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piezo element

luke.w.pc

Apr 3, 2012
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i recently ordered a small picnic stove from china which had a piezo element to light it the whole stove was the ground / earth / negative and there is a wire poking out on top which is the live / positive when the button is clicked there is about a 1 cm spark.
i wanted to see what would happen if i tried electrocuting myself so i put one finger of the positive and one on the back of the button (something very easy and normal to accidentally do then just before i pressed the button i realized that this would send any shock straight through my heart so i repositioned my hands so it would send the shock from index finger to middle finger of the same hand.
pressing the button i received quite a powerful shock but if i had sent it through my heart would it have stopped my heart of just a shock and should this be allowed to be sold.
luke
 

CocaCola

Apr 7, 2012
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but if i had sent it through my heart would it have stopped my heart of just a shock

Anything is possible under the right circumstances...

and should this be allowed to be sold.

Lots of things that can kill you if used improperly are sold, from kitchenware (knife, fork, spoon) to tools like a screw driver or wrench, heck even naturally found items like a rock, or bucket of water... You can't expect someone to protect you from all dangers, because at the end of the day they will fail every time...
 

john monks

Mar 9, 2012
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Just today one of my coworkers was shocking himself with such a device taken from an old water heater. From the length of the spark given I would say the voltage is about 10,000 volts. You know it has to be hot enough to reach the flashpoint of natural gas for the area of the air gas mixture. I just hooked it up on my test bench. It gives 100 volts across a 270 ohm resistor for about 3uS. That is about 37 watts or about 111 microjoules. So unless you are in bad shape you will likely survive this jolt. But why take chances?
 

KrisBlueNZ

Sadly passed away in 2015
Nov 28, 2011
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i wanted to see what would happen if i tried electrocuting myself [...]
should this be allowed to be sold
LOL! A better question might be, should you be allowed to buy it?
 
Last edited:

john monks

Mar 9, 2012
685
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Yes. These ignition devices put out so little energy that only the most feeble of people would be harmed by this. Certainly a lot safer than matches.
 
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