Remote Controlled Electric Shock "present"

have you ever thought that there are things you could give someone for christmas which would bring far more of a smile to your face than to theirs. this is one of those things!  simply explained it is an electric shocker( similar to the one in a previous instructable of mine ) which is remotely controlled by hidden buttons in your clothing, the shocker system is taken from a disposable camera and somewhat modified, the control system from a cheap remote control car.
i now strongly suggest that if you want to finish this project in time to use it then I ought to get on to details of how it is done.

WARNING: as you probably gathered this system uses electrical shocks, the current must be kept extremely low and the voltage used to power the shocker unit should not exceed 1.5 v  . as this is remotely controlled there is no excuse for shocking someone in such a way that the current would pass through their heart or other vital organs/ nerves. i take no responsibility for what you use this for.

Step 1: MATERIALS

To construct the remote controlled shocker you will need:
1 disposable camera
wire
AA batteries
tin foil
a project box to house it
a push to make locking switch
a remote control car ( it only needs the forwards function)
the remote for that car
wide ribbon
selotape
a housing for two AA batteries in series

Step 2: DISSASSEMBLING THE CAR

To begin you dissassemble the remote control car, i found that i could do this simply by removing a few screws you might not be so lucky, when this is done find the control circuit board and locate the wires leading to the driving electric motor. It is useful also to cut off the ends of the chassis as long as the wires and battery casing on the car are not affected, this allows it to fit in the box more easily. the wires you found earlier that lead to the driving motor should be cut and you must find the "positive" wire( i add the quote marks as which is positive depends on whether you press the forward or backwards button on the remote. here is how:
1. make sure that the car is turned on
2. wire an LED across where the motor was
3. press the forward button on the remote
4. if the led lights up then the wire which connects from the circuit board to the longer electrode of the LED is positive
5. if it does not light turn the led round or just use the backwards button as your trigger( see later steps)

then solder a push to make locking ( it must be locking) switch onto the positive ( or negative it doesn't matter in this case) wire which was attached to the motor this will leave a broken up chassis containing the car's electronics and two wires coming out, one of these output wires will have the switch on it, MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW WHICH WIRE IS POSITIVE.

Step 3: DISASSEMBLING THE REMOTE

THIS STEP MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR REMOTE CONTROL, YOU MAY IGNORE IT AND LEAVE THE REMOTE CONTROL AS IT IS IF YOU WISH. DOING SO WILL NOT AFFECT THE FINISHED SYSTEM EXCEPT THAT YOU WILL NEED TO HIDE THE FULL REMOTE ON YOUR PERSON IN A POCKET WHERE YOU CAN PRESS THE BUTTON RATHER THAN HAVING A SECRET SWITCH IN YOUR HAND.IF YOU ARE VERY CONFIDENT AND HAVE TIME TO SPARE ( NO DEADLINE) YOU MAY ATTEMPT THE PROCEDURE OUTLINED IN THIS STEP.

With the car taken apart as detailed in the last step you must dissassemble the remote, this is a similar procedure to dissassembling the car but keep all the pieces you remove and do it in such a way that the remote can be returned to how it was as this makes a good casing. when you reach the circuit board lift it up so you can get at both sides( this may involve unscrewing it from the housing) find the aerial which may have fallen out as you did this and solder a very long wire( it does not matter if the wire is insulated as long as you have stripped the end that you attach to the circuit board) to the metal points on the board where the aerial made contact with it. Also find the forward button on the remote and desolder it, attach and solder a long insulated wire to each of the points where it was connected to the board. join the end of these wires with a push to make non locking switch so that the original button on the board is now replaced with a switch on the end of wires around 2 metres long. afterwards reassemble the remote and screw it back together, have the new aerial wire and the wires to the switch come out of the remote through the narrow gap between it's parts and add some hot glue to secure the wires in place. these wires should be held ,so they cannot be pulled out, by the parts of the casing pressing on them in a narrow gap between the parts, the glue is just an extra measure.

