Today we will look at Chinese gas lighters powered by AA batteries. The price of such devices does not exceed $1 (in some cases no more than $0.5). Such lighters have a completely electronic filling. Inside you can find a compact board on which several components are located.
The gas lighter circuit consists of two main parts:
- Voltage converter;
- High voltage coil.
Such lighters are designed to work with one or two AA batteries with a voltage of 1.5 Volts. It can operate for a long time on one AA battery; with two batteries, it should not be turned on for a long time. During operation, an air breakdown of no more than 0.5 cm is formed at the outlet. The output voltage of the circuit is about 6-7 kV.
A boost converter consists of only three components:
- Transistor;
- Limiting resistor;
- Step-up transformer.
Electronic lighter circuit
The circuit is a blocking generator. An increased voltage of about 50 Volts is generated on the secondary winding. Often in such circuits a bipolar transistor of the S8550D series (pnp, 25 V, 1.5 A) is used. Then the voltage is straightened. The PCR606J thyristor (600 V, 0.6 A) operates in switching mode and supplies short-term pulses to the primary winding of a high-voltage coil. The coil itself is sectional, the resistance of the secondary winding is about 355-365 Ohms. The winding is wound with copper wire, the diameter is around 0.05mm. The primary winding is wound on a ferrite rod and consists of 15 turns, the wire is 0.4 mm.
Possible causes of device malfunction
- The cause of a circuit malfunction may primarily be a faulty thyristor. It can be replaced with a similar one, for example - MCR2208.
- The second reason for a circuit malfunction may be in the transistor. During operation, it may fail due to various reasons. It is advisable to replace the transistor with a more powerful one - KT815/817, although you can also use low-power ones - KT315 or, even better, KT3102.
- Rarely, a circuit may fail due to a diode. The fact is that in some gas lighter circuits, a regular rectifier diode is used, but recently in almost all devices you can see a pulse diode of the FR107 series.
The Chinese electric lighter is quite easy to use, but this does not guarantee that it will be durable. The circuit of a Chinese lighter becomes a stumbling block for many radio amateurs trying to fix it. We don't recommend that you worry too much about this, it's not worth it. Although, the very device of the Chinese lighter is very interesting, and can be taken as the basis for many amateur radio developments.
Chinese electric lighter, its advantages and disadvantages:
Many housewives happily purchase electric lighters without thinking or suspecting the danger.
Figure No. 1 – Chinese lighter Firstly, you should pay attention to the insulation, despite the fact that externally the lighter body looks reliable. There is a great chance of getting an electric shock, which is not fatal but also unpleasant.
Secondly, Chinese lighters do not ignite gas well; when using them, you must be extremely careful and follow all safety rules when using gas equipment.
Thirdly, more than one radio amateur has not resisted the temptation to simply take and disassemble an electric lighter and see what’s inside it :)
Figure No. 2 - Examples of disassembled Chinese lighters Such lighters, as a rule, work from two AA batteries, that is, from 3 Volts, and for quite a long time, which is its big advantage.
Figure No. 3 – Common diagram of a Chinese lighter By closing the contact (button) at the lighter output, the voltage is about 6-7 kV, and this energy is enough to break down about 5 mm of air.
As a rule, most lighter circuits use a bipolar transistor of the S8550D series (pnp, 25 V, 1.5 A), it is included in the boost converter circuit.
An increased voltage of about 50 Volts is generated on the secondary winding of the step-up transformer.
After which the voltage is rectified, and the PCR606J thyristor (600 V, 0.6 A), operating in the key mode, transmits short-term pulses to the primary winding of the high-voltage coil.
The coil is made sectional, the resistance of its secondary winding is approximately 355-365 Ohms.
The primary winding of the coil is wound on 0.04 mm ferrite. copper wire, and is 15 turns.
As a rule, these lighters contain a thyristor, and if it breaks, you just need to replace it with a similar one. The same thing happens with a transistor.
But in my opinion, if your Chinese lighter is broken, then just throw it away and don’t bother repairing it, it’s not worth it.
But it is very advisable to use it as a basis for many amateur radio developments and designs, since the generator is made using cheap and accessible elements.
