how to make a safe capacitor bank for a newbie emp hobbyist?

Question

i want to know how to "fire" the cap bank into a emp coil without the voltage returning to my switch. I have the coil, the 3 500 volt caps and a hv switch. What i am asking is

1) Is there some kind of one way diode i can use?
2) is a standrd rado shaq project box ok to put the cap bank in
3) any tips on making sure it fires away from me not at me (out front of barrel not the back)

Answer 1

The capacitor bank is essentially unsafe by nature. Do not assume that you can make it safe. 500 V is high enough to be dangerous and potentially fatal!!

As the other answer states, a diode is already one way, but this does not help you "fire" the bank. Is your bank of 3 capacitors wired in series or parallel? I believe what you are doing is trying to short the capacitors through a coil so that the resulting magnetic field in the coil can crush cans or cause other magnetic effects. You are asking if the high voltage can be prevented from going to your switch. One way to fire this without exposing a switch to the high voltages, is to use a high voltage/current transistor to switch the current from the capacitors through the load so that your switch is at a low voltage driving the transistor's base or gate. In a past life I used to design laser pulsers that used IGBTs to switch 300 Amps through laser diodes from banks of capacitors charged to 600V or more. These were mounted within a chassis and the whole operation of the device used keyswitches and interlocks to ensure that accidental turn-on did not occur. See the link below for the IGBTs I used. I have also attached a link to some general high voltage info.

Please be careful if you do continue to experiment with high voltage! Keep in mind that the wire itself can melt and explode from the high current that may travel through it so that you should be ready to put out fires, wear safety glasses, and be far away from the actual circuitry when setting it off.

Answer 2

Diodes are one way, you want one that can handle the voltage and current you are using. I do not know if Radio Shack has a box for this project. And your EMP is going to be an isotropic waveform, thus moving out in all directions unless you add the necessary elements to shape the wave.

And where do you plan on employing your EMP gun? Have you taken the precautions to make sure you do not destroy electronic equipment in your test area? Personally from your questions I am not sure you have sufficient knowledge to build this without out hurting yourself. Be careful!