CRT monitor scavenging

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

We're throwing out a couple of CRT monitors at work, any parts I should scavenge that will help me put together a decent ignition source? Capacitors/transformers/scrotchetblings, it's all mandarin to me

In a nutshell, I'm not happy with the 17x maximum mix I can ignite with a piezo, MOAR potential for EPIC FAIL POWAH!!!!!!

edit: I've arrowed the things I think might be of interest... should I also have arrowed the entity on the top left corner of the board? (flyback transformer?) Looks a bit bulky though, I'd rather have something which fits in a pistol grip, I'm not necessarily looking for a continuous spark.

[jrrdw]

Yes, save all the flyback transformers, capacitors, MOSFET's, 555 timers (IC's), heat sinks and poinometers (adjustable switch's). Do the monitors work?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Do the monitors work?

Not anymore

[Hotwired]

Yeah that's the flyback and that's why I dumped the one I salvaged from a large TV.

Weighed about half a kilo

Also the windings are usually a menace, not just 3 or 4 terminals but maybe 12 and unlike some versions shown on the interweb you can't usually strip off the primary coils to get rid of some of that garbage.

Makes finding out which are best for inputs and outputs interesting and afterwards you can have arcing between the closely spaced terminals.

Anyway I couldn't be bothered with it after the usual sessions of seeing how large a spark I could get out.

For small high ratio transformers suitable for making ignition sparks you want to be looking at miniature ignition coils and coils used in battery powered sparking wossits used for gas stove/boiler ignition.

[jrrdw]

Do the monitors work?

Not anymore

I'll rephrase that just for you JSR. DID they work?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I'll rephrase that just for you JSR. DID they work?

Not sure about computer interface but when attached to a power supply they could be switched on.

Attached a picture of the other circuit board. So, there's nothing from here I can use for a compact ignition system that would say fit into a large pistol grip and be powered by a 9 volt battery?

[ilovefire]

why dont you inquire about this
http://www.ec21.com/product-details/9V- ... 28954.html
not sure if they have a minimum order or not but iv go a couple and thats what i managed to get the 27x ignition with, pretty much has a spark like a taser but you shouldnt have any truble importing it

[jrrdw]

Looks like you have the makings of a CDI.

Edit: If you can build your own coil to fit in the handle...Needing a coil slipped my mind when I 1st posted this reply.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

not sure if they have a minimum order

500 units

So, is it just the flyback in the CRT that is useful for ignition?

Maybe I should just buy a disposable camera...

Looks like you have the makings of a CDI.

Isn't that how camera flash ignitors work, battery charges capacitor through transformer which then discharges through spark gap?

[jrrdw]

You beat me to my edit. Yea, that's the basic idea.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Does the capacitor have to discharge through a transformer though? I wouldn't think a 400V capacitor would be able to make the spark arc across a gap, right?

If it was just a question of discharging the capacitor, why not have the capacitor only on board, with an external charger?

[jrrdw]

Try this page. I'm just learning this stuff myself. This is/looks like another good page. Here is a schematic for a fly back driver circuit if you want it.

[Hotwired]

No no no.

CDI and in fact how a stun gun works is to:

1) Bump up battery voltage to a few hundred volts

2) Charge a capacitor with the increased voltage

3) Discharge the capacitor through a high ratio coil


CDI does this all solid state but in a basic stun gun what happens is the capacitor is charged to X hundred volts using the charging circuit.

Then it discharges through the ignition coil by jumping a very small gap, generally between two crossed metal strips separated by a thin insulator, less than 1mm gap.

Anyway that discharge completes one side of the high ratio transformer and results in the stepped up voltage (x100 maybe) on the other side.


I make these clips and no one looks at them

[youtube][/youtube]

That shows all the stages I just described.

Ignore the big numbers, just there for getting attention. More like 25k.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I make these clips and no one looks at them

Over 20,500 people did, better than the views all my hard work gets though in all fairness to youtube, I don't go out of my way to promote it, basically it's just hosting.

Anyways, back on topic - are there any high ratio transformers in my CRT boards?

[Hotwired]

Yes the flyback is. Does a good few tens of thousand volts in normal use.