A DIY AirGap Flash Is Something We Definitely Don’t Recommend

Last week we shared a new AirGap flash available for about $2,000 and a healthy dose of convincing of the manufacturer.

Now there is anoter version for this uberfast flash by David Eirik Taylor that you can make at home. Don’t get me wrong, you really dont want ot make one of these at home, since they carry over 20,000 Volts and an accidental jolt WILL KILL YOU. On the other hand the pop duration is only 1/3,000,000 of a second, this is good enough to freeze a bullet mid air.

Going real DIY, the flash is made from an olive jar and a glass test tube for vanilla sticks (I guess the light tastes better this way). And the powerful High Voltage Capacitor was made from 7 smaller units.

Here is a picture of a balloon popping, a bullet cut in half and splitting a match – there are more impressive photos in the dedicated Flickr gallery.

[Air Gap Flash Unit via hackaday]

(thanks for the heads up, Jason!)