How to blow up components
Using the universal component anihillator
Introduction
The universal component anihillator is cream of the crop concerning high currents
to fuse shorts and high voltages to bridge opens....
The application area is limitless: resistors, IC's, entire PCB's, any dull component can be
turned into a sparkling feast of sound, smoke and colored light effects.
Circuit description (see also schematic below)
This is how it works:
When the switch is closed, the elcap can freely supply it's (DC) discharge current through the "D.U.T."
When the device is fused, the fun will continue: the output inductor will try to maintain the current,
resulting in a high peak voltage which will bridge any fused connection with an arc.
The TL ballast at the mains input limits the mains current. I used a TL ballast, a light bulb will also work.
The mains is rectified by the bridge rectifier built with the four diodes. For Cbuf I used some TV buffer capacitors
which add up to a total of 2.3 mF (!).
The output inductor must be an air coil; ferrite or iron cores will saturate for sure!
The construction is simple: you need one box of mains wire (I used 100 meters 2.5 mm solid copper wire)
Do not bother to unpack; it is already a coil! Just connect both ends and use the complete pack as an inductor.
Universal component anihillator schematic:
Application notes
Experiment 1: Connect the terminals to a low-ohmic (<100 ohm) 1/4W resistor, and switch on.
Experiment 2: Connect the terminals to a low voltage IC and switch on. wear glasses for safety!
Tip: connect all pins, for more fun ; especially the CMOS40xx series works fine
Experiment 3: Use the anihilator in switched on mode; connect the terminals to two metal pins
(e.g. 2.5mm copper wire) and just pin on a pcb until you find a good spot!
The metals in the PCB cause nice colors! Be careful: try not to get fried yourself!
Experiment 4: Connect the terminals to a small TL
The very small types will ignite immediately after switch on; the larger types (8-18W)
will need some help: Just heat up the filament at the negative side with a power supply (5V/1A is ok):
you will free some electrons to start the discharge
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