Right i've wired up the Piezo starter.. It sparks fine..

I put in the potato *grin* and did a 2 second spray of deodorant and put on the end cap.. Clicked the piezo but no joy, Any ideas?

Something i can do to make it work? Too much deodorant? Not strong enough spark?


Just toy with the amount ...

Right i've wired up the Piezo starter.. It sparks fine..

I put in the potato *grin* and did a 2 second spray of deodorant and put on the end cap.. Clicked the piezo but no joy, Any ideas?

Something i can do to make it work? Too much deodorant? Not strong enough spark?

I also live in a country where self-defense is illegal, but you don't need to worry about getting a stungun from BCARMS to New Zealand, as he removes the case and ships the bare circuit, without a battery, as a voltage regulator. Technically, it's not illegal to bring the bare circuit through ...

That third wire would either go in between the gap of the capacitor leads to act as a trigitron of sorts, or act as the spark itself by placing it near the ground.

I've never really tested this setup, but some dude got it working on a website I read.


And yes, even the small spark from the piezo ...

No need to use a capacitor, just hook up the two points of the piezo to your bolts.

The Piezo i had was a very weak spark.. is that all i need?

Your problem is simply that the caps don't have enough voltage behind them. They only have about 300V or so- not nearly enough to jump a gap.

You'd ...

No need to modify the piezo at all, just hook up the wire to one of your bolts and the cap to the other bolt and it works perfectly as a simple maintenance free ignition system.

*clicky BOOM !* , easy ;)

Sweet, So.. What about charging the cap? As im not too smart on all the electronics you see ...

Perhaps you could reconnect the flash bulb and see if that works, just to confirm that you haven't damaged the circuit?

To be honest capacitor-based sparkers aren't really my thing, I prefer piezo ignitors - cheap, easy and mostly issue free ;)

Do you modify your piezo before you use it? Because ...

Hmmm, it should be working. Is there anywhere along the circuit where the wires are close enough to spark before it reaches the bolts? Perhaps you could separate the wires, sometimes the spark will jump through thin insulation.

Only on the PCB, Is there any way to test? Because when i moved the ...

Easy, your bolts are far too close together. You need around 3-5mm of separation in order to give the spark enough gap to "jump" over.

How many volts should it be for it to jump? As when i had bare wires and held them apart nothing happened until they where just about touching :(

Ill try moving ...

Hi guys,

Ive done some reading, I have built myself a spud gun, Its all set and ready to let rip.. But the ignition system doesn't always spark, I have taken apart 2 camera and used the capacitor from one and soldered it onto the other PCB.

Ive grinded down two bolts to make the weakest point ...