Stove gas grill electric ignitor

[kevinloh]

Can a gas/stove grill ignitor used to power up my 1.2inch xenon flashtube a source of power for the trigger voltage? And how many KV of power of electricity is available in a typical gas/stove ignitor?

 

[Klaus]

Interesting idea, can't help you though. How about trying it out? And let us know if it worked.
You can find the voltage output of the piezo by experimenting and checking how far a spark gap it will jump. Here's some info to start: **broken link removed**
A bit of googling will get you lots more info.
Have fun,
Klaus

 

[kevinloh]

I've already tried it out using a charged 180V capacitor connected to the two end of the electroes and the trigger wire connected to the ignitor spark. What happens? No bright flash came out only a blue sparkk flowing from one end of a electrode to the other end. Any ideas ?

 

[stevez]

As Klaus suggests, you might find the energy requirements for the flashtube by searching. As for the ignitor - you can't get more energy out than you put in. If you estimated the pressure of your finger on the ignitor button as well as the distance until it snaps you can calculate the energy that you put into the spring - which is where the energy comes from to displace the piezo element. While you wouldn't know the efficiency you'd certainly know the most you'd ever get out of it. Not being funny but if you knew how much energy in one "snap" and you knew how much you needed you could determine how many depressions of the ignitor are required, assuming a capacitor of sufficient rating is found to store the accumulated energy.

 

[kevinloh]

Stevez you're wrong, I did not use the piezo spring type element for lighters, I was using electricity from the mains to ignite the gas via the blue spark. Some people suggest that the electrical energy from there is sufficient to light up the tube

 

[stevez]

One of your questions was "how much power" and what I described is a way to crudely estimate the power you might get from the ignitor.