Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door, but what about a smarter mousetrap? [Alain] decided to find out by making a Raspberry Pi-powered, Internet-connected smart trap. The brains of the operation is a Pi running Arch Linux. Connected to that is a IR trigger, a servo to unlatch the sliding door, and a camera to see your new friend.
The housing of the trap is CNC cut foam PVC board, which is both easy to cut and to clean. Once the IR beam is broken the Pi turns the servo, which pulls a pin on the front door. Once your new friend is settled in a LED light turns on to illuminate the subject, a picture is taken and sent via email.
With automated alerts you don’t have to manually check the trap, and you also don’t have to worry about a trapped animal being inside for too long. Join us after the break for a demonstration video showing off all the features, and a real world example.
neat! can he remotely spring/re-arm the trap, or is the servo & ir-beam a seperate thing ? I’m guessing that is the case cause of the little end-run-switch behind the servo horn..
also polling the IR-sensor on the pi might not have been fast enough ?
It could be done if the door mechanism works like a lever ratchet hoist, so each back and forth motion off the servo pulls up the door. If you are clever, you can also use the same servo to hit the quick release on the far end of its swing.
Great project! A build something similar using a Arduino, and IR distance sensor. The housing was a empty pack of pringles and the “door” closed via servo. I caught 7 mice and set them free in nearby forest.
-After which, they found their way back to their familiar surroundings.
It could be that you cught the same mouse 7 times!
*caught
Right, that’s what my grandpa said :D
But must have been at least 2 mice.
Schrödinger’s maus?
No poison, no isotope and a window – not a bit of Schrödinger at all!
then he’s got more work to do!
He should add some ventilation holes!!
“…and you also don’t have to worry about a trapped animal being inside for too long” Right, with a foam board box, he’ll chew his way out in about 15 seconds.
sorry, i reported this by mistake.
I’m very happy that you freed those nice-little-mice again.
It gave me a smile while I was having my coffee :-)
As someone who just moved, only to discover that mice had destroyed over a thousand dollars of keepsakes, I was rooting for a more lethal alternative…
You should treat your trap with some permetherin. 12th cases of the Plauge have been reported so far in the US since April. Always be careful handling wild rodents.
nice! now you just need to put some wheels on it, make it go outside catapult it far away and then make it return to base.
I had this in my mind :)
No door needed no trip just use the sensing to energize the grid floor with a charge of HV. Then with a delay of a few seconds the corpse is flipped off into a disposal can. Bait is under the grid, ready for more and more.
Anyone trying to be St. Frances to mice should watch the videos of rampant mice in Australia, or live in the four corners area where the Hanta virus came from. I often have to work on the organ or piano that has become a mouse city. Birdseed, cat and dog food, pasta and other man provided foods are found in the stores of mouse city.
Mouse city has no bathrooms! Your piano is a mouse toilet and worse.
Having actually nursed a mouse that I inadvertently let languish for almost a day in a have a heart trap back to health before releasing it, I can appreciate the utility of this hack…
Did you give it mouse-to-mouse resuscitation?
Ah what’s the use, you build a better mouse trap and nature just builds a better mouse.
Nature also build its own mouse catcher – Felis catus.
Hah, my cats bring mice *into* the house and play with them then lose track of their toys
Yes but cat’s can not send emails and they can normaly not take photos ;)