Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I saw these LED filaments on Big Clive's channel and wanted to do a project with them. As always we're sponsored by PCBWay.com/?from=atomic
The only problem is they need more than 40volts to light up and I didn't fancy messing around with mains power... So I thought it would be fun to build a DC boost circuit to go from USB 5v up to a nice 50v.
It works pretty well, I've also done a quick simulation of the circuit using ngspice in KiCad which works surprisingly well and pretty much matches the real-world performance.
Even better, I only destroyed one of my ESP32 boards in the process...
0:00 Why are we here? (pretty deep eh?)
0:28 KiCad DC boost circuit simulation
3:36 Does it work in the real world?
7:20 How can we control the output voltage?
9:44 Wiring up our feedback circuit and testing it
12:26 Addendum
These are the LED filaments that I got (affiliate link): https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AX9l74
Update: I just noticed that you can now get 3v versions (affiliate link):
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AVLHsm - also mentioned on Big Clive's channel - though his all arrived broken... youtu.be/tykxeuyfX5Q?t=525
----
Patreon: patreon.com/atomic14
ko-fi: ko-fi.com/atomic14
I saw these LED filaments on Big Clive's channel and wanted to do a project with them. As always we're sponsored by PCBWay.com/?from=atomic
The only problem is they need more than 40volts to light up and I didn't fancy messing around with mains power... So I thought it would be fun to build a DC boost circuit to go from USB 5v up to a nice 50v.
It works pretty well, I've also done a quick simulation of the circuit using ngspice in KiCad which works surprisingly well and pretty much matches the real-world performance.
Even better, I only destroyed one of my ESP32 boards in the process...
0:00 Why are we here? (pretty deep eh?)
0:28 KiCad DC boost circuit simulation
3:36 Does it work in the real world?
7:20 How can we control the output voltage?
9:44 Wiring up our feedback circuit and testing it
12:26 Addendum
These are the LED filaments that I got (affiliate link): https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AX9l74
Update: I just noticed that you can now get 3v versions (affiliate link):
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AVLHsm - also mentioned on Big Clive's channel - though his all arrived broken... youtu.be/tykxeuyfX5Q?t=525
----
Patreon: patreon.com/atomic14
ko-fi: ko-fi.com/atomic14
