Build your own stun gun

SLASHDOT -- Mariox19 wonders if people have thought about "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." Now that would be a real Kodak Moment. In his latest Cryptogram, Bruce Schneier half-jokingly warns not to let airport security find out about this, lest they ban cameras along with nail clippers. Accordingly, the first rule of the Home Stun Gun Club is. Don't go telling people about your garage armory--the place with the assorted sledge hammers, nail gun and potato gun.

I don't know about hand-rolling a taser from a disposable camera. Compared to a real taser--the kind you can get for a good price on eBay--a photoflash capacitor stores a lower voltage, direct current high amperage charge which is delivered all at once. Sure, it can knock someone down if directed at their heart. But if you just strike flesh, it just burns and tingles. Which means you still have to remember to run fast. With a real stun gun, you get high frequency alternating current and very low amperage sparks.

Any time you can get a battery, capacitor, and some wire together, you have the resouces to make a simplistic taser. For several months, I couldn't get batteries through Dublin Aiport Security on their own. Then Detective Sergeant Michael Walsh kindly cut through all those annoying scanners with me in tow and I showed my Aer Lingus cabin crew my stash after we landed in JFK. They weren't amused.

Neither was John Gulya years ago after I charged up a capacitor, blurted out, "Hey, John!" and tossed it to him across the technical drawing class. Normally some other nosey student would reach up and grab the thing in midair and get an evil surprise.

I take no responsibility for unveiling this technology.

1. Leave the connection to the flash tube intact.
2. Increase the capacity of the HV cap by adding capacitors salvaged from other cameras, or from PC power supplies.
3. Check the voltage rating. Often, they're rated at 800uF@200V, if your flash light operates around 200V, connect two of them in series (+ -)(+ -).
4. You can get nice, very *bright* flashes with this method. Do not add to much or the flash time will explode.

CAUTIONS

• Never touch power supply caps, they can store 10x - 20x the energy of flash caps, which is lethal. Brother Mike stuns junkyard cats with this simple tech.
• 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.

You should be aware that when a significant jolt of electricity courses through your body, it destroys cells, including those that do important things like regulate heart rhythm. When the cells burn up, they explode. If they're muscle cells, they ooze myoglobin. Too much myoglobin clogs up your kidneys. You need to take on fluid to push out fluids to protect your kidneys. We learned this after we zapped an avionics maintenance specialist downrange at an austere operating location.

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Slashdot -- "Build your own stun gun"
Joey the Intern -- "Dark Tip: Reach out and stun someone"
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