How can TASERS pass 50,000 volts down very thin wires to the barbs without
losing the electric charge due to it tracking across the thin wires that
are not heavily insulated? Having had troubles with piezo ignition leads
tracking and shorting, I am wondering what is different.

On 19/10/2012 08:47, DerbyBorn wrote:
How can TASERS pass 50,000 volts down very thin wires to the barbs without
losing the electric charge due to it tracking across the thin wires that
are not heavily insulated? Having had troubles with piezo ignition leads
tracking and shorting, I am wondering what is different.

Provided that the wires are more than 1/2" apart at 50kV they are fully
insulated by the air. If you see a taser being fired there is a little
bit of arcing and sparking near the gun and anywhere along the lines
where they momentarily get too close together. The actual voltage used
isn't really disclosed but I'd guess it was nearer 10kV.

There will be a little bit of coronal discharge as well but I doubt if
you could see it even in the dark. It is an ac pulsed voltage as that
has the most incapacitating effect and least risk of injury.

http://www.taser.com/research-and-sa...-a-taser-works

Not that I would recommend being on the receiving end of one.

I can think of one thick plod who should have a white stick that needs
to get a couple of belts off one from the blind man he tasered.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article 2,
DerbyBorn writes:
How can TASERS pass 50,000 volts down very thin wires to the barbs without
losing the electric charge due to it tracking across the thin wires that
are not heavily insulated? Having had troubles with piezo ignition leads
tracking and shorting, I am wondering what is different.

The wires are insulated. I would guess almost certainly with PTFE,
which can withstand over 100kV per mm thickness for occasional use
(which is much more than a taser generates). In this particular
application, it wouldn't matter if there was some breakdown anyway;
a taser doesn't generate anything like 50kv when it's hit it's
target, and I don't suppose a set of taser wires are used much
before replacement.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 19/10/2012 09:21, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In 1.92.222,
writes:
How can TASERS pass 50,000 volts down very thin wires to the barbs without
losing the electric charge due to it tracking across the thin wires that
are not heavily insulated? Having had troubles with piezo ignition leads
tracking and shorting, I am wondering what is different.

The wires are insulated. I would guess almost certainly with PTFE,
which can withstand over 100kV per mm thickness for occasional use
(which is much more than a taser generates). In this particular
application, it wouldn't matter if there was some breakdown anyway;
a taser doesn't generate anything like 50kv when it's hit it's
target, and I don't suppose a set of taser wires are used much
before replacement.

I had always assumed that the wires were a part of the "cartridge" - a
couple of spikes, wires, explosive charge - all in one. Or a meringue?

--
Rod

On Oct 19, 8:47*am, DerbyBorn wrote:
How can TASERS pass 50,000 volts down very thin wires to the barbs without
losing the electric charge due to it tracking across the thin wires that
are not heavily insulated? Having had troubles with piezo ignition leads
tracking and shorting, I am wondering what is different.

I hear the cops tasered a blind man the other day.
Excuse was they thought his stick was a samurai sword!???

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oc...?newsfeed=true

On 19/10/2012 17:44, harry wrote:
I hear the cops tasered a blind man the other day.

Didn't you read what Martin wrote earlier?

Andy