Electric shock

[Dr.EM]

I made the stun gun detailed on this site, but only had a 2k-4k transformer, giving my 12vac. But I have a lot of 1n4006s and cheap ceramics, so I added a voltage multiplier, which generated 170v apparently. I touched it on purpose, not expecting it to do very much, but it gave me a suprisingly large shock. My hands were sweaty at the time (trying to force those big 4000 series leads into breadboard :lol: ), so that might have gone toward it. How many of us have been shocked here? It seems that nearly all of you have :lol: . Probably best to learn from it though on something quite harmless like this I reckon, realise how quickly electricity can get you.

 

[zachtheterrible]

Didn't even have anything to do with electronics, but I shocked myself rather stupidly.

I had an extension cord plugged into my light, and my hands were full. I figured I could hold one end with my mouth and the other with my hand and pull the two ends apart. Of course the prongs touched my lip and I got a pretty good shock and a bright white flash of light. Stupid eh? :x

Funny thing is, no burns or anything, especially on my moist lips :lol:

 

[Someone Electro]

I toched an 1 uF cap charged to 2kV.It was an prety painful shock.

Whith swety hands you can get a shock from 50V.

Its beter to experement whith high freq. high voltage becose it dosent shock you nearly as bad.

 

[Dr.EM]

Zach, that sounds like a terrible shock :shock:

Yeah, its running fairly high frequency. I did add a 1uf cap on the output, that makes the spark a whole lot more impressive, the sound it similar to a loud handclap. With that in place, I should be able to get a more accurate voltage reading too.

 

[Sawblade]

While plugging in a little plastic christmas tree with a very tiny plug on the cord, my fingers wrapped around it a little too much, and I touched both terminals at the same time. All I remember is humming at 60hz. :lol:

 

[Someone Electro]

If you have an cap then you have DC.

I made an realy simple circuit that makes about 3000V (It arcs a max 3 mm gap)at more than 20 KHz.It makes prety good white arcs that have an hising sound.If you toch the output its not very painful.

You can make an arc to your finger whith only one output becose of your body capacitence and the high freq. It also lights an flurescent lamp whith onle one pole of the output.

Low freq AC is the most painful.

You shod put some big electrolic caps on that.I have two 200V 220uF caps that make quite an bang.

 

[Dr.EM]

Even 3000v only arcs 3mm? That sounds cool though, how you can make it arc with on finger. My circuit is actually more like 500v i've discovered, but the current is so low that 1M impedance of the multimeter pulls it down to 130v continuous. I can measure it with the cap in place more effectively, and can hear some arcing coming from in a 250v mylar cap. The 1000v, 0.1uf one I have in there now makes a better spark :lol:

 

[Someone Electro]

Yes you need about 1kV to arc 1 mm in air.

Then that must be prety low curent that an 1 MOhm load pulls it that low.Ann you multimeter is meshuring RMS voltage but the cap is outputing peak voltage.

 

[Dr.EM]

Yes, I think it must be very low current, but that probably a good thing in an experiment. It actually takes a few seconds to fully charge the 0.1uf cap :lol:

Yep, that 400v value will be peak i'm guessing.

 

[Optikon]

Layed my whole hand on all three phases of a 3PH, 480V @60Hz circuit.
I don't know what phases I felt but I won't forget that accident!

When I was younger, probably been hit by single phase 120VAC from household mains at least 10 times. Also 9V battery on tongue (who hasnt done this as a kid?) I guess it counts..

 

[Someone Electro]

wow that 3 phase must of hurt.Is you hand still ok?

 

[zachtheterrible]

When I was younger, probably been hit by single phase 120VAC from household mains at least 10 times. Also 9V battery on tongue (who hasnt done this as a kid?) I guess it counts..

I still do, to test the batteries :lol:

Why is it that you need 1kv to arc 1 mm, but when I touch the 12V battery lead to the battery post I get a huge spark? I wonder if it's because of something else in the car, like the alternator, relay, or (what's that thing that makes the sparks?)?

 

[Someone Electro]

No its the curent that is responsible for how big is it.12V will arc an very very veyr short distance.It more like a spark than an arc.It heats the metal in that point that the metal starts burning and that makes the visible mark on the metal and the prity spark.

Try making a spark whith difrent metals and difrent combinations.You will get a difrent shape and color spark whith an difrent combination.

 

[JimB]

Why is it that you need 1kv to arc 1 mm, but when I touch the 12V battery lead to the battery post I get a huge spark? I wonder if it's because of something else in the car, like the alternator, relay, or (what's that thing that makes the sparks?)?

The 1kV per mm is to do with the amount of voltage needed to break down the air molecules and get them to conduct.

When you short out a car battery, you have made a physical contact, resulting in a lot of current flow which heats the metal at the point of contact, hence lots of sparks.
Now, if you have good control over the thing you are using to short the battery, it is theoretically possible to draw an arc where the air is ionised (and so made conductive) by the heat from the current flow.
This is basically how electric arc welders work.

JimB

 

[Dr.EM]

I noticed that. The current using the capacitor will naturally be higher, and it results in a brighter, louder spark, but doesn't arc any further. Heres a pretty picture of it :lol:

**broken link removed**

The spark is smaller without that 0.1uf 1000v foil cap.

 

[Someone Electro]

This is what four 10 000 uF 63V caps do wen discharged. It totaly blided the camera.(it also blinds you)

There you can see my hand making that sparks

 

[Dr.EM]

I don't think i'd want to be that near to it :shock: . Is it true that sparks emit a lot of UV?

 

[Someone Electro]

They emit a lot ot evryting. From IR to UV

Whith this spark you can feeal the IR light as it warms your hands.

Its also prety loud.

 

[theinfamousbob]

lol....

when i was about 7 i was helping get christmas lights ready - the testing portion. (we had a tree with over 3000 lights that had to be strung @ the time, so everyone pitched in.)so as i'm testing the lights, i go to pull the cable out of the wall, but the plastic cover comes off from the prongs (cheap manufacturing) and being the idiot child i was :lol:, i decided to pull it by the prongs. Granted, it was just running voltage thru my finger and thumb, and suprisingly, it didnt hurt...it just hummed . I didnt get any burns and it probably convinced me to work with electronics subconciously....

60hz doesn't feel half bad, either :twisted:

 

[Someone Electro]

You probobly had dry hands.And so there ware a lot of resistance to hold it back.But if your hands ware moist you wod get a good shock.(Especialy if your in europe where we have 220-230V mains)