I HAD PROBLEMS WITH THIS AND DESTROYED(NOT SURE HOW) MY REMOTE CONTROL IN THE PROCESS SO I HAD TO BUY A NEW ONE, IT IS ALWAYS AN OPTION not TO MODIFY THE REMOTE AND JUST HIDE IT IN THE POCKET OF A HEAVY COAT.

Step 4: THE SHOCKER Disassembling the Camera

for this i am going to borrow a part of my shocker instructable for the next few pages.

This is where we start, know you have the camera and the other stuff you need to retrieve the circuit that charges the camera flash. here is how.
open the camera by "unclipping" the front and back then pulling them apart NOW STOP
YOU CAN GET A NASTY SHOCK FROM THE CAPACITOR SO READ CAREFULLY
only touch plastic parts of the camera with your hands at this stage, use the screwdriver with the insulating handle to break/pull the plastic apart
Remove the battery still avoiding touching the metal by hand, this stops the capacitor recharging because some cameras recharge automatically.
When you can see the circuit board place the metal tip of the screwdriver across the wires leading into the capacitor( black mean looking cylinder with 350V written along the side)
IT WILL SPARK
this discharges the capacitor and makes the circuit comparatively safe to touch.
Now remove the circuit board
We are ready to continue

Step 5: THE SHOCKER Rewiring the Circuit

Start by finding the capacitor on the board and heating the points where it is soldered to the board with a soldering iron, when the solder melts pull the capacitor away. We will not be needing it for this but you may want it for other projects. Then we must desolder the battery holder parts the same way as we removed the capacitor and put wires in their place, remember which part of the holder went to which end of the battery, mark the wires if it helps. these wires will be your input leads.

Step 6: THE SHOCKER More Rewiring

After removing the capacitor and attaching wires for the battery input (1.5v) we attach the output wires which will take 450V to our electrodes. this is done by attaching wires into the holes where we removed the capacitor from and soldering the new wires in place. (you might want to colour code your wires(red for battery positive,black for battery negative,green for high voltage output) but i did not do this.) Also you can remove the small lamp on the circuit which provides the flash, do not remove the led because this allows us to continue using the circuit as a capacitor charger for as long as we can see it. Then we  must find the charging switch, we want to solder this in the closed position. The switch is usually a small metal flexible pad that can be pressed against to join two contacts on the circuit board and complete a circuit, we can remove it just by twisting up a few of the curved pieces of metal attaching it to the board and pulling. Then either solder in a wire to connect the two electrodes( join it to the bare metal) or use a drop of solder for the same job, this will ensure that the circuit is always charging and therefore producing 450V.

Step 7: THE SHOCKER First Test

At this point before we go any further we should check that the previous stages have been completed correctly. attach the positive input wire to the positive end of a battery, the output wires to a voltmeter or your finger if you dare, and the negative input to the battery's negative terminal. You should see the voltmeter read 450V (or something higher than 200 atleast) or feel a strongish shock( I don't know what to compare it to I haven't had many others).This indicates that the transformer in the circuit is succesfully converting to a higher voltage and that the current is being pulsed by the circuit so that the transformer can use it. If you do not see a high voltage or get a shock check the previous steps carefully, see if you went wrong somewhere. Is there a connection loose, if not try using another circuit from another camera.

ONCE THIS IS DONE THE SIMILARITIES WITH MY SHOCKER INSTRUCTABLE END

Step 8: ATTACHING THE SHOCKER TO THE CAR ELECTRONICS

once you have a working shocker attach the negative input wire of the shocker to the negative output wire from where the car had it's drive motor and solder in place. attach the positive output from the car to the negative end of a double AA battery holder, attach the positive input wire of the shocker to the positive end of the battery holder. this will allow a greater voltage to be supplied to the shocker so it can overcome the high resistance of the tin foil electrodes which the person receiving the present will touch. also i found that it was necessary to attach a wire across the battery holder from positive to negative as a sort of bypass, i think this causes effects similar to those found in a capacitor because the shocker with this bypass will shock you when you let go of it rather than when you first pick it up. the high voltage output wires of your shocker circuit will be dealt with in a few steps time.

