Air Taser electrical specifications

This page describes the theory and design of air taser technology.  If you've ever wanted to know how how air tasers work or how many watts or joules the thing puts out, this is the place to be!

Air Taser - Electrical Theory of Operation

The system uses a single 9-volt alkaline battery as the input source and a simple switching circuit feeds an inverter transformer, is rectified to a DC voltage and charges the output capacitor (.22 uF) to a maximum of 2,000 Volts DC. Once the output capacitor reaches 2,000 VCD, the energy is discharged through a spark gap directly into the output coil. The output coil multiplies the voltage and generates the loaded output discharge as discussed below.

Electrical Output Energy

The AIR TASER generates 10-15 pulses per second. Each pulse is approximately .4 Joule. Calculated by 0.5 * C * V ** 2 or 0.5. * .00000022 F * 2000 V ** 2 = .4 Joule. AT 15 pulses per second and.4 Joules per pulse, 6 Joules per second is the maximum delivered energy per second.

Loaded Output Discharge

When the output is connected to a 4,000 Ohm load, each individual pulse of 3.5 uS (.0000035 second) in duration and measures 23,600 volts DC peak with a peak current of 5.9 Amps. The DC waveform is 1ò2 sinusoidal. The time-averaged current is .00022 Amps. The maximum average power output of the AIR TASER is 6 Watts.

Electrical Test Setup

The output of the AIR TASER is measured by connecting a 4,000-Ohm wire would 5 watt resistor submerged in mineral oil (for insulation) across the output leads. A high-speed (150-MHz) digital Oscilloscope (Tektronix 320) and a high voltage probe are also connected across the outputs.

Electrical Derivations

The peak current is calculated to be 5.9 Amps.

I (Amps) = E (Volts) / R (Ohms) ; 23,600/ 4,000 = 5.9 Amps).

The peak power is calculated to be 139,240 Watts

P (Watts) = I (Amps) * E (Volts) ; 5.9 * 23,600 = 139,240).

Average power is derived as follows:
Multiplying by .707 averages the sinusoidal waveform (to an approximate amount).
Average Power = P (peak Watts) * F (pulses per second) * T (seconds) * A (waveform averaging conversion).
Average Power = 139,240 Watts (peak) * 15 pulses per second *0.0000035 seconds * .707 (sinusoidal averaging conversion).
Average Power = 5.16 Watts Average.
A 15% margin is added for conservatism, therefore 1.15 * 5.16 = 6.0 Watts Average.

Ballistic Impact Power

Each of the two AIR TASER projectiles is expelled from the unit at a maximum velocity of 60 meters per second. Each projectile weighs 1.75 grams. 1 Joule = 10198.8 Gram-cm/sec. Therefore the impact energy is 1.03 Joules. The impact area is .30 cm2 circular. The equivalent energy per unit area is therefore 3.43 Joules/cm2.

AIR TASER Operational Specifications March 26, 1996

Taken from Air Taser Specs