Cattle Prods

[mongo blongo]

Hi all!
I have just tried out the cowprod method from the FTP and it kicks ass! For those who don't know, it involves using the inner parts of a disposable camera. I made some modifications to the method, nothing big, just added some different safety and charging switches and removed some parts that didn't need to be there.
I tried it on some Al foil and it bade a small bang with a blue flash with some sparks and also melted two holes in the foil! I was impressed!
After messing around with it for a while, the wires I was using were burned out!
As I was trying to repair the damage, I was charging it up and I accidently hit the momentary safety switch shocked myself! The capaisitor was only about half charged up, but it fucking hurt! It felt like all the molecules in my arms were vibrating really fast for a split second. I would NOT like to experience this when it was fully charged!
Try this out, It's cool! (not getting shocked I mean) :) But it's a good laugh for a few bucks.

While on the subject, most of/all you know what a Van der graph (sp?) generator is right? I was thinking, If you were to get a small one (like the ones in phsysics class) and hook the dome and the leaver with the discharging ball to some contacts at the end of a long stick. Have the VDG on some kind of back pack module and run it of a lawn mower engine! :eek:
I have seen these things give a spark over a 5cm gap from about 10 or 20 SLOW manual turns. From a lawn mower engine, this would be fucking insane!
I haven't given much thought to this and would be too scared to try it out (could get bolts of lightning discharging into my face!) but I would like to know your thoughts on this one.

On a related subject I was impressed at A-Bomb's induction coils (video on the FTP)! Have you got any plans for them by the way?

[ALENGOSVIG1]

i got a whole box of old disposable cameras from costco. if you think 1 capacitor fully charged is impressive then add 3 or 4 more camera capacitors and use 2 D batteries to charge it.

[mongo blongo]

Cool idea! Would they be wired up in series or parallel? I think parallel right? (I'm crap at electronics). :)

[ 26 February 2002: Message edited by: Mongo Blongo ]

[Ctrl_C]

fyi, most disposable camera caps are 330v 1 micro Farrad.

Also, shorting out an 8 Farrad cap (car stereo cap) is awesome. sounds like crazy arcing electricity going WAAAAP!. welds the screwdriver to the leads too.

[ 26 February 2002: Message edited by: ctrl_c ]

[A-BOMB]

If you think a car stero cap is cool, wait till you see this cap I got out of a bigass projection TV its a 8,000uf 192 volts its melts a friggin hole through a nickel.

[PYRO500]

those caps from camera flashes are usually around 150 uf at 330-350V that is about 8.1 J (joules) now that is a pretty good punch in that size, I think the car audio caps are around 600 J but they are slower to discharge than regular caps. and the projection tv cap is about 149 J now these all pack a pretty good punch, but my magneto charged blasting machine is 100 J at 100 V and I have a desktop cap bank of two huge electorlytic caps that are a combined energy of 2.11 KJ! that is 2110 J at 525V! I stumped the physics teacher by shooting aluminum disks with it, this thing is haxardous to discharge it sounds like a shotgun, will utterly explode little pieces of aluminum foil I think I can detonate NM with it, I have to experiment, I think it is around the power of 7 1/2 defibulators and if you ever touch it it will happily blow little chunks of flesh from your bone! when I trigger this it explodes a bit off the copper house wiring I am using (big 220V oven wire)and it shoots liquid green vaporized copper balls all over, I almost had a fire beacuse of this, I am looking for a big scr to switch this, now I am working on a big switch that slams shut, I can take al foil and bunch it up and put it on the coil attached to this and when I touch the leads I get a loud pop like an explosion and the lump of AL foil will smack against my cieling!

[DBSP]

I better source of power for a small blasting machine would be an external foto flash. I've got one and it's a lot more powerful than the ordinary built-in camera flash.

This I understand isn't very powerful compared to etc PYROs blasting machine. But it more simple and easy to find than PYROs.

I got a question. How exactly do you trigger and charge a cap. Does anyone have schematics.

I tried downloading the cowprod file from the ftp but I got an error message when I tried opening it. I found it in recent. Has enyone else had problems opening it?

I'm very interested in getting myself a blasting box. I've got some caps so all I need schematics to see what else I need. You se I'm fucking tired off draging around heavy carbatteries

[DaRkDwArF]

Where abouts in the ftp is the file? I can't find it under IW...

[DBSP]

The cowprod file is located in recent. And if you had read the last post you wouldn't have had to ask!

[xoo1246]

If you want to keep it simple, hook your wires up to where the flash lamp used to be.

[xoo1246]

You charge you capacitor through a resitor and you might have to use a transformator to get higher voltage. If the voltage isn't too hight you could use switch or you a transistor. Otherwise use a tyristor.

