improvised electrical ignition circuit

singularity · Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:35 pm

i just thought i would share this with you guy because it might come in useful if you cant buy a tazer and have very little barckground in electronics and have a few disposible camera lying around... so my friend wanted me to build him a potatoe cannon, so i had a buch of pvc lyin around, but no ignitor. then i remebered looking at the capacitor in a disposible camera i destroyed, it said 330v 120uf, thats just enough voltage to make a spark. so i sodered a wire to each terminal of the capacitor and put a switch on the negitive wire when you done it should look something like this

yes i do relize you can use lots of other things to as a ignitor, just though it might help some people

check out my website its got lots of other improvised stuff on it http://home.comcast.net/~irwinner/home.html

Mihlrad · Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:46 pm

not to burst your bubble or anything, but its already been done and posted. Theres actually a guide floating around somewhere step by step with pictures to take the camera appart and wire it up. Nice idea though if it wasnt already done.

singularity · Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:09 pm

yea just found that guide after i posted this, but the guide is more complicted (i suppose using the guide would make the flash last longer) sorry for double posting

Atlantis · Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:09 pm

My current cannon uses this, it's a bit twitchy though, somewhat unreliable. It's very hard to set the gap right, I don't use the third wire. When it does work it's amazing though.

djt · Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:50 pm

yes i have messed with cameras before, just for the fun of making a huge spark, and the gap has to be so small the electrodes are almost touching.

frogy · Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:18 am

You need to run the spark through an igntion coil to get the voltage from 300 v to upto 30,000 v...

Ignition coils new are about $20, but you can get them from Junkyards for probably free.

singularity · Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:25 am

yea i no i just had a bunch of dead cameras lyin around so i decided to make an ignition system out of one, so it was free for me.

Atlantis · Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:21 pm

My friend's dad works for Kodak, so I got about 5 of them for free, one was really nice, it might be a normal camera.

frogy · Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:57 pm

Go to Giant Eagle (in upper USA, probably not where you live) or go to and photo devopment section of a supermarket store and ask for used disposable camera circuits\cases and they should give you some...

I asked for 1 and they said we cant do that, and I asked why not, and the guy laughed and said, we only give them away by the box,

I got a box of like 100+ for free...

Like the Spud Wiki says, Kodak Max seems to be the easiest ciruit to mod...

SPUDDY6 · Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:20 am

does anybody know where i could find the page for the cameramods?

Codizzle69 · Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:27 pm

hey irwinner, what are we going to do with that camera circuit board thingy we have? we should make it a detonator

boilingleadbath · Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:37 pm

I had a thought:

Considering that this requires a fairly heavy-deuty switch and a relitivly complicated sparkgap, I propose an option which is complicated in an entirerly different manner:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v611/ ... ctrode.png

Essentialy, one pushes on the cap. This brings the electrode closer, eventualy close enough to spark.

*Electrode shape is not certain. I just thought that looked good...

*This design requires a lathe. As an alternative, one could simply screw a screw (with electricaly-insulating cover) through their chamber: twist to move closer to the other electrode.

singularity · Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:55 pm

cody u could have jut called me and asked and yes we are going to make it into a remote detinator.

Codizzle69 · Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:08 am

well gee, thanks for telling me that, nick