D_Hall that's great news!
Something that might help you...
In my setup I wanted to get the spark event in the data recording stream. You could record the trigger voltage to the HV system but there is usually a delay between when the HV circuitry is triggered and when the spark gaps actually fire. (My cheapo stungun takes anywhere from a couple mS to a few tens of mS to spark once the trigger switch is closed.) You would probably like to know when the sparks actually fired and not when the HV circuit was turned on.
It's not a good idea to have the tens of KV of the sparker anywhere near the analog to digital converter though since it'll fry it for sure. You can just step the voltage down to a more reasonable level with a big ass resistor and a small resistor but that tends to load down the HV a fair amount.
A small neon indicator bulb (NE-2) or a small zenon flashtube can be used as an additional spark gap in the HV circuit. Just wire one in series with the spark gaps and it'll flash when the gaps spark. No spark at the indicator means no spark at the gaps. (But spark/flash at the bulb does not necisarily prove there was spark(s) at the gap(s).) Point a photodiode (or phototransistor) at the bulb and you have a optoisolator that'll handle tens, perhaps even hundreds, of KV. Protect the whole thing from light by enclosing it in an opaque container. Here's my setup in a 35mm film canister. The HV input/output are the screws on the right, you can see the NE-2 bulb near the center of the perf board and the phototransistor is to it's left.
This one is probably good to at least a few tens of KV. The voltage rating is limited by the nearest approach of the wires on the HV side to the wires on the low voltage side.
As I was fidling with the above setup I noticed that it gave a signal even if the light path was
completely blocked. So, another way to get the spark signal into the data stream is to just run a length of wire near the spark gap. The spark generates a lot of RF noise and most AD setups, even with only minor amplification, will pick up the RF noise the spark generates. The line input to a PC soundcard easily picks up the RF noise as long as at least part of the wire is not shielded. I'm sure your much more sophisticated data system will pick the RF up as well.
I suspect you may be grounding the "pipe dream" for safety reasons, so the RF from the firing gaps inside the gun might not make it out of the metal gun. The wiring outside the gun to the spark gaps might still make enough RF noise, or you could add an additional gap outside the chamber as a "radio transmitter". I think a NE-2 bulb would work as the external spark gap / radio transmitter and it would be a bit safer than having an exposed spark gap.
Spark gaps were one of the first radio transmitter designs.
Nice one Gippeto....