[Madog555]

i gotta have one of these

im getting a camera tomarrow

soon im gona have a new destructive toy to play with :D

[mongo blongo]

They can be a pain in the ass though. The contacts keep on melting so I have to change the wires quite often. :mad:
Good fun though. ;)

[Madog555]

im gona just take a new camera and take it apart. im not gona wast my time with takeing all the pictures.

[ 04 March 2002: Message edited by: Madog ]

[Prodigy45]

Well, i've been trying to do this for a couple days, and here's my results:

Saturday:

I read a file about shock guns and how to make them out of disposable cameras. Simple enough. So i go to a local camera store (non name brand one) and ask the guy for a disposable camera without film for a "school project" (zapping people at school <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ). He runs into the back, and comes out with this black one. I got all excited and went home and opened it up. I couldn't get the flash to work but i thought, hey, if i put more volts into it (a 6 volt industrial battery) it would work. I looked for a battery and found what looked like one. After 30 mins of trying i found out that the little bastard had taken out the batteries and i had wasted that disposable camera... oh well...

Sunday: I went to london drugs and asked the same thing. This time i got 3 cameras. 1 was a "Kodak advantix switchable flash camera" , another a "Kodak Max HQ" and the third one didn't have a flash. I opened up the advantix camera (quite difficult to open without breaking it) and had a look insite. I found the place where you touch the button on the outside to charge up the flash. Thinking my screwdriver was insulated, i pressed it with my metal screwdriver (plastic handle). Nothing happened. I pressed it a couple more times then ZAP! Both my arms felt like when you hit your funny bone. I dropped the camera and was stunned for a min or so. No permanent damage cept for some shaky arms. I picked it up and noticed the yellow LED was on, and i didn't want to try touching it again. I put it on the floor, facing up and threw my screwdriver on it. The flash it made was so bright it blinded me for about 20 seconds. That had shorted out all the circuts on the board... Oops :p

I decided to try the 2nd camera. I opened it up and it works all fine now. I have to take out the flash and get some solder and solder some wires to where the flash used to be. I'll probably do that today (monday) and i'll tell you my results.

[mongo blongo]

I just had an idea for these camera modules. They could be changed to work as short time delay ignition systems for grenades.

Take the LED out (the one that flashes when the capacitor is fully charged) and attach a small relay switch from the contacts to the relay coil (probably have to use a small voltage transistor for this instead).
Attach the wires from the capacitor to an electrical ignitor. In this firing circuit, make a break which is connected to the output contacts on the relay.

So now, when you connect the battery (or have a slide switch to connect it) the capacitor starts to charge. When it if fully charged it will activate the relay coil and close the firing circuit which in turn fires a detonator.

You can change the time delay by using a smaller or larger battery (smaller takes longer to charge the capacitor and larger would be quicker). Or use a resistor on the battery.
You could also (more work) use a variable resistor and calibrate it so you can choose the time delay by turning the knob on the variable resistor.

So what do you think of this idea? Can anyone think of any improvements on this?
I would like to know your thoughts on this.

[mongo blongo]

Prodigy45- Connect the wires DIRECTLY to the capacitor. On mine there is a resistor before the flash bulb. I don't know if there is one on yours but better safe than sorry. :)

[J]

Just a small tip: when you open up anything electrical that generates voltages of greater than around 50v, short out any caps with an insulated screwdriver. Getting shocked by one of these isn't too bad, but bigger caps are very unforgiving.

I'd never want to rely on one of these circuits as a timer for explosives. If nothing else was available, it could work, but I'd always use a secondary (pyrotechnic) fuse to give me a safety margin.

[Prodigy45]

I found a zip file for a cattle prod on the ftp. I've done all of it and hooked up all the wires. Im just trying to charge the capacitor right now but it's not working. Im going to try some more things before i switch the capacitor.

[Prodigy45]

Ok, i got it to Work! Damn im excited. I was touching the leads to the wrong side ( instead of plus to plus, minus to minus, i was putting them minus to plus etc).

I took the fully charged capacitor (in a film container wrapped with duct tape) and dropped it on a quarter. It made a nice little spark which is all i really want, not too much but not too little. If anyone has questions ask away

[Prodigy45]

well, 5 hours later and 2 more disposable cameras later im still stumped. The zap gun i got working died after 2 or 3 zaps on a coin. I couldn't find out what happened, so i took it all apart. I figured i blew the capacitor so i took the duct tape off it and put it on the floor. Well i bumped my screwdriver into it and it made a huge crack and now i have 2 small holes on my screwdriver. I bought an insulated screwdriver and 2 more free disposable cameras. I took apart the first one and was holding the capacitor when i felt a prick on my finger then my arms went numb again, i had shocked myself :( (not having too much luck on this am i?). Anyway, i dropped the circutboard on my screwdriver and it went pop. Now that was a dud i trashed it and opened the next camera. Everything was fine until i tried to take the capacitor off. It went pop when i accidently touched the 2 legs together.

