Exploring a prototype cockroach zapper
Added 2020-10-13 16:56:37 +0000 UTCThis is an unusual thing. It's a well engineered prototype of a cockroach zapper that was specifically designed to inhibit their sensing ability, which would theoretically allow them to crawl back out of the unit, but limit their lifespan.
Because this is a prototype and shows signs of being very expensive to develop, I explain the circuitry, but don't show a full schematic. The circuitry would be very different these days. It may have been simplified in the final product - which I can't find online other than a science/art museum exhibit.
It's interesting to ponder how the Chinese cloners would have simplified the design to reduce the manufacturing cost. The base could be a PCB and the top could be another PCB with a cover, and a contact and safety switch for the bottom plate.
Comments
They must've experimented to determine the optimum voltage to blow off their antennae without actually killing them - so much for "no roaches were harmed in the development of this product"
Gordo
2020-10-25 13:42:36 +0000 UTCCan you send a clear well-lit picture of the board to me at bigclive1@gmail.com
Big Clive
2020-10-21 05:50:41 +0000 UTCHey Clive, I bought a bug zapper about 6 moths ago. Worked great till it stopped about two weeks ago. So taking it apart I found that one of the connectors from the board to the zap strip was corroded apart. Nicse easy fix. Right till I somehow forgot to unplug it while assembling it. Magic smoke came from the board. Blew two big diodes, and not sure about the big orange Chicklet caps. I think they are caps but not sure. There is no printing on them and no matter what I test them as, I get no reading at all. How would you replace something like that?
2020-10-20 15:00:18 +0000 UTCThanks for showing us this and thank also for your respect of the developer. You are a good man, Big Clive.
Michael Thompson
2020-10-16 16:29:42 +0000 UTCThis product seems to go back about 30 years. I don't think it was a commercial success.
Big Clive
2020-10-14 22:14:02 +0000 UTCIt would be interesting to see the insides of the final product. I enjoyed playing with the flyback drivers too. Drawing sparks onto my fingers until the smoke appeared.
Big Clive
2020-10-14 22:13:19 +0000 UTCThe whole idea sounds like a flop to me. People want to get rid of the roaches not blind them into a slow death. I think this product would fail in the marketplace. I think a super sticky disposable pad would be more effective.
Matt Larson
2020-10-14 14:29:38 +0000 UTCI used to design and build working prototypes for inventors etc (industrial design). Patents are only as good as the ability to enforce them.
Wim
2020-10-14 12:38:52 +0000 UTCOh neato. I'm pretty certain I still have a production version stored in NZ I must locate (and open) it if and when I can get back.. This is very very similar to the "Plasma ball" drivers of the day which used a flyback, but a 555 timer to generate the right PWM. Oh did I have fun with those things in my youth!
Anton
2020-10-14 12:37:57 +0000 UTCI remember when I worked in Westminster and saw cockroaches in large numbers. When I spoke to a friend who was a public heath inspector for Westminster he told me he would not eat at any restaurant in Westminster due to the cockroach problem they all had. I'm glad some has come up with a way of Zapping them.
Jeremy Travis
2020-10-14 10:47:36 +0000 UTCThe circuitry is different and the description is more like a normal insect killer aside from the pulsed high voltage. It doesn't specifically indicate the antennae zapping.
Big Clive
2020-10-14 04:11:35 +0000 UTCNow I have even more doubts about releasing that video, since the device seems to harbour a shit-ton of remorse. The last thing I want is litigation for revealing their special secret design.
Big Clive
2020-10-14 04:08:09 +0000 UTCThe battery may have been so that it could be demonstrated without needing a power supply.
Mike Hanley
2020-10-13 22:48:52 +0000 UTCWinding the primary over the secondary like that, creates a tighter magnetic coupling, than the "usual" way. Some SPMS transformers will go as far as winding half the primary, then the secondary, then the rest of the primary. This way, the secondary is as tightly coupled as it's possible. At the expense of complicated winding. In this case, not enough number of turns in the primary winding, to make split winding possible. In magnetism, distance is your enemy.
MarkM
2020-10-13 22:27:03 +0000 UTCThe amount of people who google bad dragon are going to be scarred for life....
2020-10-13 22:22:09 +0000 UTCDoes this patent relate? Sounds like it from a brief scan, company name matches and circuit diagram included. https://patents.google.com/patent/US4949500
David Jackson
2020-10-13 20:18:03 +0000 UTCLooks "like trouble at mill" search for Nabinda in the link Womboin Pty Ltd and Anor v Reichelt and Ors No. 5175 http://casesvrcgem4gnb5.onion.ly/en/act-au1-314188.html extract Deed of Licence 4. Danlex was licensed by a Deed dated 19 September 1988 to exploit and market in Australia, and on certain conditions elsewhere, the intellectual property rights to an invention known as the "Cockroach Zapper"
John Harrison
2020-10-13 18:34:15 +0000 UTCIt's designed like a bumper car track, maybe you could lower the voltage and have a toy where cockroachs come out faster than they go in. But more seriously, the part where they walk away makes it much more effective, no need to clean out trap as often, it would just keep working. The best ant poison I've used to date was designed to kill them several hours after they eat the bait. It gives them time to alert the others and to bring the poison back to the nest. An electric version of a similar concept.
Jim
2020-10-13 17:56:25 +0000 UTC
