Bug Zapper Design

I assumed it has a cheesy flyback circuit to create the high voltage. I never opened mine up, though they are cheap enough to learn by destruction. Harbor Freight has them on sale for a few dollars every so often.

OT, but while Harbor Freight items are generally crap, I have found these stepped drill bits to work great: I made a power distribution box using XLR connectors, and these drill bits were better than using a chassis punch.

Wow! $3.99 for a racket zapper. If I did the CAD design and electronics design, I would charge about $4000.00CAD That translates to lots of swatters to be sold just to pay me.

D from BC

There's not much to one.. I just took one apart yesterday to fix the switch (mechanical problem-- the thin rod of plastic backing it up had broken off). They use a little maybe 2cm x 2cm core transformer (ordinary, not with the spaced-out HV windings), (I think) a single transistor oscillator and a fat film capacitor on the DC output. The board could be layed out in about 20 minutes if you are really, really, REALLY slow.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Yup, home made attachment to a 5 hp shop vac with electrocuting passive tube in it. side attachment for a long pole to get the hose up near a nest if you want to do that or simply place it over the exit hole in the ground if you know where it is. Just turn it on and let it suck for a while.

It was something I saw used made by an animal rescue/control professional. He got tired of getting hit by bee's while trying to rescue animals from trees and such. his truck has an on board generator to operate it.

--
"I\'m never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken"
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5

Cool... a 5hp wasp nest sucker.. :)

D from BC

...

Yes, a single transistor blocking oscillator with a voltage multiplier on the output--doubler or tripler as I recall. Perhaps the most surprising thing to me was the output cap, something like 0.01uF at

630V. It charges to 4kV. I suppose they test each briefly and if the cap holds, they ship it. Or maybe they don't even bother with the testing.

Cheers, Tom

LOL. I visually estimated the voltage to be 4kV, but the cap was rated at only 400V. Must have been an even cheaper one than you saw.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Once, in Minnesota, I was at a friend's house, whose backyard sort of segued into woods. Out on the back porch at night, you could literally see clouds of mosquitos. Luckily, the guy had some 15% DEET that he'd picked up at the military surplus store - OD tube and everything, presumably for the jungle. It was terribly greasy, tenacious, and thick, sticky, gooey, so sticky gooey that it was hard to rub on, but it sure did the trick!

But sucking up those clouds of skeeters into an electric zapper vac sounds even more humane than sucking them up into a wet-vac, where they'd drown. At least the zapper is quick.

I've heard, though, that the standalone zappers with the purple/ UV lamp kill all of the wrong bugs. For skeeters you need warm beer, not UV.

Cheers! Rich

Yup..I think I caught a bit on some webpage about UV not attracting mosquitoes. IIRC it's CO2, heat and smell.

For clouds of mosquitoes, how about a giant rotating electric grid that sweeps the air.. Maybe a 6ft x 6ft zapping grid/fence that rotates like a radar antenna.

D from BC

Yeah that's it. Check out the car protector! :-)

If the plasma misses the mosquitoes perhaps the heat and ozone might.

I think it would be cheaper to use a flamethrower than use a Tesla coil to kill mosquitoes :P D from BC

You can kill the Tesla coil with the flamethrower too.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

The neighbors will thank you, too.

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Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

US Military flamethrower M9A1-7

Die mosquitoes! Die! :P D from BC

I think a 6-foot grid swinging around at face level would kind of disrupt the lawn party. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Yabut, can you kill a flamethrower with a Tesla coil? ;-)

Thanks, Rich

I think your recollection is correct. I suppose the ideas tossed out here are all in good fun, if not actually practical, but you can get mosquito killing systems that are apparently pretty effective. I remember first hearing about these things about five years ago. At that time, they ran on propane, typically, using it to attract the 'skeeters with the CO2 exhaust, providing that heat, adding some "smell," and incinerating the buggers with the close-in version of the heat. I see that "modern" ones use a tank of CO2, a heat signature that looks like a small mammal's body, generally some sort of "smell," and commonly an electric zapper that wipes the bug out when it nears the pseudo-mammal. They attract biting insects, so they tend to leave the non-biting ones alone--some of which are beneficial.

Heard recently: "Thank you, God, for all the beasts. Except maybe for mosquitos. I don't know what you were thinking of when you put those here. But thank you at least for DEET."