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:

1. Voltage converter;
2. 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 for 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.

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, resulting in a hot spark 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.

A simple, economical, homemade lighter for igniting gas. 12 parts. Power supply 1.2 V. The first converter, an asymmetrical multivibrator, is assembled on transistors VT1-VT2. Winding 1 of transformer TP2-step-up transformer is connected to the collector circuit VT2. From its secondary winding, high-frequency voltage is supplied to the rectifier diode. The rectified voltage charges capacitor C2, which in turn opens the thyristor VS1, the open thyristor closes the charged capacitor to winding 1 of the high-voltage transformer Tr1. A high-voltage discharge occurs on winding 2. The capacitor is discharged, the thyristor closes, and the storage capacitor is charged again C2.

Transformer Tr2, taken from a broken phone charger. To remove the ferrite core, you need to heat it. After removing the windings, wind 500 turns of wire with a diameter of approximately 0.08 mm onto the frame. This will be winding 2. Next, insulate the winding with one or two layers of tape and wind the primary winding in the same direction as the secondary. It contains 10 turns of wire with a diameter of about 0.4-0.8 mm. How to check the operation of the converter is shown in the video.

High voltage transformer Tr1, second voltage converter, wound on a ferrite rod from the magnetic antenna of a long and medium wave radio receiver. Using a blade for cutting tiles, I sawed the ferrite shallowly in a circle. Then I simply broke it with my hands. The length of the ferrite was 3 cm, but it could probably be less. Wrap the ferrite with one layer of tape and glue it on the sides “cheeks”, and wind the high-voltage winding-2. The first terminal of this winding, which will come out of the coil, MUST be threaded through PVC insulation to prevent it from breaking due to bending. Wrap 300 turns with a wire with a diameter of 0.06-0.1 mm. Wrap this layer with three layers of tape, making sure that the edges of the tape touch the cheeks, otherwise there will be a breakdown in this place. To prevent the coil from unwinding during winding, it must be glued with a drop of glue. Five layers of 300 turns should be laid on the ferrite. Wind in one direction. In case of breakage thin wire, it can be welded with a lighter. Twist two wires and heat the end of the twist until a round piece appears. Then carefully pull the two wires, and you can continue winding. Insulate the high-voltage winding with three layers of tape, and in the same direction as the secondary, wind the primary It contains 10 turns of wire 0.6-0.8mm. A layer of adhesive tape and the coil is ready.

Ready coils.

I selected transistors and found the best option for the operation of the first converter. These are the common transistors kt361 and c3205. Instead of kt361, kt3107 is suitable. Instead of c3205-kt815, s8050, bd135. I did not select a thyristor, because it is also common, but will probably fit from the same series mcr100-...Resistors R3-R4 serve for the opening threshold of the thyristor. By choosing them, you can strengthen the spark at the output. The diodes must be fast-switching, see datasheets. Suitable: ps158r;fr155p ;fr107;fr103.

The arc that ignites the gas is about 5-6mm long. A shorter arc length will not ignite the gas. The arc is not dangerous, there is a tingling sensation, like from a piezo lighter. The battery should last for a long time. I tested it for an hour with a battery with a capacity of 2800 mA * 1.2 V, left it on , and sparks were playing on my table for a whole hour. I checked the battery and it was not discharged.
Here are two videos on how to make a lighter for igniting a gas stove.

Probably everyone has heard and seen on YouTube lighters (for cigarettes or a gas stove) that produce an electric arc, but in this design, thanks to modulation, sound effects are also obtained - a kind of plasma speaker. The design contains a Li-ion battery that powers the transistor switches. The control signal of the transistors comes out of the microcontroller PIC12F1840. It generates a 15 kHz PWM signal, and modulation to the rhythm of music allows you to broadcast sound through a burning electric arc. You will find the program code and diagram below.

Schematic diagram of a plasma lighter

Scheme of a plasma singing lighter on a microcontroller

How does this work

The program controls the transformer using complementary PWM signals at a carrier frequency of 15 kHz to generate an arc.

It then modulates the signal (and therefore the plasma arc) at audio frequencies to create a melody.

The photographs show a ready-made factory device, but using the diagram above, you can assemble such a plasma singing lighter yourself -.

Disassembled device
Electric lighter - board with parts
Lighter with modulated electric arc

The electric lighter is powered by a lithium battery of suitable size, for example from an old mobile phone or a battered smartphone. The battery is charged from Micro-USB () via a charger chip LTC4054.

