Project: Simplest shocker

[j.friend]

The relay switching ON and OFF produces AC, this is a VERY old circuit (pre semiconductors) - such devices were used to power valve car radios long before transistors became available. They were called 'vibrators', they came in two types - asyncronous (similar to the circuit above, and requiring a rectifer on the output), or syncronous (these had extra contacts for the output side as well, and didn't require a seperate rectifer, the extra contacts reverse the output in sync with the polarity changes).

WW2 radios used similar devices, or even rotary converters - a low voltage motor driving a high voltage dynamo.

In fact the actual circuit itself is even older than that, it was used in Victorian times as a party trick - known as 'shocking coils'. People stood in a big circle holding hands, with those at the ends of the circle each holding one of the contacts.

We actually did this at junior school in the early 1960's! - imagine the uproar if you tried to do it now!.

Lol, we actually did this in our physics class a couple of weeks ago. The teacher brought in an old crank driven generator orignally used to charge REALLY old phones. So we all wet our palm and stood in a circle holding hands and he cranked the handle giving us all a shock.

that was ok, hurt a little until someone went and got a cordless drill, only me and another bloke were game enough to try it and held hands and the electrodes and got a massive shock that had our arms tingling for ages.

twas fun

 

[trennonix]

hey,
i made that circuit, without the transformer and connected it to an oscilloscope driven by the soundcard of my PC to get an idea of the frequency
well, it said that the relay is vibrating at 480Hz!
Is that even possible?!
i was expecting something under a 100

and KrumLink i once fried my digital camera (just the flash unit) after shorting the main capacitor with a screwdriver