As an exercise, to see if I actually understand some of the things I've been learning from all of the wonderful help I've been recieveing here (and I cannot thank you enough for it), I tried to first: A, figure out exactly why the stun gun on the projects page works (mainly because of the transformer), and B, redesign the schematic for use with a uC.
Here is my result, could someone please "grade" me on my understanding of this exercise, and point out my mistakes (which I am sure I made).
**broken link removed**
In the original circuit, the 555 timer was set to generate a pulse of around 60, or 220Hz, depending on the capacitor (whether it was .1uF or .47uF respectively), which drove the transistor, causing the transformer to step up the voltage by a factor of 200, from 9V to 1800V (minus some loss), and step down the current to 1/200 of it's original value (which was what? I couldn't find a current limiter).
In my version, I take a 9V battery, and run it through a 5V regulator. My processor is switched on and generates a 60Hz signal when the trigger is depressed. This signal is run through a current limiting resistor, and then through a transformer, where the voltage is stepped up by a factor of 230 to 1150V, and the current is stepped down by a factor of 230 from 2.5mA to .01mA. A 1M pot on the other end can be used to vary the voltage between 1150V and 10V.