Here’s a project that could be useful this summer on the beach, to stop anyone touching your things left on your beach towel while you’ve gone swimming; you might equally well use it at the office or workshop when you go back to work. In a very small space, and powered by simple primary cells or rechargeable batteries, the proposed circuit generates a low-energy, high voltage of the order of around 200 to 400 V, harmless to humans, of course, but still able to give a quite nasty ‘poke’ to anyone who touches it.... [read more]
Can be used agains ferocious animals or attackers, BUT REMEMBER, this device may be illegal in your state.... [read more]
The CDI ignition circuit produces a spark from an ignition coil by discharging a capacitor across the primary of the coil. A 2uF capacitor is charged to about 340 volts and the discharge is controlled by an SCR. A Schmitt trigger oscillator (74C14) and MOSFET (IRF510) are used to drive the low voltage side of a small (120/12 volt) power transformer and a voltage doubler arrangement is used on the high voltage side to increase the capacitor voltage to about 340 volts.... [read more]
Here's a circuit to create a buzzcoil using a standard automotive ignition coil. A 556 dual timer is used to establish the frequency and duty cycle of the coil current. One of the timers is used as an oscillator to generate the 200 Hz rectangular waveform needed to control the (IRF740 MOSFET) while the second timer switches the oscillator on and off as the breaker points open and close (closed = on). The result is a steady stream of sparks from the ignition coil spaced about 5 milliseconds apart while the breaker points are closed.... [read more]