Fuckin' magic water man...

No i mean the circuit



That’s a pretty good one (although I wouldn’t bother with the LEDs).

Then just attach that to your glass plate screens and smell the ozone.

I thought it was a simple 4 wire circuit. I dont have time to buy all those parts and build it right now.

Like everything these days, you have to multiply the input to get anything out of it.

James, have you actually made and tested this circuit in the past and checked the ozone output as it does not look likely to produce anything.

Of the many that I have made in the past (among many circuits for many things), I doubt that I ever used those exact components (although could be. They are very common). The LEDs aren’t circuited right for my taste, but those are irrelevant. Just do a simple “bug zapper circuit pictures” google and you can see a great many circuits. That one assumes an AC input and specifies the simple component values.

It is a typical voltage multiplier. Why do you think that it would not accomplish anything?

With the cycling of input voltage, the diodes cause the capacitors to charge in stages and in series (known as a “voltage pump”). The voltage builds up with the number of capacitors. Tazors are designed the same way and can get to around 20,000 volts.

And yes, I have made a variety of ozone generators, ozone separators, and ozone-oxygen concentraters … and tasors.


In that circuit, a (very common) 555 timer-oscillator is used to convert a battery input to an AC source just before using the same kind of multiplier to forge a 20kv tasor.

The transformer in the Stun Gun circuit wouldn’t produce enough voltage to get 20kV at the end of the voltage multiplier and, even if it did, those 400V capacitors would blow up along with the 1N4007 diodes.


The transformer is being driven by a square wave generator so its potential voltage gain is considerable (usually around 10kH for these type devices). The total output is divided across the components. Each capacitor and diode only holds its own 400v charge. And I suspect that he meant 2000v rather than 20kv or possibly meant 4kv capacitors, but then the 1N4007 is only a 1kv diode. I am not familiar with a “1K:8R” transformer designation.

For sake of discussion, let’s label the capacitors and diodes:
) From the Left TOP, the capacitors are T1, 2, 3, and 4
) From the Left BOTTOM, the capacitors are B1, 2, 3 and 4
) From the Left, the diodes are D1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8

As the 555 timer times out, it switches on/off, giving a pulse to the primary on the transformer. The secondary then yields around a 400v spike. Let’s say that our first spike passes through:
D1 to T1, leaving T1 with a 400v charge (positive on the right)

The next spike, being reversed, will not be able to pass through D1 and thus will pass through:
T1, D2 to B1, leaving B1 with a 400v charge emptied from T1 (positive on the right). Note that the voltage from the bottom leg of the transformer and the positive side of T1 during this cycle is 800v; 400 from the first charge on T1 and another 400v from the transformer. That 800v is then distributed across T1 and B1, 400v each.

The next pulse, reversed again, passes through:
B1, D3 to T2, “pumping” the charge from B1 into T2, leaving T2 with 400v and 800v across [T1-T2].

The next pulse passes through:
T1, T2, B2, and B1, leaving B2 with 400v and 800v across [B1-B2]

The same process continues until there is 1600v across [B1-B2-B3-B4]. Then the next pulse adds to that 1600 and passes through the load or air-gap as 2000v - ZAP.

The same circuit can be built upon to get higher and higher voltage. There are other ways and circuits to produce stun guns at much higher voltages, but then a stun gun was not the goal. And I can tell you from personal experience that 2kv is plenty to knock you on your ass.

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I found this interesting discussion about that very circuit: 555 timer stun gun w/ Colin55, the designer (and geezzz… one would think that they were ILP members). Apparently he is specifying an audio transformer, expecting no higher than 20kH. But a square wave doesn’t care what you were expecting and they don’t seem to know the turns ratio.

After reading all of that, I suspect that he might really be getting his 20kv or close to it, but not reliably or safely for the components. Often small components will hold up much beyond their ratings, but usually not for long. Audio transformers usually don’t have a very high Q factor to allow for sharp spikes. Colin said that he was utilizing the high frequency drop-off of the square wave. That would certainly produce the higher voltage desired, but the impedance at such high frequencies would also be high and thus reduce performance, so perhaps not as much as could have been. In the long run, the 400v ratings are the limiting factors for a professional design.

