Disposable Camera Ring Flash

Step 2 Open It Up

WARNING: A fully charged capacitor can give a good shock or burn. Do not touch the circuit board or the battery holder. Use the end of the large capacitor as a handle when working on the flash. Remove the battery from the bottom of the camera. Use a small screwdriver to cut any paper sealing the camera and to pry it open.

Short out the capacitor with the tip of a screw driver by touching both leads of the capacitor at the same time. Once the capacitor is discharged, there is less risk of being shocked. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES when shorting out the capacitor. There may be sparks. Getting hot solder in the eye is a life changing experience.

Comments

[optix]

I would recommend using a resistor to discharge the capacitor. It's much safer than the screwdriver method, even though it's not as fast. My favorite method is a 40W 120V light bulb, with a 10 Ohm 10 Watt wound capacitor in parallel, all attached via test-leads. Then you can visually see how close to drained the capacitor has become, before touching it. I've used this method on many capacitors, some very large (think mega Farad).

[uMicro]

discharging a small capacitor is quite safe.. if as you said discharging a much larger capacitor is much safer.. for this project just be sure to keep eyes away from the spark.. most of the time if the flash doesn't fire the arc won't be that big.