Taming Godzilla

[Guest guest]

Recently I built a Godzilla paddles device for someone as a favor. I

tried it before handing it over to her. It was much too strong. I

wondered why. It was putting out 6.4 volts at the sponges.

I tried changing sponges, but same result--too strong.

Explanation: it's possible that a fresh highly charged battery, plus

a brand new set of stainless steel forks used could have accounted

for the huge current. It was really viciously powerful, too strong

to use on the facial area, for sure.

Stainless steel often forms an oxidation coating that limits the

current it will transmit. These forks apparently were either not

stainless or were coated with something (from China, probably) that

did not allow them to passivate and form the coating, so they allowed

a lot more current than normal into the sponges.

OK. I think one solution would be to put the battery into a lantern

and turn it on for an hour or more to discharge some of the higher

voltage and thus reduce the " oomph " .

What I wound up doing was to add a 100k variable resistor

(potentiometer) to the unit that would reduce the power. I just cut

one wire and attached the ends to the " pot " . This gave me a wide

range of power settings from completely un-feelable, to downright

nasty. The pot cost me 3 bucks from radio shack in Seattle. It's

exact name is: 100k linear potentiometer. It's a nice touch, should

not be needed all the time for all devices, but where you have a " hot

one " like this, it's a great way to tame it down.

bG

[Guest guest]

I have a 100K pot on mine, I would highly recommend that.  Maybe folks who dont

understand electronics can find a tinkerer who does?

~andy

From: baby_grand <no_reply >

Subject: Taming Godzilla

Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 4:36 PM

Recently I built a Godzilla paddles device for someone as a favor.

I

tried it before handing it over to her. It was much too strong. I

wondered why. It was putting out 6.4 volts at the sponges.

I tried changing sponges, but same result--too strong.

Explanation: it's possible that a fresh highly charged battery, plus

a brand new set of stainless steel forks used could have accounted

for the huge current. It was really viciously powerful, too strong

to use on the facial area, for sure.

Stainless steel often forms an oxidation coating that limits the

current it will transmit. These forks apparently were either not

stainless or were coated with something (from China, probably) that

did not allow them to passivate and form the coating, so they allowed

a lot more current than normal into the sponges.

OK. I think one solution would be to put the battery into a lantern

and turn it on for an hour or more to discharge some of the higher

voltage and thus reduce the " oomph " .

What I wound up doing was to add a 100k variable resistor

(potentiometer) to the unit that would reduce the power. I just cut

one wire and attached the ends to the " pot " . This gave me a wide

range of power settings from completely un-feelable, to downright

nasty. The pot cost me 3 bucks from radio shack in Seattle. It's

exact name is: 100k linear potentiometer. It's a nice touch, should

not be needed all the time for all devices, but where you have a " hot

one " like this, it's a great way to tame it down.

bG