RE: Of Mice and HV (fwd)

["High Voltage list" <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:29:05 -0400
From: "Mccauley, Daniel H" <daniel.h.mccauley@xxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Of Mice and HV (fwd)

I agree.  Just zapping a mouse with a high voltage arc probably isn't
going to do much.  You need to establish a good path for current to flow
through the vital portion of the mouse to be effective.  For animals
with fur, this is not so trivial.

You are probably better off with an old fashion mouse trap!  Remember
the old adage about building the better mousetrap.   You just can't do
it!

Dan



HI Matthew,

As dangerous electricity is, killing in a reliable way with it is 
really hard; read about electric chair execution, they used a lot of 
power with good contact ( they used salt saturated water pad ) some 
time they need to applied the tension many time to finally kill. I also 
know a man who was strike by a power ( 14.4KV ) line, he loose an arm, 
a leg and have internal organ damage but he survived...

Cheers,

Luc


On 13-Apr-06, at 1:07 PM, High Voltage list wrote:

> Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:20:03 +0930
> From: Matthew Smith <matt@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Of Mice and HV
>
> Greetings All
>
> CONTENT WARNING: If you are distressed by nasty things happening to
> vermin (small furry creatures to those not infested with them), please
> do not read any further.
>
> They don't make 'em like they used to!  Our house, completed just over
> two years ago (actually not completed, but that's another story!)
> appears to have been built to accommodate rodents just as comfortably 
> as
> humans.
>
> Snap traps have proved anything but reliable (bait gone, trap still 
> set)
> and when they do operate, frequently kill in an unclean manner.
>
> So, I have decided to build an electric mousetrap.  Idea is simple:
> mouse enters trap and has to pass through a narrow gap between two
> aluminium plates arranged in a V.  (Mouse enters the larger part of
the
> V.)  One plate is fixed, the other against light spring tension so
that
> the subject has to push between the two plates to get to the bait.
>
> Plates are connected to a charged capacitor.  Charging will be from a
> PWM supply driven by a microcontroller which stops when capacitor
> voltage reaches an upper threshold and starts again once it has
> discharged (mostly through the feedback voltage divider) down to a
> minimum voltage.  The idea being that this device is battery-operated
> and tries to save power.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what minimum voltage I would need to apply
to
> guarantee fatal fibrillation?
>
> I had considered powering from a disposable camera supply (no
> microcontroller - simply pulse the start button when the neon goes
out)
> but, whilst photoflash capacitors can give us a ghastly bite, is the
> 300V or so enough to take out a mouse in its insulating fur coat?
I've
> serviced equipment before where mice have gone in a mains (240V) PSU 
> and
> have blown the fuses but am still unsure about the certainty of a
clean
> kill.
>
> Once I've got this idea working, I want to motorise it so that the
> defunct rodent can be cleared from the plates and the trap be readied
> for another "client".
>
> Cheers
>
> M
>
> -- 
> Matthew Smith
> IT Consultancy & Web Application Development
> http://www.kbc.net.au
>
>
>