When building your own may be better than improvising

Thread Starter

burger2227

Joined Feb 3, 2014
194
I just built an "Instructable" where you tear apart a recyclable camera to get 100 volts to power a CFL light bulb with one AA battery. I happened to have all of the parts, including 2 cameras I never used in my car trunk.

I managed to pry the bottom off of the CFL bulb and figured I could probably fit whatever I needed into the base to replace the CFL driver. Well one camera had a neon bulb indicator and the other LED. The neon bulb never lit, but the circuit still charged up with me completely unaware of it. Testing the capacitor proved me right! I really liked that old screwdriver...

It gets worse because the secondary transformer raises voltage to 1000 volts which hopefully will never happen once you tear the camera apart.The flash plate is often out in the open too!

Anyhow I was wondering if anybody here has made an oscillator and transformer deliver 100 volts as that has to be a safer way than tearing apart a disaster waiting to happen. Especially for newbies who like the idea and are clueless. The Instructable author even kept the other transformer in the circuit he made.

I don't mind making my own transformer if there are none readily available. I'd like to make one with a rechargeable button battery inside to really mess with my friends. :)

Thanks all!

Here's my building process if interested: http://petesqbsite.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3817
 

Thread Starter

burger2227

Joined Feb 3, 2014
194
Well look at all of the geniuses in the Olympics trying to kill themselves to be famous! Ya gotta start somewhere to get your 15 minutes of fame... :D
 

bertz

Joined Nov 11, 2013
327
I just built an "Instructable" where you tear apart a recyclable camera to get 100 volts to power a CFL light bulb with one AA battery. I happened to have all of the parts, including 2 cameras I never used in my car trunk.

I managed to pry the bottom off of the CFL bulb and figured I could probably fit whatever I needed into the base to replace the CFL driver. Well one camera had a neon bulb indicator and the other LED. The neon bulb never lit, but the circuit still charged up with me completely unaware of it. Testing the capacitor proved me right! I really liked that old screwdriver...

It gets worse because the secondary transformer raises voltage to 1000 volts which hopefully will never happen once you tear the camera apart.The flash plate is often out in the open too!

Anyhow I was wondering if anybody here has made an oscillator and transformer deliver 100 volts as that has to be a safer way than tearing apart a disaster waiting to happen. Especially for newbies who like the idea and are clueless. The Instructable author even kept the other transformer in the circuit he made.

I don't mind making my own transformer if there are none readily available. I'd like to make one with a rechargeable button battery inside to really mess with my friends. :)

Thanks all!

Here's my building process if interested: http://petesqbsite.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3817
Here is the oscillator circuit for the CD ignitions we experimented with for our RC airplane engines. We ultimately gave up trying to make our own because the prices from China got to the point these were a throwaway if damaged.

Since you don't mind winding your own transformers, here is a link for making the transformer in this circuit. Give you something to do on those long winter nights.

http://ot40.com/making_the_transformer.htm

Good luck

Al
 

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Thread Starter

burger2227

Joined Feb 3, 2014
194
But they have millions of people watching.

Where is the fun of sitting alone at home in your lab electrocuting yourself if nobody gets to enjoy watching....
I have cameras on me at all times. If they make Utube so much the better. Maybe I can get a Darwin award...

How is that any better than sitting there quoting me? :)

Honestly, the real techs must be watching those Olympics. Shocking!

Bertz I wanted to make low current high voltage AC, not use it to make low voltage supplies from AC.
 

Thread Starter

burger2227

Joined Feb 3, 2014
194
I found this circuit which even tells you the transformer configuration:



I'm only interested in the part on the left side, but almost 2000 thousand wraps is a lot of winding. Maybe I could use my drill...
 

rc3po

Joined Feb 12, 2014
56
But they have millions of people watching.

Where is the fun of sitting alone at home in your lab electrocuting yourself if nobody gets to enjoy watching....
Lmao!! I guess we need to always have a camera going so if we kill ourselves, at least people can watch the video...
That was funny - you made my day!
 

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
You can produce 300V with a NE555 and one coil (but needs a good transistor + more than 1.5v)

No need for 2000 windings.

How about a few RF inductors + put a few turns on each (but it will be a little lossy). Worth trying. Generate the pulsed signal otherwise + get rid of the third winding.
 

Thread Starter

burger2227

Joined Feb 3, 2014
194
I found this circuit with a readily available transformer. It runs on 5 volts with just one transistor. I wouldn't need anything else but a 1K resistor. That would drive the CFL.

http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-a-flash-with-an-optical-slave

It is only 16 X 13 mm in size. Oddly enough, the CFL circuit board has a transformer on it the same size. I might be able to figure a way to put the circuit on that circular board. I found one that works on one battery too:

http://xenonflashtubes.com/components.html
 
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