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High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns

Project story

High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns

I liked experimenting with high voltage when I was younger. I made several handheld electric lighters and stun guns using both off-the-shelf modules and custom circuits.

Build timeline

  1. High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns: Custom-built ultra-high-voltage generator wand

    Custom-built ultra-high-voltage generator wand

    The goal of this project was to make the longest high-voltage arc I could. I made a 20-stage voltage doubler and potted it in clear epoxy resin to insulate the stages from each other. A custom ZVS circuit drove a 15 kV transformer powered by two 18650 lithium cells in series. The wand generated arcs up to three inches long.

  2. High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns: Custom-built electric lighter

    Custom-built electric lighter

    I built this electric lighter around a Samsung smartphone battery. It uses a custom ZVS circuit connected to a TV CCFL transformer to generate a continuous high-voltage arc.

  3. High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns: Upgrading to an enclosure

    Upgrading to an enclosure

    A stun gun powered by two LiPo drone batteries in series and connected to a low-frequency, high-voltage generator module.

  4. High-voltage generators, electric lighters, and stun guns: Using prebuilt modules

    Using prebuilt modules

    Two stun guns and an electric lighter made using low-frequency, high-voltage generator modules and a high-frequency, high-voltage module, respectively.