And a lot more interesting and useful information on
Of course, buying an electric lighter for a gas stove today is not difficult. There are plenty of them on the market, and the price allows anyone to buy it. In this article we will look at how you can assemble such a lighter yourself. This will be very useful, as it will allow you to learn its principle and possibly apply it in other homemade products.
The main idea here is to obtain high voltage with high frequency, as a result, a hot spark is formed between the electrodes. This spark can ignite gas, cigarettes or paper. Let's consider in order how to do it.
Materials and tools for homemade work:
- soldering iron with solder;
- charging for li-ion batteries;
- li-ion battery (18490/1400 mAh);
- field effect transistor IRFZ44;
- transformer for 50 W halogen lamps (or other similar);
- 0.5 mm wire (must be in the transformer);
- frame;
- power button and other little things.
Lighter manufacturing process:
Step one. Preparing the charger
To charge the Li-ion battery, the author used a special board with protection. There are two indicators on the board, one lights up when charging is in progress, and the second lights up when the battery is low. Using such a device, the battery can be charged with a current of up to 1A through any 5V source. Alternatively, this can be done via a regular USB port.
Step two. Battery
The homemade battery is suitable for any size and capacity. As an example, the author installed a standard 18490 battery with a capacity of 1400 mAh. Its peculiarity is that it is somewhat shorter than the ordinary 18650. In general, the choice depends on the size of the lighter.
Step three. Converter
A transistor of the IRFZ44 type, as well as a high-voltage transformer, were used as the basis for the converter. The most difficult thing is with the transformer; you will have to wind it yourself.
The transformer will need a core from an electronic transformer for halogen lamps with a power of 50 W. A standby voltage transformer from a computer power supply is also suitable for such purposes.
First, the transformer must be carefully desoldered and the installed windings removed. You need to leave the network wiring, it will be useful for homemade work. To disconnect the halves of the transformer, they need to be heated with a soldering iron.
The primary winding has 8 turns and is tapped from the middle. The author measures everything roughly using his finger.
The wiring is wound in two busbars, with each busbar having 4 strands of 0.5 mm wire. The wire that was useful was the one that was used as the network winding in the previously disassembled transformer.
After the primary winding is wound, 10 layers of adhesive tape are wound on top for insulation. Then the author winds a secondary or step-up winding on top.
The secondary winding was wound with wire from the relay coil. As for the relay, any small 12-24V will do. The diameter of the wire should be within 0.08-0.1 mm.
First, you need to solder a piece of stranded wire to the thin winding wire, and then start winding. The wire does not need to be cut at any stage of winding. You need to wind it in layers, with each layer containing 70-100 turns. On top of each layer there is insulation, which is also made from tape. In conclusion, there should be approximately 800 turns.
Now you can fix the core halves, and you need to solder a piece of stranded wire to the second end of the secondary winding. You can also test the winding with a multimeter to check its integrity. The final insulation is electrical tape.
Finally, you need to do the phasing of the primary winding. The beginning of one arm is connected to the end of the other. As a result, a middle point is formed, to which the plus from the power source is connected.
Then you can assemble the oscillator circuit and check if everything works. The arc should form at a distance of 0.5 cm, and it can be stretched up to 1 cm. If this is the case, then the inverter is working correctly.
This electric lighter will be an excellent kitchen assistant for gas stoves that do not have an electric ignition function. It is very convenient and trouble-free in operation. You can make it yourself by spending just a couple of hours of your time, having previously stocked up on a piece of one-sided foil fiberglass and a minimum of inexpensive and radio components. A sketch of a printed circuit board and a drawing of the proposed design will serve as a faithful assistant.
The principle of operation of the homemade design is based on the cyclic charge-discharge of capacitance C1. This is done when the button SВ1 is pressed. Through resistance R1, diode VD1 and the primary winding of the transformer. And when C1 is discharged, current flows through the circuit of the open thyristor, diode VD2, and the primary winding of the step-up transformer. In the secondary winding of the transformer it is induced high voltage, which causes a spark to form in the gap between the electrodes and ignites the gas.
The transformer is made on a piece of ferrite rod 2 centimeters long from any radio receiver. Having wrapped the rod with electrical tape, the secondary winding is wound onto it in sections of 6 by 90 turns with PEV-2 0.06 wire. Then they isolate the high-voltage winding and proceed to winding the primary winding of only four turns, with a wire of the same brand, but with a diameter of 0.5 mm.
