Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!iscuva!jimc From: jimc@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Jim Cathey) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Bug-Zapper Message-ID: <1750@iscuva.ISCS.COM> Date: 14 Jul 88 15:49:29 GMT References: <3118@ihlpe.ATT.COM> <1743@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> Organization: ISC Systems Corporation, Spokane, WA Lines: 28 In article <3118@ihlpe.ATT.COM>, jph@ihlpe.ATT.COM (452is-Hayes) writes: > How can you make a homemade electric/electronic bug-zapper? Looking > for something fairly uncomplicated. Can it be something as simple as sections > of a grid each hooked to the 2 different plates of a sizeable electrolytic > charged sufficiently so that when a bug bridges the grid it gets > zapped by the cap's discharge thru its body and then re-charges? > Or is there more to it than that? I suspect that that wouldn't work for more than the first bug. I think the commercial units use a heavy-duty step-up transformer to provide a lot of power to the grid (something like a neon light transformer or an oil burner ignition transformer). This is to burn away the dead bug's body. A lightweight capacitor probably won't store enough energy to both kill the bug and burn it away if it should stick. For sure the trickle charger you were talking about couldn't burn the bug off. By the way I don't think you can get an electrolytic cap that would be suitable. A better bet would be a HV capacitor charged to an extremely high voltage. I've seen some Leyden jar demos using a Van de Graff generator for charging that would do a nice number on a bug! +----------------+ ! II CCCCCC ! Jim Cathey ! II SSSSCC ! ISC Systems Corp. ! II CC ! TAF-C8; Spokane, WA 99220 ! IISSSS CC ! UUCP: uunet!iscuva!jimc ! II CCCCCC ! (509) 927-5757 +----------------+ "With excitement like this, who is needing enemas?"