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Build Your Own Stun Gun
mariox19 writes "Wondering what to do with your disposable camera when you're finished with it? TechTV has an article describing how to reach out and zap someone with a home-made stun gun. I discovered the link via Bruce Schneier's latest Cryptogram, where Schneier half-jokingly warns not to let airport security find out about this, lest (in their 'wisdom') they ban cameras along with nail clippers."
And the best part is that you could zap them and capture the moment. Now there's a Kodak moment!!
Join the TWIT army now!
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
In junior high electronic shop class (~1978-79) we'd charge a capacitor up, say "Hey $NAME.." and toss it to the person. Force of habit dictated the person would usually catch it and get a nice suprise.
Trolling is a art,
However, when I was leaving Japan I noticed security at Haneda had no such rules. In fact, you could buy both alkaline and lithium batteries at the shops beyond the security checkpoint there.
I've yet to get an explanation for why plain batteries are considered a security risk.
As the article demonstrates, any time you can get a battery, capacitor, and some wire together, you have the resouces to make a simplistic taser.
I don't know any way they'd be able to regulate those situations, since capacitors of some type are found in nearly every electronic device. Anything that has to have a "flash" of power has a high-voltage capacitor behind it... the cammera flashbulb being the most typical example.
I suppose its possible that "some" cameras have the right hardware inside to make this. However, personal experience leads me to believe that there are cameras which will deliver just enough shock to piss someone off even more. In fixing a rather nice digital camera a while back, I just happened to touch the wrong wire and... ZAP!!! Ouch? Yes. A knockout? Definately not. Confusing, especially since the batteries werent in the thing. Put it back together, tried it, ended up charing the thing again. Took it apart again. Discovered another wrong spot to touch... ZAP! Equally painful the second time, but still no knockout... That time I ended up throwing the thing in a brief hand spasm which resulted in it landing on my leg and... oh no.. ZAP! That was number 3 and damn I hated that thing but it was still just painful and nothing like a stun gun should deliver. Heck. Not even as bad as picking up a damp laptop battery and having it discharge into you. That'll make your arm numb for hours ;)
~~ Please keep your arms, legs, and outright stupidity inside the ride at all times. Thank You ~~
True, it wasn't as effective as a normal taser, but with a larger capacitor it could have more than enough zap to stop a person's heart. Also, the victim was shocked on his arm, not his chest or head. I have a feeling a good torso hit would be much more effective.
Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
Did anyone else notice that the URL is http://www.techtv.com/unscrewed/IHATEYOU/story/0,2 4682,3653392,00.html ?
Life is offtopic.
"Bully breaks student's camera, low voltage hilarity ensues."
Yes! Evil rules! Good can suck it! Suck it, good!
Just stop by your local farm store and pick up a cattle prod. Or order one at http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/prod.htm or one of their many competitors.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Yeah, capacitors on slashdot once again :)
/.ers know more?
But beware that this is really dangerous. I touched a flash capacitor some time ago, 40uF@400V are not really nice. 200uF@600V and I can assure you that you will fly across the room, hopefully surviving the shock. I have several 1uF@10kV caps, and I don'T dare to charge them to > 3kV (LOUD, risk of EMI, some PC failures already because of cap discharges)
Because this is all too destructive, here is a nice modification (I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY!!):
Leave the connection to the flash tube intact. Increase the capacity of the HV cap. Add capacitors salvaged from other cameras, or as a very cheap alternative, from PC power supplies.
Check the voltage rating. Often, they're rated at 800uF@200V, if your flash light operates around 200V, connect two of them in series (+ -)(+ -).
You can get nice, very *bright* flashes with this method. Do not add to much or the flash time will explode.
Problems here:
- NEVER touch power supply caps, they can store 10x - 20x the energy of flash caps. Lethal!
- Discharge the CAPs from the power supplies before salvaging.
- Discharge the unit after use with an *isolated* gripper, better yet, a high-wattage resistor (few kOhms) hold by an *isolated* gripper.
Someone said that more that more than 10 joule are dangerous, but I think you should not set an upper bound for harmless capacitors.
