Simple cheap alarm design.

[rebb]

Pat, it's just my opinion, but the thinking involved in this alarm system is part 'electronic tech' and part' free thinking'....the free thinking part is not 'so usual' in society at large, and i enjoy watching it put down to read anywhere i find it. frequently on a variety of topics. that kind of thinking is the genesis of artistic creation....i do it on a crude level mechanically (as do many ag/rural people-city dwellers don't seem to get to develop this, or don't have the dna to). an example i still think of is the use by a muffler shop to make a muffler man out of parts as part of their advertising....

having said that, my electronics skills are 'i barely know series from parallel' and get them backwards from time to time....i am best if i have a wiring diagram with specific common names for parts (as like you first schematic).

yah, when you have time, do me a schematic, please. both for the pushbutton garage door interrupter, and the inside delay switch; i bet i could use a single pole light switch, complete with box/plate cover, etc., and put it inside the door just slightly apart from my light switches; would only be found by accident if you dint know...that 'hide it in plain sight' has come in handy for me over the years....

this is just great...thanks again.

spent the last two days puppy proofing my place; got two catahoula mix pups at the pound...couldn't belive somone would abandon the lil fellers at the pound....like finding gold in the trash....

re: electric fence controllers...i tried to get my Dad to wire his truck wheels for Mother's lahso apso (she was nuts over little dogs, but this one loved to mark Dad's wheels, and he was incensed over it). he woont do it; i told him the guy i knew in high school dint die from p'in the fence (that still makes me laugh ) i think the dog eventually took a long walk on a short pier, although Dad said it was 'stolen'.....an electric fence controller will get yer attention!

rebb

 

[patrick_g]

Another little "brute force and awkwardness" solution which can be substituted for a fence charger in some applications is:

Parts list:

1. 120VAC water control solenoid valve from a junked dishwasher.

2. IR motion detector security light.

3. water sprinkler

4. Misc water hose, electrical wire, wire nuts, tape, etc.

Project description:

You use an IR motion detector type security light in the TEST position (to defeat the solar cell that normally keeps it from coming on during daylight hours) to control the solenoid valve instead of a light bulb. The inlet side of the valve is connected to a faucet and the outlet side to a sprinkler (I used a portable RainBird type.)

The sensor (security light module) and the sprinkler are NOT collocated (could be but I avoid flooding the control module)

Operation: After you have water to the valve, a sprinkler on the outlet side of the valve (with any reasonable length of hose between), and the sensor module mounted where the sensor can "SEE" the zone of interest, you ensure the sensor is in TEST position.

If a moving IR target is detected by the sensor the sensor module turns on the power to the load which is the valve which turns on the water to the sprinkler. In the test position the IR unit typically switches off again after about 10 seconds (may differ per IR module model) after it ceases to detect motion. The unit does not waste much water but will scare the stuffings out of a dog or cat looking to deposit a "love note" in the protected zone.

I found that ordinarily the dog or cat would be a block away by the time the unit timed out (10 sec) having been frightened by the hissing of the air being purged from the line, well before water actually sprayed out.

I used to get 1-3 "deposits" in my front landscaping daily. After installation of this little gadget I got none whatsoever for the duration I used it. I watched early one morning after just installing the devilish device and along comes John Doe with his dog on a leash. He lets the dog go into my front yard (on the leash) while he waits on the sidewalk. I notice he is not carrying a plastic bag or anything to collect the "mess" so I know he has no intent of cleaning up. The dog walks into the yard and is detected. The valve opens and water starts purging the air from the line though the sprinkler. The dog takes off like he has been zapped with a jillion volts and yanks so hard on the leash he spins the guy around and drops him to one knee and he is almost dragged into the street before he can get to his feet. It was hard to not laugh out loud.

This sceanario was repeated with the various dogs both on leash (most fun) and running loose. The only time the sprinkler ever actually sprayed water was if two animals came along in quick succession. The sound of the air frightened them away. The dog walkers thought they were just unlucky to be there when my automatic sprinklers came on. I followed the advice of W.C. Fields, "Never wizen up a chump, never give a sucker an even break." In other words I invoked, "Don't ask, don't tell."

Then the neighborhood kids, while chasing a ball or whatever, discovered that if they jumped back and forth over the sprinkler it would spray them so they would put on bathing suits and do so. They thought the sprinkler saw them when actually the sensor was mounted many feet away under an eave of the house. The result was the same, they were causing the sprinkler to run so much water that it ran down the gutter which is an offense and carries a fine in San Diego (during a shortage... nearly all the time)

The IR controlled sprinkler also trained my postman to stay on the sidewalk and not take a shortcut through the lawn and through a hedge I was trying to get to close up a gap he kept open.

I told a jillion people how to build these things and years later it was a commercially available product called a Rain Crow. The Rain Crow is battery powered and has the detector and the sprinkler collocated. I prefer separating the detector and sprinkler.

