Electricital question

Homebrew open wire feed-line. For 50 KV (plus 100% margin) you need ~1.3" of air separation between conductors. Chop up and 'through drill' some plastic rod into 2" long spacers to put at 3" intervals to hold the wires apart.

--Winston

I want to run a stun gun arc from the box about 25 feet. What would be the best wire to use? I want to use a two wire combo that is within one sheath, like a light cord. For that high voltage, should I use something as common as regular wire, or should I use solid copper wire.

I got my gopher blaster working, and having the button anywhere close to the burrow opening is not a good thing. I had two blasts that were louder than a .357 Magnum.

Steve

I would also recommend a radio, infrared or low-voltage wire remote control. Keep the H.V. source close to the spark gap. The capacitance of 25 feet of coax could soak up a lot of your spark.

Low voltage wire (e.g. speaker wire or lampcord) is probably simplest. A kid's R/C toy could provide battery-powered radios for under $10 but sparks might drive it nuts.

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:18:33 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Winston quickly quoth:

IMHO, it would be better to put the stun gun at the intended area and the wiring to -control- it running the 25 feet to the trigger area.

-- Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life. -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1811

Figure on 30pF of capacitance per foot for coax. It will seriously reduce AC voltage although with DC you'll get even more spark. i know, having been bitten by 3' of disconnected coax that had been charged to

Yeahbut.

Some percentage of the time, Steve is gonna press the 'go' button and be sans whoomph. He gets to come out from his firing position and creep up on his HV box, modified for remote triggering. How does he safely trouble- shoot and test his system?

If the HV box is right next to Steve, he can disconnect it and do all his testing behind his shield.

--Winston

I would be leery of any kind of radio link, as it could be triggered by accident at a really awkward time.

How about a long low-voltage wire controlling a relay, which relay triggers the spark?

Joe Gwinn

I have a feeling coax is the worst wire to use. IIRC, coax tends to dampen lightning strikes if my ARRL reading is remembered correctly.

Wes

Put the stun gun (step-up inverter) right near the gopher hole opening - then you can run the 9V DC to the stun gun with common

The HV side is hard to run long distances. They do make single conductor 14 and 16 AWG solid wire with 5KV and 10KV insulation for use with neon signs, but it isn't cheap.

Some auto parts stores still have bulk solid core (usually stranded) sparkplug wire, but good parts stores are an endangered species. Resistor wire is worthless for your purposes, it has a graphite string center conductor.

-->--

Why not use only one wire to the gas mix and use the ground as the other conductor?

Thanks. I'd never thought of that, and that would give a stiff durable conductor that would be easy to make work..

Steve

For flexibility purposes, I want to run a two conductor through a larger diameter hose that will be taking the gas down the hole. Hence, there will have to be two wires running down there. The coax and speaker wire sound plausible, as I have both.

One thing I am learning about this "thing" is that it deserves respect. It can hurt ya.

Steve

if you run two pieces of coax - maybe RG 58? you will get less capacitive loss but still get the good insulation - alternatively buy a roll of solid core ignition wire.

Figure on 30pF of capacitance per foot for coax. It will seriously reduce AC voltage although with DC you'll get even more spark. i know, having been bitten by 3' of disconnected coax that had been charged to

** Posted from

I'm quite sure that stun guns deliver AC, not DC. Frequency would be in the tens of KHz, nowhere near high enough for skin effect to operate like it does with TIG HF.

They very probably operate at or quite near the self-resonant frequency of the secondary, so loading the sec with any significant capacitance will reduce frequency and peak voltage significantly.

There is no way I would run stungun voltage inside the gas hose short of enclosing it in grounded metal tubing. Unintended sparking inside the gas line could get too exciting for my timid self, though I don't mind the blast from a .357 magnum a bit as long as it's on my side. YMMV.

How about using model rocket motor ignitors instead of the stun gun. We have used propane and air to blow up beaver lodges (no envromentalist flames, please). After pumping the mix into the air vent via a 2 inch metal tube, we drop the low voltage wire pair, with igntor connected to the end, down the hole and back off. Then simply connect the other end to a 9v battery and "whoom". Since we are real chicken about getting blown up along with the lodge, we back off as much as 150 feet and hide behind a tree. The resistance of the 16 or 18 gage wire we are using reduces the current flow too much to set off the the igniter, so we just series up more 9 volt batteries until "she blows". This is really easy to do with 9 volt batteries, because of the way the snap connectors work. IIRC, 150 feet of 16 or 18 gage 2 conductore wire required 3 or 4 X 9 volt batteries. ' Pete Stanaitis

------------------ PS Enviromentalists: d> I want to run a stun gun arc from the box about 25 feet. What would be the

--If you're talking potato gun ignitor you can use an ordinary extension cord; it worked for me, bwahaha..