How to Use a Disposable Camera to Start a Fire
A disposable camera, with functional batteries, contains everything that you need to start a fire. While this is not the most straightforward trick to use, you never know when it will come in handy during a crisis. Take a look at the steps below to see how easy it is to make some modifications in order to start a fire when you don’t have matches or a lighter.
Required Items
Disposable camera with a flash
Soldering Iron and solder
Hot glue gun
Some wire
Wire Cutters or a knife
Getting Started
The first step is to remove the battery from the camera and pull apart the casing. Most cameras do not contain screws that secure the casing together, so prying it apart shouldn’t be that difficult. However, you may need a mini screwdriver if yours has screws. Once the casing has been removed, you can examine the circuit board and area near the flash. Each flash is powered by a unit that is commonly called a capacitor, and it’s pretty recognizable even if the design differs from camera to camera. Don’t touch any metal part of the capacitor with any metallic object or it may short out.
There should be two wires that connect the capacitor to the circuit board. You want to take your screwdriver and push these two wires together in order to release any charge that may be stored in the capacitor. If there is a residual charge that needs to be discharged, the flash will go off once these two wires connect. If no charge is present, then you can work on modifying the camera. Remove the circuit board that contains the flash and capacitor and set aside.
Modifying the Casing
There should be two cylinders on the opposite casing that you just removed the circuit board from. On one side of this casing, there should be two holes or a depression in the center. You want to drill through these holes so that you create holes on the opposite side of this particular cylinder. This cylinder is usually opposite the one that holds the lens mechanism.
The next step is to solder a wire to each of the metal leads that extend from the capacitor. These usually look like two metallic prongs. Strip some insulation from the ends of each wire and solder one wire to each lead. Try to make each wire about six inches long in order to make lighting the fire easier later. Next, you want to feed the wires through the holes that you’ve just drilled while re-inserting the capacitor and circuit board back in the housing of the camera. Re-assemble the camera. The finished product should have two wires sticking out of one side along with a camera that is intact.
Starting the Fire
All you need to do is put the battery back in the camera and then place the ends of each wire into your tinder. Press the flash button, and it will discharge a current that should be powerful enough to ignite your fire-starting material. If you don’t want to have long wires sticking out of the camera, you can shorten them so that just enough of the exposed wire extends from the side. Then, you can press the wires and camera against the tinder and accomplish the same thing.
The main benefit to this trick is that it is a re-usable fire starter that will work as long as the wires remain connected and the battery is charged. Try it for yourself, and feel free to improve on this basic concept in order to adapt it to meet your needs. While this project is a little complex compared to other fire-starting options, it is a reliable and reusable option, and you never know when you can put it to good use.
