Live data from Hacker News

Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

preprints.org

241–250 of 262 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#241
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omg, people take these comments seriously ?

On Hacker News? Someone has probably already tried it. Possibly even more than one person — I mean, the linked paper isn’t even the first time I’ve seen research into the idea of anti-mosquito lasers, so anti-mosquito water cannons have probably been tried too.

Plain water doesn't work. They just bounce droplets off [0]. My experiments with garden hose and some mosquitoes during watering my garden confirm those findings. Maybe water with soap will work better (due to lower surface tension, droplets will envelop mosquitoes) but I did not try this.

[0] https://www.livescience.com/20733-mosquitoes-survive-raindro...

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#242
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a small but persistent issue with flies hanging out by our garbage cans so I purchased one of these fly traps with bait. It worked far too well. Within a day it had attracted flies from a large surrounding area. The nearly filled jar of flies had a presence I can only describe as "Stephen King-esque" just buzzing with raw malevolence. If you think one large black fly can make quite the noise I invite you to li…

I had the exact same experience it was absolutely disgusting. I attracted all flies from the neighborhood. I also tried once with an insecticide which also contained a bait, it came in granules and you had to mix with water and spray all over. The floor of my outdoors where full of dead flies. Best advice I can give: never use any kind of bait. That’s completely BS, you are never going to kill them all. You want flie…

My coworker once had one very annoying fly, he was trying to sleep but that fly constantly was landing on him. He turned fan and directed it on bed, so fly couldn't land on him. Now, that little bugger landed just beside of airflow area and just walked to him.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#243

I just moved to a property near a pond that is severely infested with midge flies and mosquitos. The water is supposed to be treated by the HOA but they've neglected it for a while I guess. A solution like this wouldn't work due to the sheer volume of insects in the air at any given time (millions gathering around my block). I rigged up a door reed switch that turns on high power fans for 30 seconds when opened that…

have you considered putting up a bat box?

I have many bats under roof, often see them flying at night, but there are still many mosquitoes nearby (very slow water river about 1km from me). Bats help but will not remove problem entirely.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#244
post #130

If you do have to kill something then at least do it humanely. Burning them to death is pretty horrible, so is zapping them with a high voltage shock.

I think most people don't believe insects are complex of mind to be said to suffer in the same sense as human beings. Even if this is not so what is the exchange rate between human suffering and mosquito suffering? I would probably horribly torture any number of mosquitos to prevent the suffering of even one human. Wouldn't you? Can you imagine telling one person sorry you need to die I cannot justify torturing so ma…

I'm not arguing that mosquitos shouldn't be killed. I'm arguing that one should not wantantly choose a painful way of removing them. Alternatives which could be better include natural predators, quickly squashing them, soapy water, soap film on stagnant water to kill off the larvae (but not where other aquatic life may be harmed). Just avoid the mean ways.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even 1/4 watt is not something you want shined in your eye.

True, but 1 W to damage a mosquito is likely overkill.

I have a 1W laser. Aiming it at your hand and turning it on will immediately cause a painful burning sensation. I've never used it without goggles, but it will burn dang near anything you point it at.

The average laser pointer for a presentation, for reference, is less than .005 Watts (<5mW)

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#246
post #167

These kinds of things are really just intended to be a fun proof of concept or a demo of something off the wall for shits and giggles. It's a bit of a leap to "You'll shoot your eye out" or "it'll never work in real life" because it was never meant to be anything more than that. Personally, I think it's awesome!

I've had malaria many times. My friend's sister died from it. It is not a laughing matter.

That comment is so completely off the wall I'm just astounded.

Nowhere in that guy's post about how to make this silly gizmo did he make any kind of claim about reducing diseases of any kind spread by mosquitoes.

I don't know if you're blaming him for not preventing your friend's sister's death and you getting sick or mad at me because I didn't blame him.

But your complaint does make me wonder what you're doing to solve the malaria problem?

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a proper lens I think it just might work. You need to get huge focal length to make those pixels work. Then you need illumination because with those focal length it will be really dim. Then you need to scan the area because your FOV is tiny (but at least you'll get something like 90FPS @VGA res which is enough for AI) so you should be able to see those mosquitoes shining in the air like dust particles in sunligh…

I've integrated a few laser engravers and laser-cutting CNCs, so let me clear up a couple misconceptions: Lasers typically have a narrow focal length, just like your LED proposal - otherwise they'd damage the optics/mirrors! They're designed to pass a coherent beam of about 10mm diameter through a series of lenses and mirrors. The beam of an engraver might carry 10W of power in that diameter, which is pretty bright,…

I just played a bit with CNC engraving and laser projection, so don't have that extensive knowledge, but AFAIK:

Even with your example of 10W, 10mm beam it has a bit more than 0.12 W/mm^2. Hundred times the power output from the sun. Even if we use a 1W laser, which should be enough for a mosquito, it's still like looking into the sun with a 10x magnifier.

And as you said - you focus the spot in 0.1mm with a small focal length - that's great for cutting or engraving but won't deliver enough energy to a mosquito 5 meters away unless you start with the same beam size, then focus it 5 meters away at the target. Only then it will need another 5 meters for the beam to return to the initial diameter and many more times that to finally be safe.

What I propose is a big reflector and aiming optics directed at it(a bit like a satellite antenna). I didn't do the math, but tens of centimetres or even more than a meter of dimeter. Let's say 50cm==500mm.

Then if you want to focus it to 5mm at 5 meters it will have less than 10mm at +-5cm. You could do the same with a laser but you just don't need to. Instead of 1W laser you can use a 10W powerled, have the same energy at the target but it will be much safer at almost every stage before it.

And what most people think about when they talk about shooting mosquitoes with a laser is, I think, sending a coherent 5mm beam directly - e.g. from a laser pointer. So you don't have to estimate the distance, but it is even more dangerous.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#249
This is a neat project and a great idea.

As a side note if you would like to dispatch all the mosquito in your area, there are "mosquito donuts" that are safe to put in creeks and ponds that will get rid of them at the source. For the existing mosquito infestations, a large blower flan with a window screen on the intake side will catch tens of thousands of them per day. You can mix their carcasses into your plant fertilizer. You can attract more of the mosquito to your blower by opening 2 litter bottles of carbonated water 20 feet in front of the intake side.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmmm, I wonder... The paper claims "1 - 5mm" for a mosquito, which seems plausible. Lets pick 5mm out of pure optimism. The new(ism) HQ Raspberry Pi camera modules are 12megapixel ~4000x3000 pixel sensors, if you assume you could recognise a mosquito based on it's flight/movement pattern rather than needing to have an image of the mosquito, maybe having a 2x2 pixel resolution of it might be enough, so you could use…

Great post. I think line laser though is just a point source that spins, creating an illusion of a plane. So it only looks like a line but is actually a moving point. So if the mosquito travels its own length+the line thickness in a time that is less than the time between laser passes, it won't be touched by the laser.

Maybe some line lasers are made like that (now that you mention it I do recall seeing tripod mounted lasers which are probably spinning POV things), but I’ve got a bunch of line and cross laser modules which 100% do not have moving parts. I’m not sure why I think this, but I understand they’re made by just putting a glass cylinder in front of the laser diode module, working as a kind of 2D lens... Pretty sure that’s what you get in jigsaws and circular saws as well?
Post reply on HN