This is my capacitor discharge system. I bought the flash unit for $2.00 from a second hand store. I then removed the high voltage capacitor and added it to my other camera flash caps that I have been collecting which is about 4. The whole bank is hooked up in parallel to make a total of 1500 uF @ 350 Vdc. I hope to get a high voltage/current SCR instead of using two cable ends. This discharge unit can be used for many things. Such as discharging through and ignition coil or an HEI coil, an air cored solenoid (can be used to launch ferrous metal objects), CD's, or anything that you have no use for anymore.
Below are pictures of just some of the things that I have used to discharge my bank of capacitors. You may click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Starting from left to right.
1) This object used to be a diffused green LED. It broke into 4 pieces but I couldn't find the fourth.
2) An exploded 555 timer IC. The top half was also lost.
3) Another 555 that was blown in half.
Pictured below are both the 300vDC+ flash unit and the small high voltage capacitor bank rated at 1500uF at 350vDC.
