Ultimate destructive circuit wanted - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Herr R aus B
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 01:43:33 pm
content: Beloved Community! :-)The following is absolutely seriously meant!I shall be very happy to get advises on how to set up a circuit, that fulfills the following main tasks:deliberately killing general electronic parts as capacitors, resistors, diodes, transistors and so on with dramatic visual resultsbeing safe enough to cut down voltage and current immediately, when the part is gone - kinda sensing current drop, I'd guesssignalling, when the respective part is about exploding, dying, ceasing to exist, or what have you...should ideally be controlled by a µCCoding the µC and all basic set up and precaution as putting an acrylic box around it etc.. are no problem - I am rather planning on killing the parts in a controlled way outside (balcony or whatever). also controlling external equipment with the µC wouldn't be the problem. Sensing the upcoming point of failure might rather be an empiric problem - so maybe just measuring the peak current of equal components and thus, estimating when "it" might happen. This can easily be done with the µC...But what I really don't have any clue of, would be the sensing stuff itself, i.e. how to set up a proper circuit for component overloading and current and voltage sensing, that wouldn't neither kill the µC nor the power supply, any fuses, even me, or burn the house down, cause a rip in the space-time continuum, etc...I guess, as I am more the photographic than the electronic kinda guy, you might get the idea, what thats all about and what I am after - project is to be finished by October 2014 :-)Any hints, tipps, advises will be happily appreciated :-)Best regardsAxel

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 03:18:31 pm
content: You watched to much Star Trek.

author: DL8RI
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 03:37:07 pm
content: What you need is a Surge-Generator.Have fun and don't kill yourself or other people.

author: Sigmoid
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 03:43:29 pm
content: Be careful. Certain components are literally explosive. Use some kind of acrylic shield to protect yourself and your gear from shrapnel... Also, I'm not sure doing this on a balcony is such a good idea. Imagine walking on the street and suddenly getting a burning piece of tantalum cap in your hair...

author: Herr R aus B
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 05:18:02 pm
content: Star Trek: Can't watch too much of that stuff :-)Balcony: I am in the middle of Berlin in a roof appartment - nobody really cares what's actually flying around here :-)Acryllic: Definately...Surge generator: Wouldn't that be somewhat overkill?

author: olsenn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 05:24:08 pm
content: Are you talking about EMP? Most things that will destroy circuitry won't be visually exciting. Other than reverse polarizing electrolytic caps, there isn't too much to do an electronic device that will be a spectical. Perhaps a litle smoke at best.Traces on a PCB can be shorted with an ultracapacitor to glow hot and break. High voltages (>50,000V) will arc small distances.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 05:27:47 pm
content: HV transformer into Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier up to a few kV should blow up most stuff, but be wary of HV. Arcing and creepage are very real effects...

author: Herr R aus B
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 06:09:22 pm
content: OK - I should be more precise about what I want to do - the magic smoke is exactly what I am interested in - I am planning a photo series on macroscopic pictures of magic smoke rsp. dying components at the moment when they set the magic smoke free - I thought, it'd be helbful to have that sensing kinda stuff to remote control the camera, so that it can take fast series of pictures during a certain time frame covering that estimated moment of failure - due to the usual limitations of SD cards or CF cards this time frame will be some 2-3 seconds, before the camera starts stuttering, as the internal buffer is full and cant be written to the memory card fast enough. I am not quite sure, wheather i realle need HV for that purpose. Honestly I also would consider that being too dangerous, taking into account my lack of experience on that field. :-)

author: olsenn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 06:15:06 pm
content: Why not just dissipate heat in a resistor until it melts? You can pick the power by I^2R such that you don't really need a remote controlled fast shutter camera

author: DL8RI
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 06:57:54 pm
content: Quote from: Herr R aus B on December 17, 2013, 05:18:02 pmNope, it's one solution of the device to fit exactly what you need.Why? Because you can trigger your camera with the Trigger-Impulse of the Generator. You know the point of failure in advance.You don't have to buy one Standard-Conform unit, basically you can load a HV-Cap via a Greinacher-cascade and "unload" it into your device of choice -> Boom.BUT:This stuff ishighly dangerousespecially a charged HV-Cap is not something to play around with!The stored energy can easily kill you or another person!Another not so drastic method: Use Mains-Voltage on normal small-signal components, they will die. Get yourself a big Schütz for turning the power on and of. But even if there are no charged Caps, it's still not harmless!

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 01:49:14 am
content: You need a neon transformer with a 40 watt bulb in series with the primary.

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 01:57:08 am
content: Quote from: Herr R aus B on December 17, 2013, 05:18:02 pmpolycarbonate is safer, acrylic can shatter

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 04:48:01 am
content: Just start applying 240 vac to things and see what happens. Most things will burn up and either explode or burst into flames. Be sure everything is Fire resistant and you are outdoors due to the amount of smoke you will be making. Burning electronics is toxic remember, and smells like a tire fire in your nose.I can not actually endorse doing this!! But thats not to say that I did not do this as a child

author: Magicmushroom666
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 08:17:17 am
content: Rather than try detect when the component is failing, it'd be easier to control the camera from a time delay from the moment power is applied to the victim component. A few trial runs should be enough to get the timing adjusted right.

author: JuKu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 11:09:14 am
content: Bad idea, as most of the magic smoke is toxic, capacitor smoke especially so.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2013, 01:56:05 pm
content: Try one of these bad boys!http://www.electrotechnic.com/pinhole.htmlSeriously, I have the Model BD-10AS. It can blank out or turn off a cell phone screen from up to 6 feet away from the EMP. Not to mention total destruction from a direct hit!