Harbor Freight bug zapper

[Pman]

Anyone ever mess with one of those hand held bug zappers from Harbor Freight as in mod one or take it apart and make it stronger or anything? Got another one free yesterday and I keep thinking about at least trying more voltage although it does zap bugs pretty good. It's this:
Electronic Fly Swatter
Just seems like you might be able to do something really fun/stupid with one

By the way, my uncle blew a couple of remote controls by zapping something near them so be careful.

Looks like this inside:

 

[Mattronium]

Anyone ever mess with one of those hand held bug zappers from Harbor Freight as in mod one or take it apart and make it stronger or anything? Got another one free yesterday and I keep thinking about at least trying more voltage although it does zap bugs pretty good. It's this:
Electronic Fly Swatter
Just seems like you might be able to do something really fun/stupid with one

By the way, my uncle blew a couple of remote controls by zapping something near them so be careful.

Yah, I got one thinking of maybe adding a larger capacitor to it.
The problem with increasing the capacitance is that it would take longer the charge.
Personally I didn't like the cheep construction of the one I cot from HF, too flimsy IMO. In my opinion if you are going to get one to use for a while it would be worth it to buy a little better quality one.

It looks like the one you have is a slightly different version than mine, mine used two AA batteries.
Your version might be a little easier to modify by simply replacing one battery with a Li-ion and putting a capacitor in the second battery's place.



And as a side note, now that Styropyro got a bunch or capacitors for his ruby laser project it might be fun to hook them up to this fly swatter. Call it the single use fly swatter .

 

[GSS]

I have the coupon laying on my table right in front of me. Don't have any flying bug issue's but always wondered an now that I know it works my next Harbor Tool run i'm grabbing one. Lets see what you come up with Pman

 

[ElectricPlasma]

I've taken one apart before but haven't made a project from it. Mine took a 9v battery though, what batteries do yours take?

 

[Pman]

I have 2 of them and they work great actually for killing bugs with a wonderful smell to boot. They bother take 2 D cells. Are you guys saying that yours are also HF ones and used those other batteries or are you talking about a different brand? At least you know what I mean and I'm not the only one who has thought about what else you could do with one. I am wondering just how much the circumstances hit can take. I would be surprised if it couldn't handle a 32650 4.2V but what i. Really wondering is will it handle 8.4V Figures I can't find a single fly or stink bug to try it with now
Hey, free is free and I would say that about 1/2 the time I or we go shopping we stop there to at least get one if not 2 free things as long as I actually need something else. I have a lot of those cheapo meters and magnetic parts trays and 25' tape measures and triangle or oval led lights not to mention just way too many screwdriver sets. I just got my second magnetic tool strip holders so I'm going to put those up somewhere. You can always put things like a meter and tape measure or whatever in all your cars. Every once in awhile they add something new to their free stuff. Ridiculous how high they show the value of some of the free items but free is still free as long as you really need something else. I don't lIke those super cheap black led lights but the other ones that have an led on the end and a bunch on one side are decent enough to put one in each room of your house. The fly killers don't come with batteries.

 

[ElectricPlasma]

I got mine from Canadian Tire, we don't have HF up here but damn do I really wish we did. I've seen one of those stores and it'd be super handy if we had one around here. So to answer your question no, mine isn't from Harbor Freight.

I'm betting you could at least throw one li-ion at it, if I remember correctly it's mainly just a button, LED and a transformer so I think you'd have to bridge the LED if it's only rated for the lower voltage of the other batteries. Not entirely sure though I've never had a detailed look at the board, just a glance when I wanted to see what was inside.

