So reading through this thread the idea struck me that it should be possible to build one of these things using non-specialty inductors. Here is what I came up with:


It works in the simulator (the forward voltage of the LED is well over 2V) although I have no idea if it will actually do anything once assembled. Assuming that it does, are there any improvements that could be made to enhance it's boosting capabilities?

 

Are the base can collector windings magnetically couples? If not and this works that would be very interesting.

A couple of years ago a fellow from Singapore showed us this circuit (below) in which the inductors don't need to be coupled and it worked very well. He even sent some tiny boards with the working circuit using chip inductors.


Note: No magnetic coupling between the inductors is necessary.

 

Are the base can collector windings magnetically couples? If not and this works that would be very interesting.

A couple of years ago a fellow from Singapore showed us this circuit (below) in which the inductors don't need to be coupled and it worked very well. He even sent some tiny boards with the working circuit using chip inductors.

View attachment 260778
Note: No magnetic coupling between the inductors is necessary.

Right, so the "magnetic coupling" requirement is basically what I am trying to avoid here.

The circuit shown in your post by the way looks pretty intriguing. Unfortunately I was not able to get it to work in the simulator with those particular component values (using a 1V power supply.) That said it does seems like a worthwhile direction to look into, so thank you for the suggestion.
**EDIT**
I've removed some speculative content from this post which could not be reproduced after further simulations.
**EDIT**