PS. Someone told me that you have to drink much liquid after an electric shock. Because it removes toxic products from your body which could result in kidney failure or so. Maybe the medicine-studying
But... better don't let this happen!
Ok Im a photographer and this sucks. Sure I've know about this for years. While we are at it.. we should inform national security about several other things that can be made into dangerous items. Rubber bands (Useful to construct projectiles) Ethernet cable, shoe string, belts, power cables (good for strangling) lighters (duh) alcohol (useful with lighters) coke bottles (useful with lighters) T-shirts (useful with lighters) (If you didnt get the one above Molotov cocktails) hmm I just realized this list can go on and On.. I watched a lot of MacGyver, James Bond and Mr. Wizard BeDammit BeOS is reborn and its called Zeta www.yellowtab.com
And just what kind of threat does a stun gun pose to deserve such a measure? I mean really, people are always going to be able to do all sorts of harm to others. Trying to attain security by micromanaging everyone's actions is just not a working solution. Sure, it's sensible to ban handguns and large kitchen knives from airlines, but battery operated devices? Nail clippers?? Long fingernails could do more damage than the clipper.
I remember when my physics teacher showed us a huge capacitor bank. Chared it up and discharged around a columb to a paper clip. No warning of loudness at all, just asked someone to turn off the lights and BLAM! Dischared! It was pretty cool. If only cameras had such potential. Looks like another weapon is going to be added to my garage armory. (blow gun that shoots nail darts, potato gun, and now this.) I should probably AC this, but let the feds take them away. I can always make more. Unless nails, PVC pipe and paper are banned, that is.
SAILING MISHAP
Do the universe a favor and do not build your own stun gun. The little sisters and pet dogs of the world will thank you.
...you should see a doctor ASAP.
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
I've gotten whacked with charged flash caps a number of times. It's about enough power to make you jump a bit and shake your hand.
The article talks about "holding it on someone for 5 seconds" - well, that won't do a damn thing; this is a capacitor, it discharges and that's it. There's a charging circuit, but it's very wimpy; it takes the circuit 5 to 10 seconds to put that much energy into a cap for a few millisecond shock.
You want a deterrent? Learn to run fast. You're going to need it, ESPECIALLY if you try to use one of these things.
You know, the capacitors in a CRT monitor contain more than enough juice to kill a man. Just something to keep in mind...
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
And the best part is that you could zap them and capture the moment.
If you added bluetooth to the mix, you could download the image to your desktop instantly so it it becomes your next screensaver or desktop background. I'm sure the Abu Ghraib guys will love to hear their whole interrogation pipeline can be reduced to a single step.
I was taught by a bunch a school kids a really neat trick.
....even if it doesn't work you'll look like a dork hitting a camera on your head.
You set the flash on one of these fuji disposable cameras, then quickly hit the camera on the top of your head in a quick-jerk action.
What this does is it sets the flash off inside the camera without taking any film. And if you get it to work, it sure looks pretty funny...
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
After watching a video where they take apart a MuVo2 for its Hitachi Microdrive and then say the iPod mini has the same drive (correct, but the iPod's microdrive will NOT work in any digital cameras), I'm convinced TechTV's "dark tips" have become dangerously innacurate.
Don't do this. Compared to a stun gun, a photoflash capacitor stores a lower voltage, direct current high amperage charge which is delivered all at once. Yes, if delivered across the heart, it could be leathal. If delivered across flesh, it will burn you. In almost no cases will it stun you other than the surprise of getting shocked.
Real stun guns use a high frequency alternating current, VERY low amperage spark. Real stun guns are also quite cheap on eBay.
If you want to make a joke shocker from a disposable camera flash, here's a much safer method:
Get a cheap disposable camera and take it apart. Discharge the capacitor with a screwdriver. Get rid of the capacitor.
Notice the heavily insulated wire running to the center of the xenon photoflash bulb? Remove it from the photoflash bulb and attach a longer wire that will go to one of you're "shocker's" probes. Make sure the connection is well insulated.
