Stun Guns

Be interested to see the max-power design when you've finished it. There was a design in Practical Electronics a few months back for a home lightning generator using tesla coils and stuff. Looked pretty formidable with sparks streaming over about 3 to 4 feet!

Would you not be better off using a car ignition coil in your circuits, Gary? They're more readily available and really do kick-ass when fed with bursts of 100hz squarewave input!

--

"I expect history will be kind to me, since I intend to write it."
                                                                   - Winston
Churchill

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Don't you think a car ignition coil is a Bit on the LARGE and HEAVY size to be Portable in a hand held Stun Gun.

My finished coil after potting is about one inch in diameter and 1 3/4 inches long. "Vacuum Potted" in certain compounds it will withstand pulses to 100KV. But thats about the Maximum Voltage I can get without it shorting out.

"Maxi-Power" isn't really any higher in Voltage or Arc distance, But instead of a blue spark, its a yellow Flame with current pulses exceeding 20 ma. These will Burn you.

It is designed and already built, but I'm afraid to post it. Its a bit tooo dangerous for some nuts out there to play with!

Long sparks are great in Telsa Coils, but With a spark that long in a stun gun, you would definately Zap Yourself!

The spark Gap on the Stun Guns serves two main purposes:

1) Its a warning to the person that this is going to hurt. Hopefully he will run, avoiding the actual shock. 2) And most Important, It keeps the Voltage within the limitations of the insulation of T2 so it doesn't short out. It is Very difficult, maybe even impossible to make little transformers of the size used in Stun Guns, that are capable of withstanding voltages of 100,000 to 750,000 volts.

Air has a typical arc voltage of between "30 to 70 volts per thousands of an inch". (This depends on a number of factors such as Temperature, humidity and the shape of the Spark gap probes) This Arcing across the spark gap acts Very Simular to a "Zener Diode". Most of the Stun Guns I have seen have a spark gap of about 3/4 inch. (750/1000 inch.) This results in an actual Arc Voltage of between 22,500 and 52,500 volts.

Take care.....Gary