | June 15, 2018

Great Product

The Joule thief came on time. It was new-as advertised. I am very pleased with my order; and, I would definitely buy from this seller again.

Daniel | Sept. 18, 2017

Really enjoyed this little project

Wanted a little kit to demonstrate the joule thief circuit and this is perfect! Easy to assemble and compact; it makes the perfect little desk widget.

Michael | May 14, 2017

Great kit

I bought this kit as a beginning solderer, and it was very easy to understand and put together. The PCB is excellently made, and the 10mm LED is a good size and shape for making an LED lamp.

Jerry | Oct. 11, 2016

Great First Kit for Beginners

Used it as a first soldering kit for middle school students. They enjoyed the construction and the fact that it worked upon completion. They are now asking what the next project will be!

Albert | Aug. 27, 2016

Nice gadget to have.

I do love this little thing and i do use it at night to help my girlfriend to see leaving the bedroom.its nice to have a little light to see with.thanks albert.ps i may make coppies of this.

Patrick | Aug. 2, 2016

Great little kit

The Joule Thief is an excellent little project. I chose the older, more compact version, and it was easy and fun to build. The instructions were thorough and easy to understand. I assembled my Joule Thief in about 45 minutes, and I was taking my time. Highly recommended as an introduction to soldering and electronic principles!

Richard | May 28, 2016

These are amazing!

We go thru so many batteries! Now go thru them a second time. I'm going to buy some for AAA when they are in stock. I'd like one for 9v too. The reasonable price sealed the deal.

Aaron | April 13, 2016

Cool little kit, easy to assemble, feels like good quality

Great little Joule Thief kit; easy to assemble, the components look like they're good quality, the finished product looks good.

Michael | April 7, 2016

love these kits! easy to assemble, clever design

I'm using these kits as part of a DIY basic electronics class I'm teaching at the Artisan's Asylum makerspace here in the Boston area.
They fit together well, the instructions are clear, I like the design. Great stuff!
Mike

David | Feb. 18, 2016

Fun to Make

It was enjoyable to put together for a beginner. Nice feeling of accomplishment seeing the LED light up, powered by an (almost) dead battery. Great kit!

Rick | Nov. 23, 2015

Easy Joule Thief kit

Purchased a few of these kits. The assembly was easy and pretty straightforward. They work as expected. The only thing I noticed was that if you use the jumbo LED, the battery clip can be in the way a little bit. Not a big deal really, but the LED just does not sit flush as expected. It could become crooked if you don't allow for the leads to extend out a bit.

Again, easy to assemble, and I really like the on/off switch that so many of the thief kits do not have. Would buy again and recommend.

Happy soldering folks.

Darrell | Oct. 19, 2015

Fun kit to build and learn

Just put one of these kits together and it was fun and easy! Good documentation with large, easy to see photos. Step-by-step explanation and links to materials to learn more about the circuit you just built. I'd recommend this kit to anyone, beginner to experienced, just for the fun of it! Review Image

Evan | June 1, 2015

Quite handy

Create package
It was easy to put together, there's an instructables.com post on how to put everything together.
Very handy, I've been able to since make a reverse joule thief to charge my lipo batteries

Damayantha | March 29, 2015

awesome

It was really fun to build and it made a great physics demo Review Image

Gwendolyn | March 17, 2015

Great little project and quick delivery.

This is a great little project. We have made joule thieves before (see image) but had to source all the materials and build them ourselves. It is hard to beat the price of the Easy Joule Thief Soldering Kit even sourcing and building them ourselves.

Roger | Feb. 10, 2015

Nice, easy kit

The URL on the package didn't work. I googled "Easy Joule Thief Soldering Kit" and found the instructable for documentation. The kit was easy to put together after that. I couldn't get ten turns on the torrid using the included wire, however the 8 turns worked OK. I used about 20 turns of 28 gauge different color enameled wire on second one and it works well too. Having a switch is nice. It is almost too darned bright!

Response from MakersBox | Feb. 10, 2015

Thanks for taking the time to give a review! I'll take a look at the URL problem.

Josh | Jan. 12, 2015

Good Product, Good Documentation, Good Everything

I bought one of these, and they were such a hit with our family that we ended up buying more than a dozen. They're simple, easy to put together, great for learning how to solder, and are quite enjoyable after the assembly. I highly recommend them, especially as a little glowing trinket or something to use up those "dead" batteries.