The peculiarity of this simple amateur radio design is that the printed circuit board is also a supporting structure.
Spring contact SB1 is made from a strip of brass 0.2 mm thick and 8 mm wide. The button itself is made of any insulating material, as an option, plexiglass.
The lighter body is glued from sheet polystyrene or similar material. Complete isolation of the high-voltage part from all others makes this device absolutely safe to use.
This can roughly be called an electric lighter used to ignite gas in the burners of gas stoves. A very convenient and fire-safe device than household matches used for this purpose. In principle, you can buy an electric lighter - if, of course, it ends up in a hardware store. But you can make it yourself, which is more interesting from a technical point of view, and you will also need few radio components. Below we describe two options for a homemade electronic “match” - powered from an electric lighting network and from one small-sized battery D-0.25. In both options, reliable ignition of gas is carried out by an electric spark created by a short current pulse with a voltage of 8...10 kV. This is achieved by appropriate conversion and increasing the voltage of the power source. The circuit diagram and design of a network lighter are shown in Fig. 1. The lighter consists of two units connected to each other by a flexible two-wire cord: an adapter plug with capacitors Cl, C2 and resistors Rl, R2 inside and a voltage converter with a spark gap. This design solution provides it with electrical safety and a relatively small mass of the part that is held in the hand when igniting the gas. How does the device work overall? Capacitors Cl and C2 act as elements that limit the current consumed by the lighter to 3...4 mA. While the SB1 button is not pressed, the lighter does not consume current. When the contacts of the button are closed, the diodes VD1, VD2 rectify the alternating voltage of the network, and the rectified current pulses charge the capacitor SZ. Over several periods of mains voltage, this capacitor is charged to the opening voltage of the dinistor VS1 (for KN102Zh - about 120 V). Now the capacitor quickly discharges through the low resistance of the open dinistor and the primary winding of the step-up transformer T1. In this case, a short current pulse appears in the circuit, the value of which reaches several amperes. As a result, a high voltage pulse appears on the secondary winding of the transformer and an electric spark appears between the electrodes of the E1 spark gap, which ignites the gas. And so - 5-10 times per second, i.e. with a frequency of 5...10 Hz. Electrical safety is ensured by the fact that if the insulation is broken and one of the wires connecting the adapter plug to the converter is touched by hand, the current in this circuit will be limited by one of the capacitors Cl or C2 and will not exceed 7 mA. Short circuit between connecting wires will also not lead to any dangerous consequences. In addition, the arrester is galvanically isolated from the network and is also safe in this sense. Capacitors Cl, C2, the rated voltage of which must be at least 400 V, and their shunting resistors Rl, R2 are mounted in an adapter plug housing, which can be made of sheet insulating material (polystyrene, plexiglass) or a plastic box of supply sizes can be used for this. The distance between the centers of the pins with which it is connected to a standard power socket should be 20 mm.
