SpudFiles

I found flouroescent inverters for 5 bucks at this wesite. To find it goggle micro tesla coil.You can power these things with 5 volts and get a ccontinous spark! should be a better and safer alternative to stun guns especially for people who arent in a legal spot for stun guns ill try it out soon! what do you guys think?

i think its frigging awesome. great find.

Lol, I've known about these for a while but 2 and 2 never went together. Those things are basically tiny tesla coils. Great idea though!

The Amzing Science website has more info, http://amasci.com/tesla/microtc.html

You can also get the inverters from All Electonics for $6.80 each.
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/i ... AMPS_.html
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/i ... AMPS_.html

Reading through the customers comments says these inverters tend to fry themselves when not connected to a CCFT (cold cathode flourescent tube) or if the input voltage is above ~5V. You need to keep the voltage down and a suitable spark gap must always be present when the circuit is powered, otherwise you'll have a ~$5 paper weight.

The AmSci site gives some tips on repairing fried inverters.

jimmy i love all electronics

and now to think of it i have one of these and i never thought of using it, hmm

sandman ... me too.

I've got one I salvaged out of an old flatbed scanner. The light source in the scanner is a CCFT tube and the tube and inverter still work when hooked up to a 9V battery.

Haven't tried to get it to spark since I'm afraid I'll kill the inverter running it without the CCFT load.

Thespeedycicada, or if anyone else tries this, please post details of what you did/do. How big a spark? What voltage power supply? Did you kill it? Any sparking on the circuit board? If so where?

These inverters would be great if they work. Legal everywhere in the world. Widely available. Can be salvaged very easily from old scanners. Cheaper than a stungun, and you are less likely to get ripped off since they are sold by reputable parts suppliers.

spark size little more than 1/8 inch,it arcs internaly(just like the guy said) if you put abpve 5 volts thus killing it.Idrew a picture in some chocolate with the arc. also the internal arc is in the trans former but only if you make the voltage to high.