DEER - electronic repeller

Description

Every year, when mowing pastures, many wildlife is crippled. On the Spring, many cubs coming to world which is full of dangers. So they are mostly during day hidden in tall grass. It is clever mechanism of nature, but not in modern age when mankind using big machines for mowing.

I was sad about that fact. So i want to change it. So i designed electronic repeller based on Arduino. Main idea behind this project is to know when and which pastures are being mowed and placing my devices there one day before. It was tested last year on ten pieces and it seems to work!

And that was being of this project...

Details

But making ten pieces was very time consuming. Testing piece was mess of wires, hot glued into waterproof box. And all that cutting, striping, soldering, heatshrinking and drilling was very exhausting. Maybe not with one device maked, but with ten, it was. Oh my deer!

Main goals was design a device with low cost, fast and easy to produce, and which is doable for everyone with basic soldering skills.

So mess of wire was replaced with regular printed circuit board, designed by myself and produced in China. Every other parts was also shopped from chinesse suppliers on favorite websites which everyone knows.

Here is picture of old version, two 10mm LEDs and piezo speaker on front. On top is hole with mounted light depended resistor inside. Used for sensing when it is time to flash with LEDs.

Look inside. Mess of wires with hotglued battery holder which was not ideal for transportation and instalation. On left bottom is homemade PCB with DC-DC converter for powering Arduino mini with 5V. Using higher voltage is better for making louder sounds with piezo speaker.

Near battery box in black heatshrink is magnetic switch soldered on PCB for better durability because it is from glass.

After instalation on place, device is activated by touching of magnet on side of box. It is for eleminating need of opening it with screwdriver only for making activation and deactivation. And anyone not want to drive car traveling to pastures with activated device which in random intervals make very loud random sounds.

Files

DEER_1.1.brd

brd - 133.64 kB - 06/07/2017 at 19:38

Download

DEER_1.1.sch

sch - 285.57 kB - 06/07/2017 at 19:38

Download

deer.ino

ino - 5.05 kB - 05/30/2017 at 18:09

Download

DEER.sch

sch - 284.93 kB - 04/23/2017 at 17:39

Download

DEER.brd

updated values for resistors

brd - 133.15 kB - 04/23/2017 at 13:58

Download

Components

1 × Arduino mini

1 × Chinese DC-DC Converter Step Up Module 1-5V to 5V 500mA

4 × 10K resistor

3 × 100ohm resistor

1 × Light dependent resistor

Project Logs

Collapse

Small bugs and update
Ondřej Petrlík • 06/07/2017 at 19:39 • 0 comments

Hello,
After assembly and testing I found the forgotten resistor at the reed relay. Pin arduina remained undefined. Fortunately, the relay was connected to Pin 2 which is just next to the ground. Using the 10K SMD resistor 10K size 0402, I fixed it on my finished boards. I also made it into a schematic drawing and board design so I uploaded a new version.
Code added
Ondřej Petrlík • 05/30/2017 at 18:33 • 0 comments

Hello, it is long time from last update.
But there is no better day to publish the program than when this project was featured on the Hackaday blog. Yay!
A lot of people were afraid about of repeating the same sound that animals get used to quickly. But I was counting on it. Even the light blinks randomly. There will be no probelm with a little variation, because the device is installed only a day or two before chopping high grass. Here it is active mainly at night because I do not want to be silent place here. Then at that place the animals do not want to spend the day. Just before chopping, the device is uninstalled and later used elsewhere.
If you find a bug in my program, I'd really like hear about it. So far everything looks fine. I hope it will be readable to others. You can ask in the comments on everything about this project.
Eagle files added
Ondřej Petrlík • 04/23/2017 at 14:04 • 0 comments

Schematic and board is now downloadable.
Board is editable in Eagle free version, dimensions of board are at maximum values for free version. (8x10cm)
Code for Arduino is still under development. Everything looks good, all inputs and outputs seems to be connected right.
First steps with new PCBs
Ondřej Petrlík • 04/22/2017 at 14:18 • 0 comments

New version have regular PCB, it is easier and faster for assembly, and it even looks better.
Custom DC-DC power supply has been replaced with module from China for accessibility for everyone and with easier soldering
I added plastic on pinheaders ends for easier soldering and alignment. It looks better than without that.
Now i need to write programm for new version, it took a while. After that a want publish all files.

View all 4 project logs

Discussions

DEER - electronic repeller

Description

Details