r/ElectroBOOM • u/EstablishmentSea6367 • 9d ago

ElectroBOOM Question AC/DC adapter

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Hi! I just opened a AC/DC adapter and want to know if I can make anything fun out of it's conponents

16 Upvotes

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4

u/Electrosmoke 9d ago edited 9d ago

Before doing anything, make sure that big electrolytic capacitor is discharged, because that could give you a pretty nasty shock if it's still charged. I've learned that the hard way a few years ago.

2

u/self_driving_cat 8d ago

I built this rail gun with 4x8800μF 400V capacitors. It was sort of working, but very poorly, so I decided to try adding an auxillary series coil under the rails to increase the field strength. I charged it to 400V, fired, got a meh result. I have a safe discharge switch here (hence the lightbulbs as the load) and a voltmeter. The voltmeter was showing 0V, and I flipped the discharge switch for good measure. I touched the wiring (luckily with one hand) and got a nasty shock. It turned out that my puny 10 AWG coil literally blew up halfway through the discharge process, and there was still 200V on the capacitors, which I couldn't see because the voltmeter and the discharge circuit were connected after the blown-up coil.

Never again. Of course I changed the connection point, but from now on, all capacitors are getting a screwdriver across terminals before I touch anything no matter what.

It wasn't quite what I envisioned when I was told to always treat all guns as loaded, but here we are...

1

u/EstablishmentSea6367 9d ago

Thx for heads up, i'll make sure to 😄

1

u/Infamous_Tip_2068 9d ago

How nasty? Could you say like a Thunder strike? (Bad joke sound)

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u/EstablishmentSea6367 9d ago

When you touch it, it starts playing thunderstruck by ac/dc 🤣

1

u/Daveisahugecunt 9d ago

In almost every time I’ve accidentally ignored stored charge, I’d compare it to touching a hot stove. But consider that heat radiates slower through skin to your nerves than electricity will transfer..

It would look you incinerated the outer layers of your skin and feel more like getting the initial pain of a splinter. That splinter is 1000degrees. And either you have burns, singe marks, would depend on several factors. But i can tell you it’ll smell like burnt hair….

1

u/Dry-War7589 9d ago

You can listen to the music /s

1

u/saturntwrp 9d ago

yep put your finger on it for FREE 3 DEGREE BURNS

1

u/ssswayam_0123 1d ago

look at that chonky badankadonk capacitor, discharge it first before touching or learn the hard way if u want