Circuit to detect skunks

Hi all

yesterday my neighbors dogs got sprayed by a skunk that was in the yard. the dad was of course angry at the fact skunks were in the yard and plans to put out poison. but I disagree because its the wrong thing to do especially where there are many pets and it could get spread around.

I do know that skunks will run away when they hear crinkling plastic, like handling a bag of doritos chips? that crinkling sound makes them run away, fast. they get in under the fence which will get patched, but not today... there has to be some kind of simple circuit to act as a motion detector? i could put an old computer with an old camera and set it to detect motion, but if it could b battery operated its better. having an extension cord to power a computer to do this? isnt going to happen.

with all the miracle electronic things out there, does anyone know how to do this?
thanks

depending on the contours of the area being covered, you could think about ultrasonic Doppler detector, or an infra-red Fresnel body heat detector.

You can certainly design a very sophisticated electronic system to deter skunks. But you have written that to deter a skunk, that sound of crinkling plastic works well, so- use this idea and make a generator of such sound! Maybe a tiny toy motor driving a cam with a Doritos bag would be the easiest way to go...

jiripolivka said:

You can certainly design a very sophisticated electronic system to deter skunks. But you have written that to deter a skunk, that sound of crinkling plastic works well, so- use this idea and make a generator of such sound! Maybe a tiny toy motor driving a cam with a Doritos bag would be the easiest way to go...

Click to expand...

thanks thats a great idea... the hardest part is finding a way to detect them. i managed to find a few of the motion detectors, now the part is integrating those into my own microcontroller chip, what is the signal coming from those detectors? and these days everything is a linux on uC, i dont even have one of those handy. either its tuned to detect by trial and error or its a sensor on a uC wirelessly connected to the home pc

How about a trip wire that pulls a micro switch?
Simples....

Or some Claymores? nah - that would ruin the fence

Mattylad said:

How about a trip wire that pulls a micro switch?
Simples....

Or some Claymores? nah - that would ruin the fence

Click to expand...

the trip wire could work if its on a door, i found skunks will push the door open to get to the kitchen where the cat food is, if the door isnt tightly shut. here it seems the problem is a yard where slow moving critters need to set off some bunch of sensors.

a Claymore? hoot man, thats a wee bit overkill

Perhaps something like a battery cassette player with a pad onto which the Skunk is attracted or is directly on it's path?
Pad starts the cassette tape playing a recording of your deterrent noise... a delay to keep the cassette playing after the Skunk has retreated would probably be good.

More than one pad, perhaps a bit of wood hinged one end and a micro-switch which simply uses the Skunk's own weight to set it off, one by the hole in the fence?

Something like this anyway, getting somewhat late here to think laterally enough
good luck and hope this might assist
Mik

PS: Possible substitute for cassette might be an MP3 player?

rogersb said:

i could put an old computer with an old camera and set it to detect motion, but if it could b battery operated its better. having an extension cord to power a computer to do this? isnt going to happen.

with all the miracle electronic things out there, does anyone know how to do this?
thanks

Click to expand...

This want work at night. That camera probably will not see anything in dark.



Read this:
https://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-create-natural-skunk-repellent.htm



Best regards,
Peter