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Sms auto alarm build for kitten/feral cats River City cat rescue


Kyle wookery

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Hi my name is Kyle I'm a volunteer for a cat rescue that serves northern California I have taken it upon my self to help my fellow animal lovers as I am the most technically advance in the group. So what I'm here asking for is some guidance on where and what I should get for my project here is my goal. :

We trap feral cats in many different locations some areas have scces to open Wi-Fi some don't as they are in fields.

Im looking to design and build a small self reliant box to attach to the trap that when the trap closes it sends a text / email to a specified person/s. My first Idea is to use a dev board with a alarm feature but I'm unsure what one is good and where to get it from also cost is a concern as well as we run on grants and donations. This device would allow us to leave traps longer periods of time without worry of the animal being in it all night and hurting itself. Also I have ideas on added features if anyone has a good place to get boards with gsm. I am knowledgeable but not too much into coding.

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Unless you have money to put a bunch of mobile devices on phone plans just for sms, mobile might be an issue just funding the monthly plans before you even get into the logistics of setting them up and using them. Small radio devices that run on solar with rechargeable batteries would probably be better. I know they have arduinos that can do SMS, but I'm not sure how that works, so googling will help you there.

I'll list two ways I might go about this(but I've no experience in this, so just tackling it from a "what do I need to make this work"). First the long route, then a possible alternative that might be better.

I would probably start with a Raspberry pi with wifi or even cheaper arm devices should work fine as little mesh network wifi relays. You can probably use some sort of motion sensor and small camera to take snap shots and email photos of what is in the cage if they trigger it. ( http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2015/06/01/home-surveillance-and-motion-detection-with-the-raspberry-pi-python-and-opencv/ )

If you can bridge the devices wifi to the local wifi(if freely accessible with no authentication required) that would be where I would try testing messages to call home over wifi, whether SMS over wifi or just email, http post to scripting listening web page, etc. From there, figuring out how to power the device, since wifi tends to eat battery life on most things, but this shouldn't be an issue on a low powered device that only needs power for wifi mainly and if setup to automatically boot on power(like solar and when sun comes up) have it boot into reporting mode and call home each time it starts up.

The logging and reporting side of it, and if needed, remote access to login to them, view a live feed in the trap or at the trap location would also be something to add. Just thinking about parts, here is what I would start with, but you will still need to figure out power logistics, like a little solar panel and battery maybe that has USB out to charge phones and such would work. Added to list, but might be cheaper solutions since Raspberry Pi's don't need a lot of power and can run over USB power.

https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Model-A1-2GHz-64-bit-quad-core/dp/B01CD5VC92/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EGHD86HM6V6ZX1M14H7Y

https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-5MP-Camera-Board-Module/dp/B00E1GGE40

https://www.amazon.com/Panda-Wireless-PAU06-300Mbps-Adapter/dp/B00JDVRCI0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1496064009&sr=1-1&keywords=usb+wifi+adapter+panda

https://www.amazon.com/Official-Raspberry-Pi-Case-White/dp/B01CK3XTIE/ref=pd_sim_147_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01CK3XTIE&pd_rd_r=KRRTV0SKENSAQ73ZTEDB&pd_rd_w=nGqTc&pd_rd_wg=C6l7v&psc=1&refRID=KRRTV0SKENSAQ73ZTEDB

https://www.amazon.com/Enokay-Supply-Raspberry-Charger-Adapter/dp/B01MZX466R/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1496064308&sr=1-4&keywords=raspberry+pi+power+supply (might not be needed if you use just a micro USB cable to a battery pack that supplies enough power)

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDHC-Standard-Packaging-SDSQUNC-032G-GN6MA/dp/B010Q57T02/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B010Q57T02&pd_rd_r=BRTDJ5H66VH5VKS2186J&pd_rd_w=Ry6tD&pd_rd_wg=ms00l&psc=1&refRID=BRTDJ5H66VH5VKS2186J

https://www.amazon.com/10000mAh-External-Carabiner-Emergency-Travel-Orange/dp/B01FWH0KQO/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1496064490&sr=1-2&keywords=cell+phone+solar+charger

https://www.amazon.com/Plano-Molding-131250-1312-Field/dp/B005IURN5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1496064793&sr=1-1&keywords=plastic++ammo+can

I'm not even sure from the software side what you'd need to set this up. There are Raspberry Linux distros that will give you all the interface needs, just the actual scripting side I would spend time googling on(myself anyway) in getting things setup how I want to make sure it all works.

