[sci.electronics] 72 V P to P square wave affects insects

neumille@motcid.UUCP (Phillip D. Neumiller) (01/06/91)

I am posting this for a friend working on a product that will be used to 
control insect behavior.  There are patents covering the design aspects  
that will be discussed here.  

Needed
======
A simple circuit capable of generating the following waveform as fed into
a 100,000 ohm load.  The required frequency is 300 Hz +- 10 Hz and square
wave is to be uniform and continuously available on power up.  Regulation 
is important since there will be direct resistive shorts created in bursts
when insects land on the load surface. 

+36 V +  __    __ 
      | |  |  |  |
      | |  |  |  |
      | |  |  |  |
  0 V +-|--|--|--|--
      |	   |  |  etc.
      |    |  |
      |	   |  |
-36 V +    |__|

Purpose
=======
When the above signal is fed into a .5 M by .25 M grid with 2 mm cross hatches,
(positive voltage on vert. hatches and neg. on horiz) and an insect lands on
the grid, it has been found that the nervous system of the insect is affected.
In effect the bug is paralyzed.  

Please EMail me any thoughts on the square wave generation circuit or any
pointers to related research with insects.  I will summarize interesting
results.  The system is now being manufactured in quantity with a switching
power supply type design for wave generation.
-- 
   _   _     Phil Neumiller              | (708)-632-4436
 _/ \_/ \_   Motorola Inc.               | Ham: N9FCW  GEnie: XTH03200
/ \_/ \_/ \  Cellular Infrastructure Div | UUNET: !uunet!motcid!neumille 
\_/ \_/ \_/  Arlington Heights, IL 60004 | CompuServe: 72251,4116    

dag@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (David Geiser) (01/08/91)

So you have a lot of paralyzed bugs laying on the grid -- then
what happens?