Static *Bang* Grass

ManicMan

ManicMan

Lord
Wanted to see about getting some static grass used well without alot of money spent (yikes.. for what it is, how can any one charge £100 for just a high voltage static generator? that's insane!) so I got a pretty cheap applier.. for some reason, ones for smaller work cost more... cause.. less resources means more money? again.. looks like most sellers of the 'named' brands are big time con-artists or them prices...

anyway.. really don't think I got the hang of it yet and most 'guides' seam pretty useless.. Put grass in applicator bottle/tub. when on, hold croc clip which is connected to the positive near or under it (not touching the metal) as you apply and make sure an internal-ish negative wire is touching the metal mesh.. this will charge the grass so as it is sprinkled, it'll stand up in the glue... No photos yet cause I'm gonna wait till the glue has dried and tapped off the over-spill/excess but.. some is probebly standing up but alot doesn't seam to be..

being a cheap one which.. yeah, I'm gonna say china from the cheap plastic handle (which is fine) and the back of the 'manual' being the same thing in Chinese (some nice bad translations too).. interesting how it says to discharge the capacitors.. "use the metal part of the aligator clip to touch the metal net of feeder box for about 5 seconds, then all the remaining voltage in the product circuit can be completely released" erm.. yes.. that would very quicky discharge the cap which is, the manual says, up to 5000v... that's gonna produce a nice bang....
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The feeder size is... well, it seams 'micro' or 'mini' or whatever is pretty big but like I said, the smaller ones are really pricy and my idea was to either make a mask (basically a plastic cap with a much smaller hole in the middle so it can only come out of a smaller area.. this should be fine for most uses I would have) or just put in a new feeder.. It's just a plastic box with 3 screw holes and a hole for the charge wire, .. If i can make up a smaller mesh cap to do with the smaller box (not hard) then it's pretty simple.

though I'm really not sure I have gotten the hang of this applying stuff.. I get the feeling I'm doing something wrong with how I'm either putting the croc clip (maybe I should put a metal base under what I'm doing and clip it to that?) or this is... not a very good cheap applier.. but why Would I want to spend alot of money on something i'm either not gonna use much or can't get the hang of and never use?

any tips or advice welcome ^_^
 
I did the old fly zapper and tea strainer build and it seems to work ok, though two aa batteries so nothing like 2000v! You have to be pretty close to the glue for it to work and I have occasionally made sparks happen, but at 3v nothing more than a bit of a jump. The loose wire is meant to be in the glue isn't it? In order to conduct the electricity.
 
I've found it easier to replace the croc-clip with a (metal) rod (suitably insulated along the length). I find that easier to just poke down to the area I'm doing grass in since I tend to be doing patches. I keep thinking I might try a slightly more professional one than the rather homebuilt one I picked up many many years ago at a model railway show.
 
Fimm McCool said:
I did the old fly zapper and tea strainer build and it seems to work ok, though two aa batteries so nothing like 2000v! You have to be pretty close to the glue for it to work and I have occasionally made sparks happen, but at 3v nothing more than a bit of a jump. The loose wire is meant to be in the glue isn't it? In order to conduct the electricity.
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It's an internal transformer so it starts off as 3V (2 AA) and goes through the transformer, the voltage is increased with each winding via electromagnetic induction really. The amps are fairly low so even that voltage isn't a huge issue (Mills that kills, Volts which jolts) but as it's pretty surprising how low an amp rating is fatal and voltage does have SOME concern, it's mostly anything over 100 milliamps in current you need to be damn careful with. Not saying voltage passed a set point can't be fatal but the voltage is of secondary concern. Fly zappers output 500 - 2000 volts with a voltage multiplier which is created via diodes to step up.

some stuff says you don't need to have it in the glue.. which kinda makes sense as glue isn't conductive so can't really conductive electricity unless you get some fancier stuff which has metal powder or such like in it.

I love it that some stuff is saying 'the clip is to ground it'... erm.. nope.. that is NOT grounding at all..

I've found it easier to replace the croc-clip with a (metal) rod (suitably insulated along the length). I find that easier to just poke down to the area I'm doing grass in since I tend to be doing patches. I keep thinking I might try a slightly more professional one than the rather homebuilt one I picked up many many years ago at a model railway show.
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putting a larger rod sounds like a good idea as that would be easier to keep near
 
Clip the croc to a tatty old screwdriver in a pinch, you get a handle that way! :) Otherwise on larger pieces pop a pin in the terrain and clip to that.
 
screw driver is a great option of a cheap rod ^_^
I got a design for a cap to kinda 'convert' to a smaller area and I was debating having a couple of clips (well, more holes) to hold a rod/screwdriver so its kept a little distance from the mesh, but still near and underneath.. but I'm still debating it
 
okay.. printed off my design for the cap.. tried it out with a metal file slotted in the holes being held under it...

first impression is I made a major design fault.. as more then stopping the grass from falling out in the areas I didn't want.. well.. It DID do that.. and coated the cap with grass.. though that appeared to be standing up pretty well..

but didn't notice the grass I was laying come out that great or standing up.. I kinda feel I'm missing something.. from what I understand... something to do with the grass fibres they use basically means they pick up the static charge from the metal mesh as they are being applied, this causes them to stand up.. then as they are applied into some glue, they stand up in the glue.. and then dry standing up.. fine.. not quite sure why the other cable NEEDS to be near them.. that doesn't seam to make too much difference and while some call it a grounding cable, it really doesn't seam to be for grounding at all... but... ah... starting to out really out of my field in the electronical side... I can't see how it grounds in the same way as normal electrical grounding...
 
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