The Way To Replace The Fluorescent Starter In A Windhager Bug Zapper
Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. In the summer time, bugs are all over the place. Faced with this case, defence in depth is the one choice: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, mosquito-free evenings fly strips on the windows and swatters in every room, and mosquito-free evenings because the final level of terminal defence, excessive voltage bug zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These should not elegant devices, however they get the job completed. The precept couldn't be less complicated-flying insects, whose compound eyes see long-wave ultraviolet light that mammalian eyes don't, are attracted by the lure tube, which appears to emit a dim blue gentle to people. To reach the light, they have to fly between wires electrified with between four and eight kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The only drawback (at the least if you aren't a flying insect) is that they do not appear to last very lengthy. After just a little multiple summer season, the bulb either starts to flash on and off like a strobe gentle or simply refuses to gentle in any respect.
Replacement bulbs are readily obtainable and simple to put in, however in my experience, at the least half the time replacing the bulb doesn't repair the problem. With no mild to draw the insects, a zapper is ineffective, so even though its excessive voltage subsystem continues to work perfectly, most people junk it when altering the bulb does not make it gentle up. I'm manner too cheap to be pleased with such a state of affairs, so I decided to open up a failed bug zapper and see what was going on. The source of the issue proved to be so simple as I anticipated and as simple to remedy, so in the hope of saving someone else the difficulty of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on find out how to repair your personal UV bug zapper zappers. These instructions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager firm of Salzburg, Austria, who have a dominant market share on this obscure industry right here in Central Europe.
Obviously, when you have a bug zapper made by another firm, it will look totally different inside and may conceivably use a completely different circuit for the fluorescent lamp. Unless you perceive what you are doing and know enough electronics to be confident you're not going to do something stupid, it is best to leave things nicely enough alone and mosquito-free evenings get a new bug zapper. Further, mosquito-free evenings we'll be disassembling and modifying a device which, when opened up, has exposed connections to doubtlessly lethal mains current and extremely unpleasant if not deadly high voltage. In case you are sufficiently stupid or scatterbrained that you are likely to neglect to drag the mains plug earlier than sticking your hand contained in the guts of a bug zapper, you must cease studying instantly and choose some safer challenge, like making microwave popcorn. First of all, earlier than beginning this procedure, remember to strive changing the bulb and see if that fixes the issue.
If it does, you've got saved loads of time and, if not, you are going to need a substitute bulb ultimately, bug zapper light so why not have one available when the time comes? If a new bulb doesn't do the trick, mosquito-free evenings the issue is sort of definitely a failed fluorescent starter inside the field, so we'll have to open it up. You probably did remember to unplug the zapper before beginning to disassemble it, didn't you? First, remove the bug catcher tray at the underside of the zapper, taking care to not spill useless bugs everywhere in the ground or your work space. Depending on the model, the 2 halves of the body of the bug zapper are fastened together with 4 or six screws. On "industrial" models, these are 2 mm metric machine screws and nuts, but some "consumer" models use infernal "split slot" screws which are supposed to maintain you from opening up the gadget. You see, you're a consumer, so you're anticipated to consume-buy, buy, buy, not mend issues which break.