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I have one of these modules:

HV transformer

Is it safe to connect it to two pins to my Raspberry Pi, directly, and turn it on by emitting HIGH on one of the pins (the other one being the ground), which is around 5V, if I am not wrong?

Will that use too much power from the Raspberry Pi or maybe burn it?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Without engineering data (no a link to a sales page dies not qualify) this is off topic here. But it sounds like a terrible technical idea, probably in pursuit of a misguided or improper goal. \$\endgroup\$ – Chris Stratton Apr 10 '19 at 7:09
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    \$\begingroup\$ There's nothing to be gained in casting aspersions on the OP's motives. Whatever these modules are, they're apparently cheap and plentiful on ebay, so plenty of people will likely be playing with them for all sorts of reasons. Best if they know how to do that without killing their Raspberry Pi's. :) \$\endgroup\$ – aroth Apr 10 '19 at 12:46
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The advert says it needs 5 Amperes. That’s hundreds of times more than a Raspberry Pi GPIO can supply.

You would need a driver, preferably with isolation, and a separate power supply capable of at least 5A. One solution would be a CPC709J, with a suitable series resistor for the LED.

You may well cause disruption or damage even with that, but the chances are better. You’re essentially putting a multi-watt spark-gap transmitter in close proximity to an unshielded microcomputer.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks! I think using a relay would be a solution too, right? \$\endgroup\$ – Ionică Bizău Apr 10 '19 at 8:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ Absolutely, but you also then need to build a relay driver, and relays don’t give perfect isolation either. \$\endgroup\$ – Spehro Pefhany Apr 10 '19 at 10:35
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Apart from not having enough energy to drive that circuit:

Generating sparks near a piece of electronics is never a good idea.

Although the circuit has protection on some of the I/O ports, especially the HDMI and USB interfaces, there is non on the GPIO pins. Those have the standard ESD protection which is designed for, well... ESD. It is NOT designed to handle the energy which comes from huge voltage sparks.

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The micro-lightning arc HV noise generator needs 1 or Li-Ion cells to power it. If should never be operated near any computer.

If it operates near an R-Pi, it will cause functional failure and possible damage to signal ports on cables acting as an antenna.

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