After a few weeks of designing, making and researching light sources and materials it was time for the test run of the prototype model. This is a derivative of a conventional Skinner trap and is fully portable. It runs on a 12v Yuasa battery and all of the wires and running gear are concealed under a trap door in the main chamber. It benefits from a flush mounted light sensitive switch which can be adjusted to come on in various light conditions. You can also manually turn the trap off and on using a toggle switch. It is running an 8w clear UV lamp, but can be inter changed with an actinic or UV 'disco light'. At present the battery life is 18+ hours using the current lighting method.The tube is suspended without the use of a rail, therefore not wasting any light and the inside is brilliant white which again will reflect light outwards. The trap is light weight and fully collapsible, it is also simply to open the trap door and retrieve the battery for charging (a trickle charge with an inexpensive car battery charger does the trick!)
In addition, we have designed a fully collapsible canopy to prevent the electrics (and the egg boxes and moths) getting a good soaking.All in all on paper it looked good..............but would all the development work pay off?
Off course it did, look at the posting below!
No comments:
Post a Comment