Bug zapper not zapping

I found those blue light bug zappers to be very good at killing harmless moths and useless for mosquitos.

The best thing for moths is a computer fan strapped to the flex on the lightbulb pendant.

Trouble is - wasps just bounce off, and get very pissed off.

How do you test the secondary coil (4KVA 6W).

Air gapped coils iron core loop and the secondary is well coated in plastic covering, but easy access to the output.

Basically limited to some modern "electronic" multimeters.

T.I.A.

Maybe not measuring but can you take the output to a spark gap and see what eventuates ??

Measure resistance of the coil(s) and between windings, check input voltage and if there is a cap on the output replace it?

I kind of depends on what circuit it is, perhaps if you found one online that corresponds with what you have and link to it it would be helpful.

Just two wires from coil to grids. If there is any device, it is very small under the covering.

I should be able to find a string of resistors as suggested. That cheap bulk pack for the junk box has finally come in handy. Lol, I might even be able to find the two ?M? ones I purchased for 2/' as a kid when I turn up at the repair guys parts place wanting a "resistor". I was starting my own electronics kit.

and pissed off wasps come back for seconds and thirds.

Once I've read about a device that _did_ work.

It was emitting CO2 for some time, convincing the mosquitoes there was some breathing animal, then switched on an infra-red lamp, that could be reached through some large hole in the pot from where also the CO2 emanated, to signal a mammal, and of course the mosquitoes would have to pass an electrocution grid which got rid of them permanently.

It seemed to be very effective.

joe

I looked into them online a while ago. It seemed that different species have different success rates with such devices, and nobody knows the exact method mosquitoes use for tracking their prey. There was also another sort of trap that involved some sort of combustion that had to be maintained.

There was a comparison between a few of the CO2 devices online, somewhere. I don't think it was all that scientific though.

burn a fuel (eg: LPG) and you can produce both CO2 and infrared.

Many years ago I used to use a butane refill can and a lighter as an improvised flame thrower for dealing with flying insects.

My cassette player had no flap on the front, and while hunting down a persistent fly I flamed the deck and ruined a favourite tape.

AFAIK: the UK doesn't have any deadly spiders, just a few that can give a painful nip - in my flat, spiders are allowed to get on with the business of eating the things I'd less like to have around.

Right, but I wonder how much effort would have to be put into obtaining safety certification.

joe

}snip{

That one most certainly would _not_ get through the safety certification procedure. :)

Presumably no more than anything else that burns LPG. A bigger problem would be the fuel cost, and that unattended continually running fires need to be designed (and used) well to avoid setting other things alight.

I'm sort of in favour of the aimed laser approach. Apparently the beam from a DVD LD can set off match heads.

There's a few bugs to work out (excuse the pun) like what to use as a lure, and how to trigger the LD when the critter is in the focal point etc.

Upsize the laser in one of the laser lightshow devices that use a mirror galvanometer to deflect the beam in any X-Y position.

Detecting the position of the mozzie would be the hard part. The most distinctive emmission from a mozzie would probably be its noise when flying, so if you set up some microphones and filter the input for the right frequency, maybe you could triangulate the approximate position of the mozzie and move the laser in a path around that location (circle maybe) that makes it likely that the mozzie will be hit. The laser light show things can move extremely fast, so keeping up wouldn't be a problem. Dealing with echos and other influences on the sound detection would be the challenge though.

Unfortunately there's the fact that the laser beam will be burning marks into everything in the room, including people, and potentially starting fires too. But hey, after a few nights of itching and aerial bombardment I think most would agree it's a price worth paying.

My idea is a much simpler fixed LD - but that requires a pin point lure so the insect only settles where the beam goes.

On that basis a break beam opto sensor would be entirely sufficient.