The Electric Deck of Cards

this looks like a deck of cards it feels
like a deck of cards and it even handles
like a deck of cards but this little
gadget has a very shocking secret in
this project you’ll see how Stewart edge
was able to give these lucky ladies and
electrifying first kiss
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you
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for this project we’re turning a cheap
disposable camera into an electric
shocker it’s been disguised as an
innocent-looking deck of cards your
audience will have no idea there’s over
300 volts of electricity pumping through
it the secret is in this modified
shocker circuit hiding just under the
surface it’s powered by a single
triple-a battery it has a dial for
cranking up the voltage taking a couple
of cards from the stack reveals the
hidden electrodes and you can see
they’re charged with nearly 330 volts DC
if both of the pads are touched it
shoots out a wicked jolt of electricity
you might get a better idea of how this
feels if we use the device to charge a
capacitor and touch some metal of course
in the kissing trick the power is
significantly less but still high enough
to feel the magic okay to make this
gadget Stewart gave me a fresh deck of
cards and some spares from his other
kissing pranks I also picked up this
disposable camera from the photo center
of a local drugstore this one was used
and in their recycling bin along with
hundreds of others so I got it for free
if you want to find the exact same style
just look for this model number printed
on the casing alright let’s get inside
this thing by breaking the front panel
off and this should expose the circuit
board now there’s a good chance you’ll
get shocked if you try this barehanded
but releasing the board is as simple as
pushing the plastic cast to the side and
pulling upward this is the circuit that
drives the camera flash the various
components are powered with a double a
battery and work together to charge this
330 volt capacitor which you can see
stores a pretty nasty shock now we could
use this by itself but it’s way too big
to hide in a deck of cards to do that
we’ll have to reverse engineer the
schematics and shrink it down a lot we
can use something like a D soldering
iron to remove the five components we’ll
need and I’ve switched out the double-a
battery with a smaller triple-a battery
to work with this schematic now this is
the tricky part we don’t have room for
bulky wires so we’ll need to solder
everything directly to the pins on the
transformer in a way that keeps the
components in line while maintaining a
low profile for convenience and changing
out the batteries let’s incorporate a
triple-a battery holder
I’m also adding a 1 megaohm tuning
potentiometer so we’ll be able to adjust
the intensity of the electric shock this
pot has three legs
but we only need two so let’s trim the
one on the right ok it’s time to add
some wire and I scavenge this thin cable
from some scrap electronics
we’ll just need to strip the ends and
solder them in place this is a good time
to connect the potentiometer just behind
the diode so the dial is flush with the
top now let’s solder the Shocker circuit
to the battery holder so we end up with
one wire that attaches to battery
positive and an additional wire that
attaches to battery negative and then
continues on out the circuitry here is
streamlined I’m looking pretty good but
it’s very fragile so I’ve wrapped a bit
of paper around the edges to make a form
we’re adding copious amounts of hot glue
I’m hoping this will seep down into the
gaps and give the Shocker circuit more
durability that we’ll need to cool for
about five minutes then we can peel off
the paper and add a little more glue to
any parts that got missed to finish it
up I gave it a new paper jacket and a
bit of black ink well that completes the
Shocker circuit so now it’s time to rig
the deck I’m thinking the best place to
conceal the Shocker will be near the
back it looks like it could be a tight
fit but it should work these components
are shorter than the deck and stand
about 40 cards high that means there are
12 cards here that won’t need any
modification but these other ones are
going to need to be cut since there are
so many cards to cut I made this plastic
template to use as a cutting guide
holding the card firmly in place we can
use something like a razor or this hobby
knife to make the cuts I’ve also done
this with scissors but it’s harder and
the result isn’t as clean all right
we’ve got 40 cards modified and a quick
alignment on the edges shows the
containment area is fairly uniform now
we’ll need to grab a new card and mark
where the circuit is going to sit I’ve
cut a quarter inch hole because we need
some stealthy electrodes that will be
smooth and lie flat so they can’t be
detected I’ll be using this piece of
conductive foil tape that you can get
the hardware store you can see here how
the tape gets folded inside the card and
once in position it can be trimmed and
smoothed out with a firm piece of
plastic like a credit card or a hotel
room key the other electrode gets added
on the opposite side making sure there’s
a good gap between
– and the finished base should look like
this the last three steps are to trim up
the wires so they’re held in firm
contact with the conductive metal tape
add a bit of hot glue to the underside
of the unit and reinforce the
connections to ensure they won’t pull
apart now the circuit is ready for
operation and when a battery is inserted
this will deliver a continuous electric
shock to anyone that makes contact with
the metal tape the modified cards turn
out to be a perfect fit and since
nothing is glued in place they can move
freely to give the illusion that is just
a normal deck now if you’re concerned
about accidentally shocking yourself you
can reduce the risk by placing a card or
two over the Shocker pads the remaining
cards stack on top and our modification
is complete what’s really cool about
this is it even fits back in the
original packaging but just for fun
Stewart picked up a little nice for
carrying case this gives the trick a
slightly more professional look and
makes it a hundred percent ready for his
electric shock kissing prank to get the
sparks flying you can see Stewart holds
one end of the Shocker pad and uses his
magic trick as a decoy to get his
volunteer to hold the other side the
circuit will complete when they touch
and if the touch happens to be a kiss
oh they feel the magic well there you
have it now you know how to convert a
simple deck of cards into a stealthy
secret shocker if you liked this project
perhaps you’ll like some of my others
check them out at the king of random
calm
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