Is that stungun really dead?

[jimmy101]

The cheapo stungun most of us use are really not very well made. (What do you expect for ~$10?)

Folks have posted that their stunguns quite working after a while. Mine recently "quite working".

Still makes the ticking sound and the faint high pitched whine. No spark between the probes. A new battery didn't make any difference.

I suspect that a lot of "dead" stunguns have just developed internal arcs. That is, they have found a pair of electrical points within the gun, that are at high voltage, and closer together than the default/safety gap spacing.

On my "100,000 volt" stungun the default gap is ~0.75". Apparently the gun has found a shorter path somewhere internally.

Turns out this really does not affect the performance of the gun all that much. If you use a conductor (like a well insulated length of wire) and shorten the default, or working, gap then the stungun will work again. Since a typical spudgun, even with a couple spark gaps, probably has a total spark distance much less than the default gap the stungun should still work as an ignition source.

So, if the gun still makes the clicking sound, but doesn't produce sparks across it's electrodes, there is a good chance that it'll still work on a spudgun. Just shorten up the gun's gap(s) until you get a spark.

BTW, anybody ever get a "100,000 K Volt Muscleman" stungun apart? (No screws except one that holds the belt clip.)

[iPaintball]

I have, but i broke the case while prying it apart.

[jimmy101]

iPaintball, does the circuit still work? If not it can probably be fixed, unless you had to resort to a sledge hammer to get the case open. Take a picture or scan it. Images of the guts of another stungun would be very helpful.

Was the case glued shut or did it just have those very annoying ridges and clips that held it closed like TV remotes, calculators etc have? (I think my "100,000" is glued, it even appears to have a bit of glue squeeze out along the seam.)

Put it in a Radioshack project box and you're back in buisiness! Add a power light, a way-cool safety switch, a warning label ...

Heck, in a new box it is probably legal pretty much everywhere in the world. You could even take it onto the campus of an American school. (Try that with a stungun.)

[Marco321]

Touch both electrodes, if you get shocked it works, if not its broken..... Na don't do that lol, unless you have HUGE balls of steel.

The wining sound i believe is the gun charging up or something. My camera flash circuit makes a wining noise when it is charging up.

If it is broken i may suggest making an induction coil, they are easy to make, simple which means they can be easily fixed, relatively cheap and produce an almost constant high voltage spark.

[iPaintball]

Put it in a Radioshack project box and you're back in buisiness! Add a power light, a way-cool safety switch, a warning label ...

Haha, I just did that exact thing with my 200k stungun. It has a key switch as a saftey and a big red button to fire. Didn't get a warning label yet though, my printer's broken.

[paaiyan]

Touch both electrodes, if you get shocked it works, if not its broken..... Na don't do that lol, unless you have HUGE balls of steel.

The wining sound i believe is the gun charging up or something. My camera flash circuit makes a wining noise when it is charging up.

If it is broken i may suggest making an induction coil, they are easy to make, simple which means they can be easily fixed, relatively cheap and produce an almost constant high voltage spark.

Sweet! I must have balls of steel then, cause I took a tazer willingly, and it didn't take me down.

[Marco321]

Touch both electrodes, if you get shocked it works, if not its broken..... Na don't do that lol, unless you have HUGE balls of steel.

The wining sound i believe is the gun charging up or something. My camera flash circuit makes a wining noise when it is charging up.

If it is broken i may suggest making an induction coil, they are easy to make, simple which means they can be easily fixed, relatively cheap and produce an almost constant high voltage spark.

Sweet! I must have balls of steel then, cause I took a tazer willingly, and it didn't take me down.

lol

I only have ever taken a camera flash from arm to arm across my chest, was painful.

[paaiyan]

Yea, this was from a citizens police class I took part in. Basically just to learn better how the police work. I have a greater amount of respect for those guys now. But the tazer was optional. I took it just standing there once and asked the guy if he would do it again so i coudl see if I could pull them off. He wouldn't let me though, lol.

[iPaintball]

Yeah, stunguns don't really hurt that much, especially if your used to electric shocks.

[Blackett]

actually, i found that a flyback circuit hurts a hell of a lot more. certainly teach me to insulate my wires.

[Tom]

yah. flybacks tend to hurt/burn.