The Arm Blaster is a 225 Watt Battery-powered Tesla Coil system that is worn like a backpack. The Tesla Coil is mounted on the end of a rigid sleeve that fits over the operator's right arm. It is capable of generating 4" arcs and lighting up fluorescent light bulbs from a meter away. The Backpack Coil began as a helmet-mounted Tesla Coil invented by Greg Solberg, Brent Summers and myself during the spring of 1999. The Backpack Coil will run for many hours on a single charge. The battery is a 17 A-H lead-acid battery like the ones used for backup power in home alarm systems. I could get equivalent battery capacity from nickel-metal hydride batteries at a considerable savings in weight, but the lead battery is inexpensive and very durable.  The transformer is a 200 watt neon sign unit that puts out 9kVAC.  The spark gap unit inside is made of stainless steel shanks with tungsten buttons silver soldered on the ends.

People always ask me:  Does it hurt to get shocked by the Arm Blaster?  The answer is, yes it hurts, but it seems to be quite harmless.  I have been shocked by it hundreds of times with no ill effect!