So, I'm working on a small project that requires me to make a small stinger or shock device. Originally I thought of a little shock device, so I pulled apart one of those little joke shocking lighters but man does it ever look sketchy. So I'm not sure if that's such a good idea.
Then I thought instead maybe I could make a little sting device. Kind of like a little motor that flicks you with something or pinches you.
So here's my two questions:
Is the little device in the joke lighter a bad idea?
Do you have any suggestions on how I could go about making a little pinch or flick device? I thought maybe a servo, but I'm new to using motors, so any suggestions would be welcomed.
BTW for some context...I'm hooking this up to a game, so its operating in the same way a rumble controller works. Something happens in game, and you get some real world feedback.
Why not use a tiny vibrating motor? I have a wrist watch that has an hourly chime, there has been a few times when I reached into something at the top of the hour and I thought I grabbed a live wire. I now have it off These would be easy to use, and you wouldn't have to electrocute anyone or make anyone bleed.
I wasn't sure if they would give a good sting or if it would just be like an iPhone vibrate notification. Because true, I don't want to electrocute anyone, but they need to feel uncomfortably stung.
We used to use a 1.5 volt battery through a scavanged speaker transformer.
Put them in a box covered with tin foil so the top is insulated from the bottom/sides. Wire it up so the output wires of the transformer are connected to the different sections of tin foil, and one end of the battery is connected to one side of the transformer input. Wire up the other transformer input wire so that it scrapes the other side of the battery when the lid is opened. Each time it "bounces" you get another shock.
This would be easy to do with an arduino. You'd have to wire the transformer inputs through a mosfet or power transistor of some type, but you could trigger the pulses any way you wanted.
Edit: Thanks for the 1.5v battery idea. Didn't see that reply until after this got posted.
Y'know I think I'm asking the wrong questions...
So I have this below device, its pulled out of a joke shock lighter from a gag store. I think it runs on about 3 volts (there were 3 tiny coin cell batteries in it). Because I'm new at working with something like a shocker / stinger here are my questions:
what is the large black item?
how could I work this into a circuit that wouldn't accidentally fry my arduino but still gets a signal from a pin
I am guessing this small device is sort of safe, as its in a joke device (even though it looks sketchy), but what could i add to it to make sure it doesn't actually hurt anyone (just goes about making its little zaps).
Sorry for the back and forth on this. But y'know, learning curve.
I would imagine the simplest approach is to use an optocoupler or relay, replacing the button. An optocoupler provides electronic isolation for the Arduino. Inside of the optocoupler is an LED on one side, and a photo resistor opposite from it. When the Arduino turns the LED, the photo resistor completes its side of the circuit, and current flows through it. Optocouplers are meant for small direct current voltages. If you want to handle larger currents, you would use a relay instead. The relays I've bought in the past were mechanical relays, in that a magnet was used to move a switch from the NC (normally closed) to the NO (normally open) switch, and you could hear a loud click. I believe their are now purely electronic relays.
For example, this guide shows how to wire up an optocoupler: Optocoupler. You use a resistor to protect the LED in the optocoupler, just like you would use a resistor on a normal LED.
The large black item looks like a transformer. Or shock coil. It would be fun to hook up an oscilloscope and pulse the thing, and measure the current and voltage spikes.
I expect the 3 coin cell batteries are 1.5 volts each. 4.5 volts would easily run off the same power supply of an Arduino or standalone ATtiny85 board.
I think the shock coil is an inductive load, so make sure to diode protect it for back emf. You could use a relay, or a power transistor might handle the load.
