Bring Dead Ni-Cad Batteries Back To Life

Step 3 Slaughter the camera!

Give a general description of the StepNow this is going to be a fairly dangerous part, open up the camera and get the circuit out safely without getting shocked by the capacitor...

(The capacitor in the camera is a large black cylinder thing, it is used for making flashes for the camera.)

First, pry open the camera's case apart with a flat-head screwdriver or just use your hands if you like, but you are more likely to get shocked by the capacitor.
After you taken the camera's case off, discharge the capacitor with a insulated screw driver, and you may get a big loud spark, and after that, the capacitor is discharged... (Use a screwdriver you hate so much, because a fully charged capacitor will leave a scar on the metal part of the screwdriver!)

Great! You had done the dangerous step on this instructable! (Some people say this is the fun part of the instructable because you get a loud spark from the capacitor.)

Comments

[sanman9078]

Do you connect positive to positive or positive to negative?

[laci37]

This thing is not as dangerous as you think I have been shocked by a cars ignitor transformer, which gives out more than 1kV. It didn't do anything to me, I'm still here :)

[Plasmana]

Actually, the car ignition coils gives out more than 10Kv!

[laci37]

I think mine gives out around 1-2kV, it's very old. The maxium length of the spark is about 0,5 cm.

[cmlove]

I've done this before, discharging the cap by triggering the flash first only to discover there was still enough charge remaining to knock me on my butt. I'd recommend doing both.

[cdtidwell]

I used to work at a camera store, and on long days we'd play with the guts of the disposables. If, instead of arcing the capacitor, why don't you first remove the battery and discharge the capacitor by either winding the shutter by twisting the sprocket in the film compartment (it's usually on the right), then "take a picture" or by giving it a good whack on something (the force will momentarily close the flash firing switch). That way you get an empty capacitor and no risk for electrical burns.

[junits15]

thats pretty cool, normially i open up the camera and discharge the cap with a srewdriver, but that way seems alot safer.

[Gjdj3]

But arcing the cap is so much fun! Haha. Some people just love sparks.

[Plasmana]

Haha! Yeah, when discharging the capacitor, it makes me jump every time it makes a loud snap. :-)

[JerryMopar]

With a name like plasma man........

[philgenius]

But the smack-the-camera method only gets rid of some of the charge, because it takes some startup energy to make a flash. The capacitor still has energy but not enough to make a flash. It still is safest to discharge the terminals with a screwdriver.