I replaced the IR controlled sprinkler with ultra sonics and still never got another "love note" from a dog. I installed the IR sprinkler in the back yard as cats were using my raised bed veggie garden for a litter box. That was fun to watch too. A cat gets on the stucco wall (in lieu of a fence) and when it jumps down into my back yard it is detected and the sprinkler is energized. The cat immediately jumps back out of the yard and typically no water is sprayed, just some air gets purged from the hose. NO more cat "sign" in my raised veggie plot.

Anyone feel free to ask for any needed clarification as what may seem clear to me when I write it can be clear as mud to a reader.

Pat

 

[patrick_g]

yah, when you have time, do me a schematic, please. both for the pushbutton garage door interrupter, and the inside delay switch; i bet i could use a single pole light switch, complete with box/plate cover, etc., and put it inside the door just slightly apart from my light switches; would only be found by accident if you dint know...that 'hide it in plain sight' has come in handy for me over the years....

this is just great...thanks again.

Rebb, I tried to delete this message but couldn't. I need to mod the drawing. I may not get back to this for a few days but I will do it for you.

Pat

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Hey Patrick that is hilarious! I love it.. I may have to do that just to watch the fun..Sometimes a little Yankee ingenuity is more fun than a barrel full of Monkeys.

 

[patrick_g]

Treemonkey, A friend had a neighbor with dogs that barked continuously when the owner was not home. A really strong ultrasonic sound source played out though a piezo type tweeter made the dogs hate life. So a microphone filtered for the frequency range of interest was used to detect barking and when the barking exceeded a user adjustable threshold the ultra sound would blast out.

The filter kept the ultra sound from being detected by the bark detector. We included user selectable timeouts on the ultrasound projector. In use you adjusted the level of noise picked up by the Radio Shack shotgun mike required to trigger the ultrasound. The duration of ultrasound after the dogs stopped barking was user adjustable.

Holy Pavlov, Batman... It didn't take long to train/condition the dogs. They bark and they get their ears slammed with ultrasound. They don't bark and they don't usually get slammed with ultrasound. The occasional helicopter or whatever would trigger the detector and give the dogs a blast of ultrasound. When the dogs heard a chopper coming they got all anticipatory and upset knowing they were about to get a blast.

My friend only activated the device when someone was home at his house and the neighbor wasn't (when the dogs barked.)

There is a commercially available version of this now.

Better living though electronics.

Pat

 

[Treemonkey1000]

See that is another great idea.. My daughter and I have been training dogs to help handicapped people. So we can control our own dogs but not the neighbors. When we train dogs to stop barking when they shouldn't be we use a squirt bottle with vinegar in it. Squirt them in the face a few times if they don't stop barking when you tell them NO BARK! Might be fun to nail the dog from 10 yards away with a super soaker full of vinegar... When I was growing up my younger brother and sister would get into my room. So I made a curtain out of aluminum cans. Then I took a power supply and drove an old multivibrator from a car radio to make and break 12 volts to a car igniton coil. That put a very hot voltage on the cans.. You could adjust the voltage up and down with the power supply and get arcs between the cans. After they got blasted out of their shoes a few times they quit going in my room.. To this day we all still laugh about that.
I have been an electronic tech for 30+ years now. The last 20 years I have been at a Company that makes the worlds best passenger jets.. Working in a electronic laboratory.. I get paid to have fun now.

 

[woodlandfarms]

The last 20 years I have been at a Company that makes the worlds best passenger jets.. Working in a electronic laboratory.. I get paid to have fun now.

You work for Airbus?

Just kidding. I am all for a global economy but it blows my mind Airbus got the refueling contract, and I just read that an Italian company is now going to build the new presidential helicopters...

Hmmmmmm...

 

[Soundguy]

That's a really.. Hmm.. issue.. I agree..

soundguy

 

[rebb]

Pat,

no worries...haven't got all my wire run for the basic system yet....been working on chicken brood boxes, too. have to git 'er done by noon; 90% humidity, 95 degrees here....bleh! 6 hours in the morning, two or so in evening my old body will stand this kind of heat.... wish that gulf air would go back where it came from!
rebb

 

[patrick_g]

Pat,

no worries...haven't got all my wire run for the basic system yet....been working on chicken brood boxes, too. have to git 'er done by noon; 90% humidity, 95 degrees here....bleh! 6 hours in the morning, two or so in evening my old body will stand this kind of heat.... wish that gulf air would go back where it came from!
rebb

We hadn't used our A/C until last Monday. Wherever and however you exorcise your hot and humid air, maybe you can get some of ours to go with it. I wilt entirely too quickly in heat and humidity.

As regards alarm stuff. Wire your garage door(s) with sensors (switches) just like everything else. That will be compatible with any mods I provide.

Pat