 

[GSS]

Just like you said Pman, a flashlight for every room, and 2 in my car, tape measures everywhere, more screw drivers that i'll ever need, I think after the fly swatter i'm getting the tarp as I don't have that either. Do you remember a ways back they let you use a coupon for each item bought at one time at the register

 

[Pman]

Yup. We have 2 of them but they are about to add another one. I got a flyer but forgot to look at where the new location is. The closest one takes me about 8 minutes and the other is about 25 minutes.
They never give me an issue even though my wife doesn't have anything under her own name. I can be at one register and her at another and even though she gives my information they don't stop her from getting a free thing so it's all good. One of my next door neighbors always gives me her coupons too so I've always got at least 20 free and 20% off coupons on me. Sometimes I give them away to others in line or in the store as there is no way I can use all of them. I certainly see them expanding everywhere because they do offer a lot of things cheap enough to beat other places and when you sign up for all their coupons and get them all over the place why nor get something free too.
If you ever got to places where they put out magazines to read look in them for coupons . Unless taking them interferes with an article or something why let them go to waste.

 

[joeyss]

I heard of people making stun guns out of them by getting them up to like 4,000 volts. Saw it on youtube.

 

[Gabe]

I got mine from Canadian Tire, we don't have HF up here but damn do I really wish we did. I've seen one of those stores and it'd be super handy if we had one around here. So to answer your question no, mine isn't from Harbor Freight.

Protip: Canadian version of Horror Fright is Princess Auto, y'know the one with the 'Power fist' brand. I don't know if they're actually located around where you are but I know for sure they're healthily sprinkled around the western prairie provinces. Absolute blast shopping there, especially in the surplus section :beer:

 

[ElectricPlasma]

Protip: Canadian version of Horror Fright is Princess Auto, y'know the one with the 'Power fist' brand. I don't know if they're actually located around where you are but I know for sure they're healthily sprinkled around the western prairie provinces. Absolute blast shopping there, especially in the surplus section :beer:

Hey thanks Gabe, I'll have to check it out. "Sprinkled" is probably the best word for it, I found the nearest one it's not local but not far at all. Right now I take a visit to Busy Bee Tools every now and then for metalworking supplies.

 

[Gabe]

Hey thanks Gabe, I'll have to check it out. "Sprinkled" is probably the best word for it, I found the nearest one it's not local but not far at all. Right now I take a visit to Busy Bee Tools every now and then for metalworking supplies.

Alright good. But I mean similar to HF, Power Fister isn't exactly synonymous with 'quality' or 'buy it for life', it's great if you need like a one time use special carbide insert or something and the dime-a-dozen quality will suffice. Also it's great for little doodads and gadgets, free or alike.

 

[GSS]

Alright good. But I mean similar to HF, Power Fister isn't exactly synonymous with 'quality' or 'buy it for life', it's great if you need like a one time use special carbide insert or something and the dime-a-dozen quality will suffice. Also it's great for little doodads and gadgets, free or alike.

Yup, Harbor F does have plenty of get me by products that do in a pinch but they do have pro quality lifetime tools if you choose wisely.
As far as ever needing to replace one of their lifetime ones I haven't needed to yet but for some reason I don't think its as simple as going to Sears for a Craftsmen return or your local Snap on salesman. Hopefully I won't need to

 

[tomfire1735]

*hint*

those step up 5kv transformer from ebay...

 

[Gabe]

Yup, Harbor F does have plenty of get me by products that do in a pinch but they do have pro quality lifetime tools if you choose wisely.
As far as ever needing to replace one of their lifetime ones I haven't needed to yet but for some reason I don't think its as simple as going to Sears for a Craftsmen return or your local Snap on salesman. Hopefully I won't need to

Yeah what a lot if the 'lifetime warranty' tools do these days is once your tool goes kaput they'll make you ship it off to some far off land to claim it, which sometimes can cost you as much as or more than the tool in the first place, so it wouldn't even be worth it. Hopefully that's not what it's like for all tools though

 

[Mattronium]

So I just tested my one real quick and it looks like it gets up to at least ~1.3kV with 2.4V and ~1.6kV with 4V. I alligator clipped in another larger capacitor and it sure does make it louder. I think I'll solder it up and put it back together. Now it makes more of a bang vs pop when shorted.