The rectifier diodes, capacitor SZ, dinistor VS1 and transformer T1 are mounted on printed circuit board dimensions 120X XI 8 mm, which, after checking, is placed in a plastic handle case of appropriate dimensions. The step-up transformer T1 is made on a 400NN ferrite rod with a diameter of 8 and a length of about 60 mm (a section of the rod intended for the magnetic antenna of a transistor receiver). The rod is wrapped in two layers of insulating tape, on top of which a secondary winding is wound - 1800 turns of PEV-2 wire 0.05-0.08. Winding in bulk, smooth from edge to edge. We must strive to ensure that the serial numbers of overlapping turns in the layers of wire are out of one hundred. The secondary winding along its entire length is wrapped in two layers of insulating tape and 10 turns of PEV-2 0.4-0.6 wire are wound on top of it in one layer - the primary winding. Diodes KD105B can be replaced with other small-sized ones with a permissible reverse voltage of at least 300 V or diodes D226B, KD205B. Capacitors S1-SZ types BM, MBM; the first two of them must be for a rated voltage of at least 150 V, the third - at least 400 V. The structural basis of the E1 arrester is a piece of metal tube 4 with a length of 100...150 and a diameter of 3...5 mm, at one end of which a metal thin-walled glass 1 with a diameter of 8...10 and a height of 15...20 mm is rigidly fixed (mechanically or by soldering). This glass, with slits in the walls, is one of the electrodes of the E1 arrester. Inside the tube, together with a heat-resistant dielectric 3, for example, a fluoroplastic tube or tape, a thin steel knitting needle 2 is tightly inserted. Its pointed end protrudes from the insulation by I... 1.5 mm and should be located in the middle of the glass. This is the second, central, electrode of the spark gap. The discharge gap of the lighter is formed by the end of the central electrode and the wall of the glass - it should be 3...4 mm. On the other side of the tube, the central electrode in insulation should protrude from it by at least 10 mm. The spark gap tube is rigidly fixed in the plastic housing of the converter, after which the spark gap electrodes are connected to the terminals of winding II of the transformer. Soldering areas are reliably insulated with pieces of polyvinyl chloride tube or insulating tape. If you don’t have a KN102Zh dinistor at your disposal, you can replace it with two or three dinistors of the same series, but with a lower switching voltage. The total opening voltage of such a chain of dinistors should be 120... 150 V. In general, the same dinistor can be replaced with its analogue, composed of a low-power thyristor (KU101D, KU101E) and a zener diode, as shown in Fig. 2. The stabilization voltage of a zener diode or several zener diodes connected in series should be 120. ..150 V. The diagram of the second version of the electronic “match” is shown in Fig. 3.
Due to the low voltage of battery G1 (D-0.25), it was necessary to apply a two-stage voltage conversion of the power source. In the first such stage, a generator operates on transistors VT1, VT2, assembled according to a multivibrator circuit [L], loaded onto the primary winding of step-up transformer T1. In this case, an alternating voltage of 50... 60 V is induced on the secondary winding of the transformer, which is rectified by diode VD3 and charges capacitor C4. The second stage of conversion, which includes dinistor VS1 and step-up transformer T2 with spark gap E1 in the secondary winding circuit, works in the same way as a similar unit in a network lighter. Diodes VD1, VD2 form a half-wave rectifier, periodically used to recharge the battery. Capacitor C1 dampens excess network voltage. Plug XI is installed on the lighter body. The circuit board for this type of lighter is shown in Fig. 4. The magnetic core of the high-voltage transformer T2 is a ferrite ring of 2000 NM or 2000 NN with an outer diameter of 32 mm. The ring is carefully broken in half, the parts are wrapped in two layers of insulating tape and 1200 turns of PEV-2 0.05-0.08 wire are wound on each of them. Then the ring is glued with BF-2 or “Moment” glue, the halves of the secondary winding are connected in series, wrapped with two layers of insulating tape and the primary winding is wound on top of it - 8 turns of PEV-2 wire 0.6-0.8. Transformer T1 is made on a ring made of the same ferrite as the magnetic core of transformer T2, but with an outer diameter of 15...20 mm. The manufacturing technology is the same. Its primary winding, which is wound second, contains 25 turns of PEV-2 0.2-0.3 wire, the secondary winding contains 500 turns of PEV-2 0.08-0.1. Transistor VT1 can be KT502A-KT502E, KT361A-KT361D; VT2 - KT503A - KT503E. Diodes VD1 and VD2 - any rectifier with a permissible reverse voltage of at least 300 V. Capacitor C1 - MBM or K73, C2 and C4 - K50-6 or K53-1, SZ - KLS, KM, KD. The switching voltage of the dinistor used should be 45...50 V. The design of the spark gap is exactly the same as that of a network lighter. Setting up this version of the electronic “match” comes down mainly to a thorough check of the installation, the design as a whole and the selection of resistor R2. This resistor must be of such a value that the lighter operates stably when the voltage of the battery supplying it is from 0.9 to 1.3 V. It is convenient to control the degree of battery discharge by the frequency of sparking in the spark gap. As soon as it drops to 2. ..3 Hz, this will be a signal that the battery needs to be recharged. In this case, plug XI of the lighter must be connected to the electrical network for 6...8 hours. When using a lighter, its spark gap must be removed from the flame immediately after ignition of the gas - this will extend the life of the spark gap.