I've always wanted to buy a zapper, but the fact that they don't attract mosquitos is an overwhelming downer. I've also heard that they don't last very long... some people have said they have to replace em every spring because the electrical components just don't hold up. its a fuckin atrocity (sorta lol)

anywho, I was thinking it wouldn't be to hard to build one, and if I can integrate mosquito killing into it then I'd really like to. I need advice on a few parts of it though...

power supply:
It seems like most of these that you can buy run 1500-3000 volts between the grids. My friend has a 5000v transformer that he bought used somewhere online, which i'm pretty sure is meant to power neon signs. It looks almost just like this http://tinyurl.com/4fqmac but considerably older. The outside is made of some kinda heavy ceramic... The whole thing must weigh atleast 8 pounds. We used it for a DIY ozone generator, which was 2 metal grids suspended in a plexiglass box with a hose on the side, so when we smoked pot in his parents basement, we could blow the hit into that and it zapped away most of the smell.

I also found ones like these http://tinyurl.com/45rypr on a quick ebay search. Those look nice cause they're much smaller and lighter and could be mounted more easily, but i'm not sure if it'll work...

"The unit has Secondary Ground Fault Protection and will shutdown in the event an output point is grounded or the output is shorted. Power Supply will resume normal operation once the short circuit or ground fault is corrected and the unit is cycled off and on via line plug or pull chain switch. These units are not intended for use on projects such as Jacob's Ladder or Electronic Air-Cleaners/Ozone Generators. They can not be used to produce an arc or generate ozone"

Can anyone give me some more details about this? Does it shut off if the device doesn't have enough resistance, or does it shut off if you disconnect it from the device, or both? I don't know if my friends big heavy ceramic one has this feature, but I've never seen it faulter. the ozone generator we used it in had a piece of glass between the grids for safety, and the charge found a place it could sneak around, and it started melting a rut through the glass... pretty scary but point being no safety feature engaged. Any input?

Most of these say "indoor use only" on them. How dangerous is it to have em outside? I'd have it sealed up in the base of the zapper and make sure doesn't let water in there and stuff. Would it be ok or am i asking for a fire?


Grid arrangement:
At first I thought the best way to go would be 3 grids... the innermost would be about 0.5mm wide gaps, the middle would be about 1mm, and the outermost would be about 4mm. The inner and outer grids would be connected to one of the leads, and the middle one would be connected to the other one, like a paralell circuit. This seems like it'd be good because the smallest insects would get hung up between the inner and middle grids, but the large holes in the outer grid would let moths june bugs zecaytas etc complete the circuit as well.
Question: if the grid is arranged in this way, is there any way that the inner:middle gap could have a lesser charge than the outer:middle? I think this would be necessary because the inner and middle would need to be closer than the outer and middle, cause smaller insects can't bridge as big of a gap. But if the inner:middle had the same voltage as the outer:middle, it would probably be randomly arcing all the time, which can't be good for a power supply. Or is it ok?
If an inner/middle/outer setup wouldn't work, I guess I'd just use grids with hole sizes of the inner and outer. Which would be best? Is it ok to have the gap between grids larger than the insect that will typically be in it? Will they flutter around against it enough trying to get inside that they'll bridge the circuit even with mediocre contact?


Attracting Mosquitos:
I'd still have UV light inside, but being able to kill mosquitos is a must. Since they go for carbon dioxide and heat, i would think that some kinda candle or burning thing would be effective. Is there any good electrical means to produce CO2 for cheap? Like electrically catyalyzing some item... i dunno. If not, what would be some good fuel choices to try for a candle-type setup? Something that doesn't burn too hot, but puts out a ton of CO2 and will burn very slowly for a long duration.



Well that's all I got for now. Sorry for the long fuckin post. Hope some ppl can help me with these hurdles though. A lot of people are allready supporting the idea as good drunk entertainment, so if it's doable I'd really like to get some input and draw up more solid plans for it.

thanks
-Jon

I'd still have UV light inside, but being able to kill mosquitos is a must. Since they go for carbon dioxide and heat, i would think that some kinda candle or burning thing would be effective. Is there any good electrical means to produce CO2 for cheap? Like electrically catyalyzing some item... i dunno. If not, what would be some good fuel choices to try for a candle-type setup? Something that doesn't burn too hot, but puts out a ton of CO2 and will burn very slowly for a long duration.

Dry ice is generally used to attract mosquitos away from outdoor events. Just put a block in the corner of the yard, away from the guests and the mosquitos go straight for it.

There are also propane burners that do the same job. Just hook up a propane tank and it burns for a long fucking time producing a lot of CO2 and warmth.

A friend of mine hooked tens of thousands of volts to a tennis racket. Epic.

A friend of mine hooked tens of thousands of volts to a tennis racket. Epic.

how would that work? you have to have atleast 2 separate conductive points/surfaces/grids for the insect to get between and cause a short circuit. Hooking a power supply to a tennis racket (given its metal strung) would either not do anything cause the other lead isnt attached to anything, or itd short circuit itself and wreck ur transformer if you had both leads on the strings. i don't get it... Either this thing ur friend made is beyond me, or you just saw one of those handheld racket-style zappers and made that up.


Dry ice's shelf life basically doesn't exist, and it gets expensive to buy it very frequently. propane burning mosquito traps drain a 20 pound tank in about 3 weeks, which really isnt that bad, but i'm not a home owner looking to clear an acre of pests for the long term. I just want to get them away from me when we're outside, not to mention those things would take up a good 20% of our space.

Can anyone comment on my issues w/the power supply or the co2 production?

Can anyone comment on my issues w/the power supply or the co2 production?

Sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid produce CO2. Any carbonate or bicarb plus any acid release CO2 for that matter. Yeast would also work.

Yeast ...in a sealed 5gal water jug with a valve so you can open it and bleed out the pressure when you want to use the bug zapper.

A small propane flame would also produce CO2.


Find out how much CO2 people exhale on average and then go from there to find out how much you need to produce. I'm sure you can use a little chemistry or biology to figure out how much you'll get from fire or yeast. You're going to be an engineer aren't you?

I had a solution for a cheap CO2 lure. You can read it here (http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Economical_20CO2_20mosquito_20lure).

Excellent link Tzar. And I'm kicking myself in the head right now jono- I just cleaned out a barn for a dude and threw away a [broken] mosquito zapper that was fucking four feet tall. Absolute beast of a zapper, it could probably kill small children. Fuck!

Thanks for the replies guys,

I think the acid/base thing could work excellently if it were set up well. I may mess with that a little.

spat tzar, i think i've seen that link before when you or someone has posted it, and it is indeed an excellent idea, but a) our apartment is all-electric... no gas appliances or anything. and b) the landlords wouldn't take kindly to us messing around with such things for a project like this. thanks for chiming in though. when i have my own home i definately wanna do that.


let me know what you guys think... thanks again for the help
-Jon

From an old thread of mine I said the average human exhales 990g of carbon dioxide per day. So that's 41.25g per hour.

Now a candle would have to burn at a rate of 13.19g per hour to produce that amount of carbon dioxide. Propane would have to burn at a rate of 13.75g per hour.

To make it electrically controlled you could have a valve on a small propane tank opened by a solenoid. Rather than igniting propane, it's easier to run it through a catalyst. A catalytic converter from a car will work.

One of these firing at the center of your device should not only produce plenty of CO2 + heat, but it would probably up the "wow factor" significantly.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carbon-Arc-Lights/