aonomus - 12-11-2010 at 16:21
Preamble: 'zerostat' antistatic guns, aka 'discwasher' antistatic guns for LP records are handheld piezoelectric devices which can spray positive and
negative ions to help neutralize residual charge on various surfaces to help prevent compounds from flying all over the place while handling and
weighing.
See also: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/ProductDetail.do?D7=0&am...
So I need a bit of help settling an issue once and for all. Some people think that squeezing the trigger fast will give the best results, while others
think that squeezing the trigger slowly will. Squeezing the trigger rapidly in succession makes lots of clicking noises while slow cycling does not.
Empirical experiment: if I place the tip of the device near a grounded metal bar and squeeze the trigger slowly, I get more small arcs across to the
grounded object vs rapid squeezes.
So what do the users of sciencemadness think?
1. Fast squeezing > slow squeezing
2. Slow squeezing > fast squeezing
MagicJigPipe - 12-11-2010 at 16:52
Wow, that sucks. $140 for something that you can only pull the trigger on 1,500 times? How does it work and why is it such a piece of crap?
Imagine if they sold guns that had a lifetime of 1500 trigger pulls.
[Edited on 11-13-2010 by MagicJigPipe]
IrC - 12-11-2010 at 17:23
A hammer smacks the crystal. The harder, the higher the voltage. So faster cycling will likely interfere with the hammer reaching it's greatest impact
velocity, meaning I vote for 2. However this is idiotic. An AC high voltage will erase better and with today's Li-ion and inverter technology why the
hell do they not offer a rechargeable small hand held unit with unlimited lifetime. Unlimited meaning a reasonable number of years of useful service,
not a mere 1500 clicks.
Sedit - 12-11-2010 at 19:57
140$ for a piezo electric clicker? Get the hell out of here, I got tons of these sitting at my house taken off of old water heaters and such. There
worth like a nickle without the fancy case. Im in the wrong biz....
aonomus - 12-11-2010 at 20:06
I know, totally overpriced, but that is besides the point, hehe.
Though I don't think these are actual clickers since slow squeezes do not produce the bbq igniter 'snap' from a hammer hitting a piezoelectric
crystal. As you squeeze the trigger the mechanism squeezes the crystal without actually hammering (apparently).
IrC - 12-11-2010 at 20:36
If you study how high voltage is generated from a piezoelectric crystal you will see slowly squeezing it is not the best approach. No matter, links
below are better ideas anyway. An AC field will erase a DC static charge better, so build one. The 12 volt item could be hacked to give either
polarity.
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1...
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1...
unionised - 13-11-2010 at 10:27
The click noise is due to the thing sparking internally. When it does that, of course, it just wastes effort and time. Slow works better because it
gives the charge time to be sprayed away from the needle point.
kintekobo - 3-12-2010 at 08:17
You can make these from the innards of disposable cigarette lighters, the electric variety. Cost about 50p and work very well for discharging the
static on the turntable of the old record transcription table (yes I am that old) so I expect they would work in this application just as well.