mike wrote:

Yes, that's what I had in mind. All you need is a switch that can
handle that much volts safely...and maybe some means to make sure
that switching a charged cap doesn't explode the diode or the switch.

Some months ago, I had to replace the diode in my old one.
Hooked a resistor to a couple of clip leads and hooked them to the cap.
I never did find any of the resistor pieces. May have gotten swept up
when I cleaned up the puddle I made. ;-)


You exceeded the maximum voltage rating of that resistor.

--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.