The Leyden jar capacitor posted the other day fails to compare to what [FastMHz], one of the members over at the 4HV.org forums, has been busy building, a 24kj capacitor discharge bank. This capacitor bank will be configured for 4500v @ 2400uF and can be charged up slowly using microwave oven transformers. It can then release all its stored energy in under a millisecond through a triggered spark gap. This allows for some pretty big sparks as seen in this video, we are not sure about the laughing in the video maybe the power has gone to his head? Read the rest of this entry »

Remember this? We hit it last year. [William] has been working hard, and made plenty of improvements. Aside from building it in black, he’s built a new model. He’s even hoping to release it as a kit in 2007. The latest version uses a PIC to fire the coils and manages the batteries, uses a pair of IR sensors to time the projectile, laser sighting and improved charging. It’s still only slightly more powerful than a CO2 BB gun, but one hell of an engineering challenge. Theoretically, these could be more powerful than traditional firearms, but power limitations keep them repressed like mid-evil peasants.