I think it is safe to say that it wasn’t a “professional design” (although made a pretty picture).

Following the conservation of power principal (P=v^2/R) that audio transformer would only produce a 132 volt output which would subsequently produce about 600volts at the output of the voltage multiplier (approximately the same voltage magnitude as the bug zapper circuit).

So what voltage will you get out of this bug zapper circuit?

That would apply if he was running an audio signal … but he isn’t. The 1K:8R rating becomes a bit meaningless.

He is running a square wave generator into a transformer. That causes it to behave like an ignition coil (as he tried to explain during their tif). No telling what that 8 ohms actually looks like to a square wave, certainly not merely a linear 8 ohm resistor. So your “P = V^2/R” doesn’t really apply.

To calculate what would really happen requires knowing the L and Q of the transformer coils and the frequency being generated. The 8R is specifying an 8 ohm impedance value assuming an audio signal. So the actual DC resistance would typically measure about 6 ohms. The problem is that you don’t actually have a steady state situation except for very brief moments - the square wave. And he isn’t showing any capacitance across the power transistor, so no telling what he gets in the coil when the transistor shuts off.

From that, you could guess at the most energy/power entering the transformer per cycle (E = ½L*I²). But what comes out is a different story.

When you instantly drop the magnetic field surrounding an open circuited inductor, what voltage do you get? Well, you usually get a leaky inductor because the voltage will climb to the sky until it finds a way to leak. The voltage will keep climbing until something shorts out.

His first cycles when initially charging up the capacitors represents a time when the load on the secondary coil is low impedance, so the secondary coil is not going to produce its maximum voltage because it isn’t an open circuit … yet. After the capacitors have charged, they represent basically an open circuit against the transformer secondary.

So after the initial power voltage is achieved, the circuit begins building as high a voltage as possible considering the leaks (which value we don’t know). The objective in our case is to have that leak through the thin glass plate (definitely an “open circuit” scenario).

The zapper works by building a voltage that initiates the “zap”. Once the initial zap arcs, the power issues take over the scene and determine the voltage by how much current for how long things are going allow. If the system has been drained of power to the point that the arc cannot be sustained, the voltage quickly rises again until a new arc ignites.

With that one, you don’t really know what the output impedance of the wall outlet is for this kind of calculation, but you can assume that it is pretty damn low and controls its destiny pretty strongly. And in that case, having no transformer coils to worry about, you can merely count the capacitors that are across the output plus one. That number times the peak input voltage would give you the output voltage. In this case, 3 * 150 (if in the USA) = 450v (possibly 900v in Europe). And you can keep adding more and more capacitors and diodes to get whatever voltage you want at 150v per stage (until the air gap shorts). The voltage will keep climbing until something shorts out.

You are welcome to stick your tongue across it to test and see if it works.

So you now have an ozone generator with 450vdc just like a poorly designed flyback converter is supposed to function like a “stun gun” (the issue is: in its current design does it function according to the name given to it?).

In both cases, yes. And in both cases, they can certainly be conveniently improved upon. And in both cases, they are merely impromptu, “throw something together” devices for people who don’t have a lot to work with (as was requested).

So what is your real issue exactly?

[size=85]… hint: This is the part where you say, “Oh, nothing. I was just trying to clarify” as you squirm away.[/size]

James, I asked if you have built and tested the design (I have no need for squirming) and the answer is obviously no.

I stated that I have built many like it and they are all basically the same. Your claim was that the circuit would do nothing. Obviously it does do something and in fact does what it claims, although more stages would have been nicer (as always). Such staging devices are great for people who have very little yet want to accomplish something. Once they see it basically working, they can add stages, switches, lights, whatever.

UP1001 asked for something that worked and on a low budget. My suggestion, besides a can of Lysol, was to just get a [ready-made] bug zapper and glass plates. To build one, just use a common circuit with a multiplier that you can add onto.

My suggestion hasn’t changed.

Okay, if you insist.

Well, next time you want to infer that someone is a liar, you might want to get your facts a little more straight first. Afterwards is One Liner too late.

Well it sounds like you are very knowledgable in electronics James, I wouldn’t want to harm your reputation.

Actually digital was my specialty … back in the 80’s.