My observation is to make a working model, you CANNOT let the 2 legs touch together. That renders the capacitor useless... More to come when i find more cameras.

[mongo blongo]

Dude! .. you sound like you are having the same problem as me! (look at my post above).The capacitor is not the problem. It's the wires! They keep on melting and create this black shit which acts as an insulator on the contacts!
This is why when you remove the capacitor it will still make a spark (no problem with the capacitor).
Don't take the capacitor off (as in the PDF file)! Just attach some wires to the legs of it!
You will have to replace the wires every now and again ( yes, a pain in the ass!) but I can't see any other way around it sorry! :(
They are cool though! :)
Good luck! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[BaDSeeD]

These two need to post before and after pictures so we can see the change in their hair after repetedly frying themselves..lol

[Prodigy45]

Sadly i don't have a digital camera so i can't really take pics.

Badseed: I went to radioshack yesterday and bought 10 alligator clips. I think i'll try using those and they shouldn't melt.

<small>[ March 19, 2002, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Prodigy45 ]</small>

[J]

I don't like flaming people for lack of knowledge, but for fucks sake, what do you think?

Please do at least some searching on the net before posting here. You should be able to at least apply logic; the capacitor stores the charge at a high voltage, so of course you connect leads to it if you want to shock people with it!

[Anthony]

Seriously man, how many more cameras is it going to take? At least it's funny hearing about you constantly shocking yourself:)

Use some bolts (M4+) for electrodes, they stand up well to repeat discharges.

[PYRO500]

The capacitors in camera flash circuits are usually around 330V max, they normally charge up to ~300V in circuit, the black stuff you refer to is probably oxidized coating of the metal, and beware these capacitors can be lethal, avoid a shock at all costs, they can kill you. I beleve they are around 8 J 20J being threshhold deadly, my home capacitor bank witch is 2100J can repell an aluminum disk from a coil of wire fast enough to really smack my cieling hard and knock off the popcorn (ugly white bumps)

[Shiper]

can you please post the plan for the cowprod??
i'm interested................

[J]

It's on the FTP, learn to read properly.

[electric emu]

i made one of those zappers and it sounds about the sames as every one elses here but it seems fine and ive zapped many people, including me, also when i touched my sink to discharge it, it left a nice little dent and it burnt me when i got shocked. i think my camera was a fuji

<small>[ May 09, 2002, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: electric emu ]</small>

[Tcell]

I've personally made two different models of this tazer... One is just the standard tazer except I upped the voltage to 9 VDC(a nine volt battery fits almost perfectly into the film compartment on a Le Clic camera) with the flash left on as an alternative to carrying many flash bombs. The object with this one was to keep it looking as much like a camera as possible. The flash is operated independently of the tazer part (tazer just discharges the capacitor through wires, flash discharges it through the flash tube).

My second tazer is my experimental one, which looks NOTHING like a camera... so far it has the flash removed, the tazer leads connected to the flash capacitator on one side and wood screws on the other to keep it from melting, a headphone jack connected to where the flash used to be, so that leads for an electrical detonator can be plugged in (they are soldered onto the male part of the headphone jack), and am working on adding a way to add a CO2 cylinder to shoot around 10' leads out of the front with enough force to stab through heavy clothing -- possibly using fishhooks so that it will stick.

____________________

Maj. Tcell
Cyberarmy VB C:O:D:E:R:S C/O
<a href="http://www.vbcoders.vze.com" target="_blank">www.vbcoders.vze.com</a>
____________________

[mongo blongo]

The second one sounds cool! You might need a quite a few capacitors to put someone on their ass though. You could use some induction coils.

[McGuyver]

A larger spark could be made by hooking the two wires from the capacitor up to a magneto (from a small gas engine), or a starter coil(the ones found in cars). The magneto or starter coil should make a decent-sized (long) spark. The spark will be much like that of a grill ignitor but, probably longer and more powerful. I built a stun gun like this. My stun gun uses two C batteries and that gets transformed up to about 600-700 VDC by a homemade transformer and capacitors, and that gets pumped into 2 magnetos. That makes about 105,000 volts(10.5 cm arc length). The magnetos are glued bottom to bottom to concentrate magnetitism and that increases curret.