how do i charge this capacitor?

Question

I have this 200 v 470 uF capacitor, I tried hooknig it up to a wall outlet, it charged it a little but sparked and blew the breaker. I was wondering if I need a resistor or soemthing

also I tried charging another identical capacitor with it, it sparked LOUD and charged it a tiny bit. is that just because of a spark-gap as I brought them together?

the wall outlet is 115 v by the way

ohhh, so wall is AC...forgot that little detail LOL...how do I convert it to DC? I dotn care how I charge this thing, I jut want it to zap someone (you know haw u can use a cameras flash capacitor????)

also, does a camera have a step-up transformer in it?? I mean some have like a 600 volt flash capacitor and you need 600 volts to charge it!

and how should I charge it if not from a wall outlet? do i HAVE to have a transformer? (so hard to find)

and david, I zapped myself with the charge it got from the wall (which blew the breaker) and it didnt hurt to bad, but I'm assuming its jsut becasue it didnt have time to get a huge charge.
I have this document where these guys made a stun glove from a camera and I know, it aint pretty what it did to him.

thanks Ubi, thats pretty much what I needed to know, oh and I think I'm convinced I dont want to use it as a joke, everyone says its gonna hurt horrible, way to much for a joke.
anyhow, i'm going to gut a camera and use it as a tazer, I'll just put it in a different case.

Answer 1

Generally, you want a resistor in series with the capacitor you want to charge. If you multiply the resistance times the capacitance, that will give you an idea how long the time constant is for that circuit. It takes about 4-5 time constants before the cap reaches the applied voltage. For your 470 uF capacitor, a resistor of about 5 kilo-ohm would give you a time constant of 2.35 seconds. Thus, it would take about 10 seconds to fully charge the capacitor. Having no resistor tends to charge it up way too fast, which means too much energy in a short time span.

As far as how camera flash components work, check out this howstuffworks link in the sources section below. There is indeed a small transformer inside.

And if you are curious how much energy is stored in your capacitor, check out this neat little online calculator at the second link.

As far as finding a DC source to charge your capacitor, you might find one of those AC/DC wall plugs. You can probably easily find one around the house, but the hard part is finding leads that will easily connect to it. Depending on the device, you can get up to 24V.

You can't use an AC source to effectively charge a capacitor, and you shouldn't mess around with your outlets.

Oh, and be careful discharging capacitors on people; they may not want to be your friend anymore. Years ago, a friend of mine played around with a disposable camera and got zapped by the capacitor. He said it hurt like hell. I have also worked with a group of people on a motor controller project that used fairly large capacitors. We shorted a charged up cap for fun and it made a pretty good mark on the terminals and the shorting wire.

Answer 2

A capacitor is elementary electric powered gadget somewhat which incorporate a pair of undertaking plates separated with the help of a non conductive textile ordinary because of the fact the dielectric. decrease than the impact of an utilized voltage to the two undertaking plates, electrons are removed from the effective plate to the unfavorable plate and as a effect the effective plate (which replace into electrically unbiased previously the technique started out) is left with an a procedures extra effective than effective expenditures. the quantity of fee (effective or unfavorable) on each plate is, of direction, the comparable in importance. whilst the voltage source is bumped off, the voltage between the plates proceed to be the comparable (brushing aside the sluggish discharging which will ultimately ensue because of the fact the dielectric textile isn't suited). The ability given to the capacitor with the help of the voltage source interior the processs of charging the capacitor now is residing interior the electrical powered field that exists between the two undertaking plates and is obtainable for use interior the proces of discharging the capacitor.

Answer 3

I don't know the type of circuit you have the caps connected to, but connecting directly to a wall outlet is Very dangerous due to the high current.

Also, remember a wall outlet carries alternating current, which flows through a capacitor as the polarity shifts from + to -

You will need a full rectifier circuit to convert the AC to direct current, high-ohm resistors and a transformer to adjust voltage. Have fun and Be Safe!

Answer 4

You need a diode and a resistor. The discharge current will be great enough to cause a burn on wet skin. You're messing with a lot of energy here, enough to cause serious damage. It won't be seen as funny to the person being zapped.

Answer 5

don't hurt yourself. don't mess with wall power.

capacitors act like wires under ac current. you can't charge them that way.