Cockroach Catcher.

What do you get when you mix a vacuum cleaner, a relay, some cat food and an electric eye.

A cockroach catcher?

Well it caught one.

It started with this mess...

and got to this ...

then finally ...

So how does it work? Just behind the largest lump of anaemic looking catfood is the sweet spot - the spot where the electric eye reflects back to the sensor. The sensor operates a relay, which in turn turns on the vacuum cleaner. The aim - to catch the cockroach and suck it away.

So far - one cockroach, one cat.

Aborted.

The intention was originally to swat the entire area with a solenoid of some form, but I never got that far. I was not sure how to get around the obvious side-effect of squashing a cockroach. The side-effect? A squashed cockroach in the middle of the sweet spot. I would need some way to remove it, and that was a bit too complated to bother with. A solenoid on the top of a fly spray can would work better but I don't have a solenoid on me at the moment.

Written by the wierdo otherwise known as Michael Kean.

This thing's under construction in October 2000 so some links wont work yet sorry guys. Take Me Home!