Learn how to Replace the Fluorescent Starter in A Windhager Bug Zapper
Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. Within the summer season, bugs are in every single place. Faced with this case, defence in depth is the only possibility: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, fly strips on the home windows and swatters in every room, Zap Zone Defender Device and because the last degree of terminal defence, high voltage bug zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These usually are not elegant gadgets, however they get the job achieved. The precept couldn't be simpler-flying insects, whose compound eyes see lengthy-wave ultraviolet gentle that mammalian eyes don't, Zap Zone Defender are attracted by the lure tube, which seems to emit a dim blue gentle to humans. To succeed in the sunshine, they should fly between wires electrified with between 4 and 8 kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The only drawback (at least if you are not a flying insect) is that they don't appear to last very lengthy. After slightly more than one summer, the bulb either starts to flash on and off like a strobe light or simply refuses to mild in any respect.
Replacement bulbs are readily available and easy to put in, however in my experience, a minimum of half the time changing the bulb does not repair the problem. With no light to draw the insects, a zapper is ineffective, Zap Zone Defender Device so even though its excessive voltage subsystem continues to work perfectly, most people junk it when changing the bulb doesn't make it light up. I'm approach too cheap to be proud of such a state of affairs, so I determined to open up a failed bug zapper and see what was happening. The supply of the issue proved to be so simple as I anticipated and as straightforward to remedy, so in the hope of saving somebody else the trouble of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on find out how to restore your own bug zappers. These directions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager firm of Salzburg, Zap Zone Austria, who have a dominant market share in this obscure business right here in Central Europe.
Obviously, Zap Zone Defender Device if in case you have a bug zapper made by one other company, Zap Zone Defender Device it'll look different inside and Zap Zone Defender will conceivably use a wholly totally different circuit for the fluorescent lamp. Unless you perceive what you are doing and know sufficient electronics to be confident you are not going to do something stupid, it is best to depart issues well enough alone and get a new bug zapper. Further, Zap Zone Defender Device we're going to be disassembling and modifying a system which, Zap Zone Defender Device when opened up, has uncovered connections to probably lethal mains present and very unpleasant if not deadly excessive voltage. If you are sufficiently silly or scatterbrained that you're prone to neglect to tug the mains plug before sticking your hand inside the guts of a bug zapper, it's best to cease studying immediately and choose some safer challenge, like making microwave popcorn. First of all, earlier than beginning this process, be sure you strive changing the bulb and see if that fixes the problem.
If it does, you've got saved a whole lot of time and, if not, you're going to wish a alternative bulb ultimately, Zap Zone Defender Device so why not have one readily available when the time comes? If a new bulb doesn't do the trick, the problem is almost certainly a failed fluorescent starter contained in the field, so we'll have to open it up. You did remember to unplug the zapper earlier than starting to disassemble it, didn't you? First, remove the bug catcher tray at the bottom of the zapper, taking care not to spill lifeless bugs all over the floor or your work area. Depending on the model, the two halves of the body of the bug zapper are fastened together with four or six screws. On "industrial" models, these are 2 mm metric machine screws and nuts, but some "consumer" fashions use infernal "split slot" screws that are meant to maintain you from opening up the gadget. You see, you're a shopper, Zap Zone Defender so you are expected to consume-buy, buy, buy, not mend things which break.