Locate the portion of the circuit board that is shorted to activate the flash charging circuit. Usually, it's a small flexible metal "button" with plastic over it. Yank that sucker off of there and short the points on the board out with solder, or if you like, you can attach wires and add your own on/off switch.
Get a battery holder, some sort of case to put all this in, and a momentary pushbutton switch. Attach the wires from the battery holder to the circuit board, a wire from Negative to your other "shocker probe". Connect the momentary pushbutton switch to the trigger circuit (usually two peices of metal that were positioned near the shutter). Position the probes to be less than 1/8" apart. Put all this crap in a box and try it out. When you press the momentary pushbutton switch, you should get a nice spark.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
At an automotive shop I used to pseudo-work at, they used to joke about taking the capacitor from old distributors, and just tossing them to newbie mechanics, teaching them not to ever catch something thrown at them. :)
The disposable camera route seems kind of silly. Most people who would attempt this should have enough parts laying around their house to build one. I believe an old PC power supply would have the required components, or it should only cost a couple bucks at Radio Shack to build one.
I like your softball idea, but it would seem to pose too much of a chance of not hitting the electrodes correctly. There's so much chance they'd catch the ball wrong, and both electrodes would hit one hand and they'd only say "Ow!" before beating the crap out of you.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
But if the capacitor is disconnected then the R in your equation is going to be a huge number. The voltage will still decay exponentially, but because the time constant is so big, it can take a while. As an example, if R is 10 megaohms and C is 100 microfarads, then it will take 1000 seconds for the capacitor to discarge to 37% of its starting voltage. So in this example, if the capacitor was initially charged to 600V, then 15 minutes after it was disconnected it would still have well over 200V left to shock you with.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Boy.. how times stay the same. :)
How to make a ZaPPeR GuN
By Panther Modern TNO/TBF
The zapper gun is kinda like a commercial stun gun. It is not as
powerful, and is mainly used to piss people off, not to put them down.
It will scorch skin very painfully, if applied. Total cost for it is
around $20-$25, and it is a fun thing to make if yer kinda bored.
If you don't know what a capaciter is, read no further, go find out
what one is/what one looks like, then come back. Anyway, materials
are:
Qty Description Approx price
01 Disposable Fugi-Film FLASH camera $15+TaX
01 Small-Mid radio shack projekt BoX $2-$3 or so..
02 Dry wall nails 10-20 cents
01 Radio Shack SPST Push Button $1.50
01 1 Alkeline AA battery $0.50
This is to make a fairly nice version.
For the raw, crappy version, all you
need is the camera. I won't even go
into details on making it, you can
figure it out for yerself.
Okay. Get the camera. If you want, take some pictures. ALL OF THEM,
or none of them. Cause if you don't take all, you'll ruin the film..
Now, when yer ready, first, rip off the cardboard. You'll have a plastic
box. Open it up, as well as you can. Be very careful not to damage the
circuit board, wires, flash, etc. Once it's open, discard the plastic
case, and the film. Now, looking at the circuit board, one can see
a fairly empty space. Rite in the middle of it, will be 2 small copper
"plates." Soldier your button to this place. YOu may also remove the
flash at this time, as it will be shortly rendered useless. Also, you will
notice two protrusions of copper strip. Pull 'em off, and MAKE SURE they
aren't touching when you finish, cause it will ruin the gun. Next, put
the circuit board in the project box. Drill one hole so you can see the
LED. THis will tell you when the gun is ready to FIRE! (When the LED
flashes). Next, line up approx where you want your two tips. Line up
the capaciter with this. Drill holes. Next, drill one last hole where
you want the button. Now, remove the generic AA battery in the camera,
replace it with your hi-quality Alkeline AA battery. Now, stick the nails
in, and soldier them via wires to the two capaciter leads. Seal them in
place with either expoxy or hot glue. Now, wire up your button, and stik
the LED in the hole you made for it. CLose up the box. Your gun is made..
Just push the button, holding down for apporx 2 seconds until the lite
flashs, and touch whatever you want to SHOCK. This gun is semi-lame, but
is also fun, and good for boredom..Have PhUn!!