Video of the lighter working

Now let's think about where we can use this filling? There are a lot of options, we will consider only the most interesting ones, which can serve as the basis for more serious projects.

So, the first design based on a Chinese electric gas lighter is a device for transmitting electric current without wires.

In fact, such a device is outrageously simple, you don’t even need to redo anything. First, we disassemble the lighter and remove the mechanism. We unsolder the high-voltage coil, then we need to wind two circuits. Circuits are needed to transmit and receive electrical current.

The transmitting circuit is not critical (and neither is the receiving circuit); in my case, the circuit is wound on a pipe with a diameter of 20 cm. The winding wire was used with a diameter of 0.6 mm, the number of turns was 40. This circuit is soldered in place of the high-voltage transformer. The second circuit is the receiving circuit, in my case it is wound with 0.4 mm wire and contains 80 turns. You can wind it on anything, the diameter of the frame is from 5 to 20 cm.

To check the functionality of such a system, you need to connect an LED (any color, polarity is not important) to the terminals of the receiving circuit through a 1 kilo-ohm limiting resistor. The operating frequency of the converter is about 80-120 hertz. A voltage is generated in the receiving circuit, the frequency of the current is equal to the frequency of the pulses that are supplied to the receiving circuit. As you can see, the LED in this case is not powered by direct current, but the bursts are very fast and the human eye is not able to see the intervals and we perceive such light as constant.

So, we looked at one of the simplest methods of inductive current transmission without wires. Thus, you can transmit current over 10-15 cm, you just have to ask yourself the question - where to apply it? This method can be used everywhere - from wireless chargers for mobile phones and laptops, to Tesla transformers. I won’t explain the diagrams and designs in detail, I’ll just throw out a few ideas.

1) From the receiving coil we receive a high frequency current, it can be rectified, then stabilized and used to power or charge autonomous devices.

The second design based on a Chinese electric gas lighter is a charger from one AA battery. You can charge both a mobile phone and receivers and players.

Original scheme

Remaking the circuit in the memory

The design of such a charger is quite simple. Again, you need to disassemble the lighter and unsolder half of the components from the board. From the board we need a converter based on a self-oscillator. The converter consists of a transformer, a transistor and a base resistor. We also leave a pulse diode on the board, which is necessary for rectifying the current. Next we need a 5.6 volt zener diode and an electrolytic capacitor. The capacitance of the capacitor is not critical (100-1000 µF), the voltage should be 10-50 volts.

As a result, we have a simple charger for a mobile phone from one battery, the assembly of which does not require much effort. The most interesting thing is that you can even use AA batteries, and with a voltage of 1.2 volts, the device continues to operate even if the voltage on the battery is about 1 volt. All you have to do is find a suitable case and you will have a full-fledged field charger for mobile devices.

As mentioned above, Chinese lighters with electronic filling are too weak. The other day I decided to strengthen one of these lighters for its intended use, since without modification it is not capable of igniting gas.

The internals are standard - a converter and a high-voltage coil. The device works very simply: voltage from a AA battery is supplied to a self-oscillating converter, and a voltage of 40-50 Volts is generated at the output of the first transformer. This voltage is then rectified through a pulse diode and accumulated in a capacitor. In this case, a 50 volt 0.33 µF film capacitor was used. Once the capacitor is fully charged, part of the voltage is applied to the control electrode of the thyristor, causing the latter to open. By opening the thyristor, the capacitor gives all its potential to the primary winding of the high-voltage coil, i.e. the capacitance of the capacitor is discharged into this winding. As a result, an electromagnetic field is formed and an electric current is generated on the secondary winding. The voltage reaches up to 7 kV due to the large number of turns, so electrical discharges can be observed.

The frequency of opening of discharges at the output is proportional to the frequency of opening of the thyristor per minute. The frequency of these discharges directly depends on the supply voltage. To increase the frequency, two batteries were used. Nickel-cadmium batteries total voltage 2.4 volts, capacity 250 mA.

With this power supply, the discharge frequency increased at least 3 times; three batteries could be used, but there was not enough space in the case. Next I decided to strengthen the savings part. To do this, another capacitor was soldered in parallel to the main capacitor, exactly the same as the first. As a result, the total capacitance of both capacitors is 0.66 μF. Thus, the discharges became brighter and the frequency increased. The converted lighter does its job successfully. In the future it is planned to add a built-in charger from a 220 volt network.