Matt Meerian of Home Brew Electronics sent in this Electronic Bird Catcher project that he completed a few weeks ago. It is a device that was hacked together to catch a robin that was causing mischief around his new house. He tried a few simple methods of getting rid of the bird but they weren’t very effective. He decided to let some technology help him out, he designed a quick and dirty contraption that would wait for the bird to enter and snap shut. Only problem is that the contraption seemed to have scared off the bird permanently. I guess the capture box looked a bit to scary for the bird to stick around to find out what it was… This seems to be the same tactic that most alarm companies seem to use when the stick all those lawn stakes and window stickers all over the houses that they protect. If you are interested in building something like this there is full schematics and source code provided at the bottom of the Matt’s article.
“When the microcontroller determines the voltage from the sensor is above the set value, the output to the solenoid is changed from a high to a low. This turns off the solenoid (by turning off the n-channel FET) that is holding open the gate of the trap. Gravity then takes over and the lid closes.”