Sure others will chime in with ideas as well, but you can at least see one possible example of parts above, which you can then build into an enclosure. I made an ammo case solar battery pack once that was water proof and mounted everything inside for storage when not in use, but you could certainly do something similar as well. Plastic ammo cans are like $10 and up depending where you get them online.

The alternative to all of the above, is probably go with something like the Hak5 Pineapple with some extended antennas, battery pack/solar setup. You then just need power and access to the internet and a way to trigger a call home/email/sms over wifi, etc, to report back to you. The one thing needed with the Pineapple though will be some sort of camera and motion trigger for a script that can notify you. Not sure what camera's you can use with pineapple, but any USB camera should work with a USB powered hub. I don't own a pineapple, so not 100% sure what capabilities it will have form that side to speak to USB cameras, but sure others in the forums might have an idea on what capabilities it has and can do for this.

 

 

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Thanks for the advice I agree with the idea of radio maybe it would be cheaper to use some sort of base station we stash near the trap with the ability to alert when it triggers  and just have the trap relay the info to it I've seen a company on line who makes something but it's ridiculously priced and I know I could make one with a little help from the right people with knowledge of microcontrollers I myself have studied electronics and worked with all kind of stuff while going for my degree in electronics technology but the vast amount of products out there is intimidating and I'm no expert either i do  appreciate all the information shared.and will share my progress one I settle on a build 

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The only issue with SMS is you need an active carrier connection for each device on the mobile network, unless someone knows a way to do it without the phone networks. I know there are services like Skype that lets you send SMS messages, but that is also a pay per sms message service. I have it on my Skype phone account, but never use it since it costs money to send SMS over skype.

There is also the Arduino GSM Shield, but again, requires an active subscription to a mobile carrier - https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoGSMShield

I know the iPhone has the ability to send SMS over wifi, my sister uses it, but I also think this requires a registered phone, so a use iPhone with no service isn't going to be able to do it over wifi without a mobile carrier subscription. All Android based apps work in much the same way, as far as I know, they require an actual carrier subscription to send SMS over wifi, but can at least send them over wifi.

 

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Mmm. A radio signal seems like a good option as it doesn't use SMS/WiFi. Even placing a walkie-talkie on the door so that when the door closes the latch hits the walkie talkie's button on the way down and it triggers a beeping noise and maybe the trap number? Have like a little voice box next to it that says everything for you like "TRAP 1 HAS CAUGHT SOMETHING" over the radio. Not sure.

Just throwing ideas out there...Don't want to make it too dodgy otherwise anything could go wrong (e.g. walkie talkie detaching, something getting to it, it running out of battery etc.).

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I think Darren covered an episode with sending data over radio with patch switching networks. Ham radio and walkie talkie type stuff. If it wasn't him, then it was another video podcast but I do remember watching it with people sending files over two-way radios. Back then the big thing was dialing in the right frequency and snapping images off weather satellites that you recorded a wav file of the sound and decoded to images. Even with a radio, you're going to need some kind of little trigger though to send data over the radios. Arduino might again come in handy or some SDR type tools on a Raspberry and a breakout board.

 

http://makezine.com/projects/raspberry-pirate-radio/

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3 hours ago, digip said:

I think Darren covered an episode with sending data over radio with patch switching networks. Ham radio and walkie talkie type stuff. If it wasn't him, then it was another video podcast but I do remember watching it with people sending files over two-way radios. Back then the big thing was dialing in the right frequency and snapping images off weather satellites that you recorded a wav file of the sound and decoded to images. Even with a radio, you're going to need some kind of little trigger though to send data over the radios. Arduino might again come in handy or some SDR type tools on a Raspberry and a breakout board.

 

http://makezine.com/projects/raspberry-pirate-radio/

Well, as a trigger you could just use a proximity sensor pointing at the cage/cage door that only checks for things within a certain distance (so it doesn't go off at the cage or the door).

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Not sure how the traps work, but if closing of door behind animal makes metal to metal contact, can wire some kind of circuit to be completed on contact and set off alarm, kind of like those magnet window burglar alarms. https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Sensor-Window-Warning-Switch/dp/B0050N7SM0

instead of a buzzer have them trigger a switch to call home or such.

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