SpudFiles

I was thinking I might try using my dogs training shock collar to "remote fire" my spud gun for testing. Has anyone ever tried this?

The main thing you should be careful with is something else setting it off at the wrong time.

I think that it is a good idea, but i am not sure if it has enough corrent, voltage to take the electric arc....



RJB INDUSTRIES

These collars are pretty safe from interference, but they only put out a few hundred volts. If you set up something similar to what Hotwired's sticky outlines, with the shock collar instead of the camera, and a bridge rectifier connected to the collar, then I'd imagine it would work.

It'll probably work; nice ready-made solution too. You'll almost certainly have enough voltage* in one of those things to make a decent arc (what is the dielectric breakdown voltage of dog hair??), and the current won't be an issue. Even a stungun with a mostly dead battery will set off a fuel/air mix, and dog collars hurt way more than that.
I tend to be wary of wireless ignition for the reason jsr pointed out. There's just so much RF noise in the world today, you need to be extra careful about standard safety practices when the system is armed. You could try an infra-red sensor (aka tv/remote) if this is a concern.

*citation needed, I know. I don't have one to test, but only a few hundred volts seems like it would not be very effective.

Id say if u build your cannon so brittle, that u dont wanna stand near it when it goes off... ..

get a familymember to do it

Ha ha Natas thats a great idea! I think I just get a little paranoid from reading about how this can fail how that can fail. Just trying to be as safe as possible so I don't end up missing fingers or anything LOL!

Fnord, I've tested one, and it peaked at 5-600 volts. They're effective becuse the probes are always in contact with the dogs neck. Maybe a fully charged big dog collar would get over a kilovolt, but even that may not be effective.

Ah, I stand corrected then.
It might be possible to remove the existing HV circuit in the collar and replace it with a more suitable igniter, depending entirely on the layout of course.
Not as ready-made, but still easier than a voltage multiplier if you're new and limited on knowledge and materials.

You could make something like this for less than ~$30USD.

MrCrowley wrote:You could make something like this for less than ~$30USD.

...or just build a decent cannon and not worry about it blowing up in your face, in the same way we trust car tyres and fire extinguishers not to explode spontaneously, and are fine with the hundreds of psi in our fridges

Pfft... like I really made that remote setup to suppress my fears of catastrophic failure and not to impress my friends with

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaay mates, check thyeeeees ewwwwt!"

*click*

*click*

*click*

"Why isn't it..."

*puts down beer can marked XXXX and looks down muzzle*

Sorry to disappoint you Jack but, I test fired yesterday by just pulling the trigger and have no damage to myself !

That was meant as a pop at MrC

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