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Using skin to complete a circuit

Former Member

In a recent article there was a excerpt about a Luger pistol(for those unfamiliar with firearms, a Luger is an early semi-auto pistol made in Germany), which had a special attachment flashlight. The light is activated by gripping the pistol in your hand, the are two small brass contacts that the skin touches and completes the circuit. My question is in reference to using this type of switch to turn a small laser diode, embedded in a pistol grip, on and off.

The laser diode that i have in mind is 3v and 30ma, would this be safe to use in this type of system? How much voltage and/or current could a human tolerate without death or injury?

For those interested the pistol that was my inspiration may be found here: Extremely rare Luger 'Night Pistol' featured early tactical light - Guns.com.

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  • 0

    Fantastic piece.

     

    The designers no doubt relied on the large brass plates to overcome the large resistance encountered in the human hand, as no suitable electronics existed for a reliable switch mechanism. A simple FET circuit could do the job today. however many shooters like to wear gloves, capacitive sense might work with gloves. or even using a switch that is activated when un-holstered.

     

    I'd prefer to be able to turn it off/on at a moments notice without removing my grip. This may not be the place to talk tactics, but it is worth some consideration.

  • 0 in reply to sqkybeaver

    very true on the tactics part, in my mind I envisioned a smaller brass contact that would be placed higher up and if you wanted to activate the light/laser you could press your thumb to the upper pad and the lower pad would be in the palm area.

    I Very rarely weat gloves(I live in south Louisiana, and it seldomly gets cold enough to force me to wear gloves). The normal tactile switch is the most popular and practical, but sometimes cooler/unique seems better to my skewed thought process.

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    any portion of the firearm can be part of the switch(except polymer frames) all that is needed is a single insulated pad. the rest acts as a ground. the addition of a flip-flop would give it the ability to toggle on/off.

     

    it can get pretty cold where I live, training/pratice usually involves both gloved and un-gloved hands regardless of weather.

     

    something practical is almost certainly always over done, we all know somebody who has one of these.

    image

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  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    any portion of the firearm can be part of the switch(except polymer frames) all that is needed is a single insulated pad. the rest acts as a ground. the addition of a flip-flop would give it the ability to toggle on/off.

     

    it can get pretty cold where I live, training/pratice usually involves both gloved and un-gloved hands regardless of weather.

     

    something practical is almost certainly always over done, we all know somebody who has one of these.

    image

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