Impressed by my cats going after my crops, I created a water-spraying cat deterrent utilizing the STHS34PF80 to create a cat presence and movement detector.
To see the Cat Presence Detector in motion, take a look at the video walkthrough:
Hold studying to get a extra in depth take a look at the method of creating the cat presence detector (and a few cute cat footage)!
What’s the problem?
When you’ve ever been an indoor cat proprietor, you would possibly perceive my struggles with cats attacking varied crops round the home. I’ve been a cat proprietor for over 3 years now, and over the previous 12 months I’ve given up on making an attempt to maintain my valuable home crops alive. I now have two fantastic cats which might be filled with manner an excessive amount of vitality. I can by no means even allow them to outdoors as a result of they solely eat the grass in our yard and get themselves sick. Round my birthday this 12 months, I acquired a couple of bouquets of gorgeous and costly flowers. The next week was stuffed with cleansing up water from a knocked over vase, flower petals and pollen throughout my counter tops, and cleansing up some, uh, cat “illness”.
Mixie and Pickles inspecting the flowers that I obtained for my birthday.
After I go into work and my accomplice is in conferences all day, it is inconceivable to maintain and eye on them always. To assist preserve my cats away from the flowers, I had a fairly good, non-harmful thought.
What’s my resolution?
Realizing my cats hatred of water, I knew it needed to be one thing to contain our water spray bottles autonomously spraying them once they’re spending time in locations they need to not. I do know that there are units on the market that exist for this, however why would I pay cash when I’ve all of the elements for doing so proper right here with me! I just lately labored on the STHS34PF80 Human Presence Sensor, and I figured for the reason that machine reads someone’s IR worth, it might do the identical for a cat.
How did I do it?
As talked about, I just lately labored on creating the Human Presence Sensor, so this was a PERFECT use for my venture. To make use of this, I wanted to assemble some cat IR information. I set out my human presence sensor, a Pocket Dev ESP32 C6, a tape measure, and a few treats about 2 ft away from the sensor. I wrote the code utilizing the SparkFun Arduino Library and I2C communication.
That information confirmed that between each cats, the IR presence worth was between 500-570 cm-1 at 2 ft away. As they obtained nearer, the worth rose to about 5000 cm-1 once they had been standing immediately in entrance of it. I used to be considering of selecting the additional distance, however all through my testing when the machine was sitting out on the counter, I’d stroll by the sensor within the room and find yourself getting sprayed by chance! Due to this, I ended up selecting 3000 cm-1 as my worth for the IR sensor to set off at. Even with the shut distance, the cats had been fortunately nonetheless scared away fast sufficient earlier than any actual harm to my flowers had been completed.
I used to be undecided on tips on how to use the water bottle initially. So, I used to be considering of some totally different concepts however finally selected a generic excessive torque servo motor to hit the set off. I wanted the additional energy to assist hit the bottle, regardless of if the set off will get slightly sticky, or whether it is low on water. Though, in the course of the testing of the motors I did have to make use of two of them. One for the venture, and one for my beautiful cat, Pickles, to steal away after I was not trying to make use of as a chew toy. Undoubtedly extra proof that I want this in my home ASAP!
Servo wire that served as a snack for Pickles.
To manage the servo and the cat presence sensor, I wanted slightly extra energy to take action. I ended up utilizing the RedBoard Plus since there’s a 5V output, Qwiic connector, and a USB-C cable output.
For the enclosure, I used varied SparkFun containers and plenty of pink electrical tape. I measured the cutout sizes then used a field cutter to make the holes. The structural integrity of the venture may not be the perfect, nevertheless it has been working properly sufficient for my wants! As for the water bottle, I simply ran to the greenback retailer and picked up a couple of for testing.
Ultimate enclosure with detection system put in.
How did it work?
Not solely had been my cats scared, however so had been my accomplice and I after we walked across the nook and forgot about it!
I purchased a bouquet of flowers to actually put this to the take a look at, and it was profitable! It has now been 3 days there have been no points with my cats attacking the flowers. I’d say this venture has been a terrific success! I’d particularly suggest this for orange cat homeowners 😆
Ultimate venture positioned in location to guard the flowers.
For a full wishlist of merchandise for this venture, test it out right here:
You have seen our canines within the workplace at SparkFun, however we have got cats inflicting mischief at residence too! Scroll by the images beneath to take a look at a few of our workers’ kitties: