Zappy Module

Zappy Module is a board-level module that takes control input via some kind of protocol and outputs signals to zap someone like shock collars do.

Project Status

• 2015-02-02: Started putting together overall circuit idea.
• 2015-02-01: SPICEd out some ideas.
• 2015-01-29: Captured waveforms of all output levels.
• 2015-01-05: Arranged to borrow a shock collar to characterize the output of it.
• 2013-05: Started throwing ideas around.

Overview

• Control input options could be:
  • GPIO-based, simple "zap now" input (or a couple separate inputs that you can set with different options)
  • I2C/SPI/RS232
    • Could be used for instant control or programming levels/durations for later GPIO-based activation

Theory of Operation

• Input voltage from 3-9V is stepped up to 10V using a boost converter (AZ34063U) to get the intermediary voltage rail
  • Or if 12V input is required, maybe use 14V or something as the intermediary voltage rail?
• MCU controls a FET that charges a cap from that rail via a series resistor to control charge rate
  • Divider on the cap feeds into an analog pin on the MCU, once the analog pin reaches the desired level the MCU shuts the FET off again
• Once cap is charged, MCU pulses a FET that dumps the charge on the cap through a 1:100 (or so) transformer and to the output
  • 0.1-1kV should be achievable via timing the charge FET
• May need a dump resistor if the cap is charged and needs to be discharged without zapping?
  • Could use the series charging resistor w/ a different FET to dump the cap through it?