Step 9: THE COMPLETE CIRCUIT

i have a few images on this page of what the circuit should look like when it is complete, they might not be very clear but i must admit my circuit was rather messy.

Step 10: THE ELECTRODES

now we get to the case in which your circuit will be contained, you will need a box large enough in volume to house all of the circuit. and also a sheet of tin foil.
1. place all the necessary batteries into the remote controlled shocker circuit and set all the switches so it is operational, when it is working the LED on the shocker circuit board will light up when you press the forward button on the remote and you will be able to get an electric shock from the high voltage output wires either when you touch them or when you remove your hand from them.
2. find the box you will house it in and wrap half of it in tin foil as if you were wrapping a present, the tin foil must not cover more than half of the box and in fact it must be a centimetre or so short of the half way line. the edge of this tin foil should be covered in tape to hold it in place, DO NOT stick it to the box with the tape just use the tape to hold it in shape. then you must slide the tinfoil half off the box, you should be able to slide it on again afterwards so it covers half of the box. this foil half should act as an electrode for your high voltage wires( more on that later). repeat this process to make a foil cover for the other half of the box, when they are both slid on they should not quite touch in the middle( we will cover the join later).
3. packing with some polystyrene to act as cushioning if necessary place the remote controlled shocker circuit into the box and but on the lid, some boxes have screw on lids. theses screws should be tightened to seal it IF you are able to remove them later should something go wrong( otherwise just tape it shut). the aerial should be gently bent to fit in the box, and the high voltage wires should poke out a fair few centimetres from the (narrow) gap between the lid and box.
4.holding the high voltage wires slightly taught slide both tin foil halves onto the box, then use a small piece of tape to attach a high voltage wire to each half. the stripped ends of the wires should be in contact with bare tinfoil and held in place with small pieces of tape. press on the tape afterwards to ensure good contact between the wires and foil.
5. wrap a wide ribbon round the join, the ribbon must of course be non conducting and cover the tape holding each half together and also cover the tape holding the wires to the foil.

when this is done hold( your hand must be in contact with both tin foil halves) the box in you right hand( further from your heart should the worst occur) and press the forward button on your remote( if this fails try the back button you may have made a wiring mistake earlier). you may not feel a shock, if you feel no shock or only a very small one try to release the box from your grip. you should feel a stronger shock as you do this. if you still feel no shock remove the ribbon, slide the halves off the box and remove the high voltage wires from the halves and see if you can be shocked by the wires, if you can something is wrong with the halves( perhaps they have too high a resistance, they did for my original lower voltage design). if you get no shock  open the box and examine your circuit.

ONCE YOU HAVE FOUND A CONFIGURATION THAT WORKS SLIDE THE HALVES OFF THE BOX AND TURN OFF THE CIRCUIT INSIDE THEN A FEW HOURS BEFORE THE PERSON WILL RECEIVE THEIR PRESENT  TURN IT ALL BACK ON AND BOX IT UP AGAIN. this is why it is important not to permanently seal the box or use halves that cannot be removed and replaced.

I later found that you should use atleast three layers of foil for each half, wrap the first layer as i explained and then wrap a second layer over it to cover it and use a small amount of tape to hold them together at the edge. repeat for a third/fourth layer, then press them together( this ( to a slight degree)thickens the metal cover of the box and therefore lowers it's resistance.i also found that wrapping some string or tinsel loops around the box at regular intervals can be useful as my device only seems to shock when your hand is a few millimetres away from it( theses loops should stop the person who picks it up from gripping too tightly and therefore allow them to be shocked.

Step 11: ENJOY

that is it, if you have ANY problems with this please PM me and i will do by best to answer, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH THIS DEVICE OR WHAT IT DOES TO YOU( OR ANYONE ELSE).

UPDATE:
the party was yesterday(21st december), the shocker worked perfectly although it was slightly less powerful than i had expected. it was quite a while of people getting "random" shocks from it before anyone realised that the controls were in my pocket.