Electronic mosquito repeller

Here is the circuit diagram of an ultrasonic mosquito repeller.The circuit is based on the theory that insects like mosquito can be repelled by using sound frequencies in the ultrasonic (above 20KHz) range.The circuit is nothing but a PLL IC CMOS 4047 wired as an oscillator working at 22KHz.A complementary symmetry amplifier consisting of four transistor is used to amplify the sound.The piezo buzzer converts the output of amplifier to ultrasonic sound that can be heard by the insects.

• Assemble the circuit on a general purpose PCB.
• The circuit can be powered from 12V DC.
• The buzzer can be any general purpose piezo buzzer.
• The IC1 must be mounted on a holder.

MOSQUITO REPELLANT

They will be swarming once again, the unwanted, winged torturers, looking for the victims and leaving behind swelling and itch!

The mosquito problem is a part of everyday life, espacially during the summer.

Since the immemorial, inventive people have struggled hard to find effective means of protection against these insects. Even though it is a fact that only the females are dangerous, the males can also create situations of panic by their humming. Scientists say that these and many other insects find some particular frequencies of sound very unpleasent abd run away from these frequencies.

It seems quite obvious then, that by creating these insects frequencies electronically, we should be able to repel these insects! The most important point to remember here is that, unfortunately, this method has so far not been completely sucessfull. Whereas one group of insects can be made to run away at frequencies around 5 KHz, other types may desert only at higher frequencies, about 10 to 20 KHz. For some types, all the frequencies may fall on deaf ears! Yet other theories propose that in fact some frequencies may even attract them instead of repelling.

Whatever may be the truth, trial is superior to just theorising. Even though the cost of our circuit may prove to be a wrong investment, as the population of mosquitoes and insects who are immune to our insects/mosquito repellant is likely to be predominant ! The loss is very high - four resistors, two capacitors, two transistors and a buzzer.

THE CIRCUIT

The Astable Multivibrator, which is generally used as a signal generator, is once again used here to generate the desired frequencies. It is an excellent example of the fact, how versatile simple basic electronic circuit can be.

Let us quicklt see the operation of the astable multivibrator circuit. When T1 is conducting T2 is off and when T2 is conducting, T1 is off. The capacitors C1 and C2 contributes decisively to this ON/OFF cycles for the transistors T1 and T2. The time taken by C1 and C2 to charge and discharge decides the shape of the output waveform. Another important factor in the operation of the circuit is the fact that the transistor goes into conduction only when the base-emitter voltage exceeds 0.7 volts (for silicon transistors). From this basic knowledge we can visualise how the transistors exchange their roles and how the voltage on the collector of each transistor jumbs between the lower and upper level, producing a rectangular waveform. If you take a close look at circuit, you will notice that C1 and C2 are not equal. They differ in their values by afactor of four.

The output signal will thus be a non symmetrical waveform. Such a non symmetrical signal contains more high frequency harminics compered to the normal square wave signal. The output of our circuit will have the basic frequency of 5 KHz along with harminics of 10, 15 and 20 KHz. If some insects are deaf to frequencies upto 5 KHz, they may react to 10 KHz or 15 KHz or even 20 KHz, one never knows ...

The piezo buzzer used should not have an internal oscillator built into it. The circuit consumes 0.3 ma current, and can give about 1500 hours of nonstop operation.

R1,R4 - 10 K Ohm
R2,R3 - 560 K Ohm
C1    - 82 PF
C2    - 330 PF
T1,T2 - BC547
Piezo Buzzer (Without internal oscillator)

Ultrasonic Pest Repellent

It is well know that pests like rats, mice etc are repelled by ultrasonic frequency in the range of 30 kHz to 50 kHz. Human beings can’t hear these high-frequency sounds. Unfortunately, all pests do not react at the same ultrasonic frequency. While some pests get repelled at 35 kHz, some others get repelled at 38 to 40 kHz. Thus to increase the effectiveness, frequency of ultrasonic oscillator has to be continuously varied between certain limits. By using this circuit design, frequency of emission of ultrasonic sound is continuously varied step-by-step automatically.

Ultrasonic Dog Whistle

It's well known that many animals are particularly sensitive to high-frequency sounds that humans can't hear. Many commercial pest repellers based on this principle are available, most of them operating in the range of 30 to 50 kHz. My aim was, however, to design a slightly different and somewhat more powerful audio frequency/ultrasonic sound generator that could be used to train dogs. Just imagine the possibilities - you could make your pet think twice before barking again in the middle of the night or even subdue hostile dogs (and I guess burglars would love that!). From what I've read, dogs and other mammals of similar size behave much differently than insects. They tend to respond best to frequencies between 15 and 25 kHz and the older ones are less susceptible to higher tones. This means that an ordinary pest repeller won't work simply because dogs can't hear it. Therefore, I decided to construct a new circuit (based on the venerable 555, of course) with a variable pitch and a relatively loud 82 dB miniature piezo beeper. The circuit is very simple and can be easily assembled in half an hour. Most of the components are not really critical, but you should keep in mind that other values will probably change the operating frequency. Potentiometer determines the pitch: higher resistance means lower frequency. Since different dogs react to different frequencies, you'll probably have to experiment a bit to get the most out of this tiny circuit. Despite the simplicity of the circuit, there is one little thing. The 10nF (.01) capacitor is critical as it, too, determines the frequency. Most ceramic caps are highly unstable and 20% tolerance is not unusual at all. Higher capacitance means lower frequency and vice-versa. For proper alignment and adjustment, an oscilloscope would be necessary. Since I don't have one, I used Winscope. Although it's limited to only 22 kHz, that's just enough to see how this circuit works. There is no need to etch a PCB for this project, perf board will do. Test the circuit to see how it responds at different frequencies. A 4k7 potentiometer in conjunction with a 10nF (or slightly bigger) capacitor gives some 11 to 22kHz, which should do just fine. Install the circuit in a small plastic box and if you want to, you can add a LED pilot light. Power consumption is very small and a 9V battery should last a long time. Possible further experimentation: I'm working on an amplified version of the whistle to get a louder beep. All attempts so far haven't been successful as high frequency performance tends to drop dramatically with the 555. Perhaps I could use a frequency doubler circuit - I just don't know and I've run out of ideas. One other slightly more advanced project could be a simple "anti-bark" device with a sound-triggered (clap) switch that sets off the ultrasonic buzzer as soon as your dog starts to bark.