John, did you email them? Why not email them, and ask?
Please let us know if you get what you needed to get.
Great idea to zap while doing the colon cleanse...
Don't forget your freeze dried green (black) walnut hull capsules
or Dr. Clarkia
(you can make it yourself, or go to http://www.drclark.net or http://www.sbherbalremedies.com)

I don't know what you have available, or how much you know about the wonderful world of wire, so here is a general-purpose answer.

The energy levels are so low that *almost* anything will work. For wiring to the switch, anything larger than #30 (30 gauge, or 30AWG) is ok. Even #30 wire-wrap wire (very thin, solid, plated wire with Kynar insulation) will handle the DC current level, but it will have a problem. #22 or #24, solid or stranded, are typical for this kind of application. Solid is better behaved for internal wiring (no vibration, no repeated flexing).

For the wires out to the handles, stick with stranded because of the flexing involved. Lamp cord (#18 pair) is overkill for the energy level involved here, but rugged, available, and cheap.

As for that "problem" mentioned above - frequency response. I completely disagree with the folks who claim that the reason lower frequency zappers appear to "penetrate" better is because of "skin effect" in the human body. However, when it comes to the circuit wiring of a zapper and the wires out to the handles, skin effect is a valid concern. I don't know how much techie detail you want, but, basically, as the frequency of the current flowing through a wire increases, the apparent thickness of the wire decreases. So even though the average current flowing through the switch is well within the current capability of #30 wire, the performance of the circuit at those higher zapper harmonics (500KHz) will be degraded. This is even more true with the longer wires going out to the handles.

There is a trade-off between the increased skin effect of small wires and increased inductance of fat wires. Both are bad in this application. Without running the numbers, my guess is that #22 stranded pair is the best, if you can find it. Having the two wires close together is better than having two single wires widely separated. One approach is to take two pieces of #22 and twist them together *loosely*, one twist every 3-4", to the point where they separate out to the handles.

Litz wire would be best, if you just happen to have an RF research facility in your pocket.

ak

Hopped out and looked at the site you referenced. Those socket-boards are great for a project like this. #22 wire is about the limit, and stranded #22 probably won't insert without some of the strands curling up. This is not a problem as long as a) most of the strands are down in the socket; and b) the strands which curl up are trimmed so they don't make contact with other components. Normal component leads on the parts shown are #24 solid. This would be fine for the connections to the switch. I don't know what country you are in, but Radio Shack sells a small spool for $3.00.

I still like the idea of using stranded wire for the connections to the handles, but buying a 100 foot roll to use only 4 or 5 feet seems dumb. Maybe a hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) will have shorter rolls and save you a few bucks. The same #24 solid I mentioned above will work just fine, as long as you are careful about repeated flexing near the connection points.

ak

joshkz sent me a private message about substituting components.

All resistors: higher power types (1/2W, 1W, etc) can be substituted with no change in performance. If you are using a socket board, anything larger than 1/2W won't fit (leads are too fat), and even the 1/2 watt leads probably will distort the internal socket contact. Not a problem unless you want to insert a thinner wire or lead in the same location at a later time. Trimming the ends of the leads with sharp wire cutters so they come to a point will make them easier to insert in the breadboard.

Here are my thoughts on substituting alternate resistor values. Reference designations are from the 2nd generation Clark schematic.

R1 - 1.0K timing resistor. Can be increased as long as R2 and C2 are changed by the same proportion. For example, if you have only larger value resistors available, R1 can be INcreased to 10K (a 10-to-1 change) ***IF*** R2 is INcreased from 3.9K to 39K ***AND IF*** C2 is DEcreased from .0047uF to 470pF. By the way, making these changes will increase battery life.

R2 - 3.9K timing resistor. See R1. If you are increasing this value, best to keep it below 100K.

R3 - 1.0K output resistor. Best not to change. Larger values decrease the current flow through the body, smaller ones increase it to possibly dangerous levels.

R4 - 3.9K LED resistor. Can be changed, especially increased, within reason with no change in circuit performance. Larger values make the LED dimmer and increase battery life. Smaller values make the LED brighter but suck up more juice. Do not decrease below 150 ohms. This sets the average LED current to about 20mA, the recommended operating level for most generic LED's.

R5 - 39K offset resistor. Can be increased with little change in circuit performance. The original circuit did not have this part (effectively an infinite value), so anything between 39K and 1.0Meg is a compromise between the 1st and 2nd gen designs. Values smaller than 39K increase the offset (no known benefit), and decrease the peak-to-peak output voltage swing (probably bad).

As for the capacitors:

C1 - control voltage noise filter. The 555 will operate just fine without this part, but the output pulse width will be a bit more stable with it in place. .01uF is the minimum value recommended by the original chip inventor. Increasing to just about anything will have no effect on circuit performance. Decreasing it will have no affect unless you have extreme levels of electrical noise around you. For example, making it the same size as timing capacitor C2 is perfectly acceptable.

C2 - timing capacitor. Leave this value alone, unless you are changing the values of all 3 timing components (C2, R1, R2) in the correct proportions. See R1 above.

If you want to muck around with the timing components to achieve different operating frequencies or duty cycles, there are graphs and simple equations on the 555 data sheet. Also, there are a ton of websites with 555 calculators.

ak