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Build A Better Mousetrap!

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  • BatmanBatman Posts: 93
    edited 2005-12-27 00:15
    i wish they had BASIC Stamp 1 Project Board (Kit Form), it be alot cheaper

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    Soon i will rule the world with my new Batman Technology

    ·I Will Have So much Power that EVIL WIll Fear ME
    ·································· HO HO HO You Are Doomed
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  • BatmanBatman Posts: 93
    edited 2005-12-27 00:33
    What do i need schematic for?what is it?

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Soon i will rule the world with my new Batman Technology

    ·I Will Have So much Power that EVIL WIll Fear ME
    ·································· HO HO HO You Are Doomed
    ···································Laughing Out Loud·
  • Half-LucasHalf-Lucas Posts: 13
    edited 2006-03-12 02:39
    Thats a cool idea you got going there!
    One problem: Won't the mouse chew on the cables outside of the moustrap? That seems to be a habit of all small mamals....
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-03-12 04:00
    Mice tend to travel alond baseboards and such and never think to stop and climb on top of the trap and start cewing on the wires when there is cheese to be had inside.· Once inside they cannot get to the wires anyway.· And, this was a prototype.· A rather successful one if I might say so having caught many mice.· In that time none chewed the wires.· Just the inside of the box.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • WingtealWingteal Posts: 2
    edited 2006-08-15 20:16
    Nice trap fabrication and post by Chris. I appreciate elegant simple solutions. I live in a century old firetrap wood house with some shakey wiring where mice are no joke. I consider myself a loser if I have to kill a creature instead of relocating (I catch large snakes every summer and release them under my neighbor's house-kidding Dave). Mice are essential to survival of overwinter birds of prey like hawkes and owls. I have built many types of traps. The simplest favorite is a tilted wire cage weighted by rechargeable AA batteries which falls shut and levers a microswitch trigger circuit -or make your own contact switch out of copper pieces-that runs through a 3909 or 555 pulsed (to save battery and unnecessary sound) power to a one dollar 1.5 v radio shack buzzer (273-053). The trap drop arm is key (also important to hinge the drop wire cage in fashion that prevents the mouse from 'nosing' it open). Drop arm is primitively simple ; a simple 'L' shape piece of coathangar with curlicue on long arm of the 'L' to hold cheese. The short side of the 'L' holds up the weighted wire cage (it has a small curve on it's bottom to pivot on the trap bottom and raise the bait end to mouse snout height) and is set to 'slide out' with slightest pivot of the longer cheese arm. I have used this trap for years and can vouch for success. Once the mouse is trapped, tape it shut and include its release during your next shopping trip (undo the tape and drop the trap out the cardoor). Take care, I have had both snakes and mice get loose in the the car -the mouse lived for many days building a nest in the trunk.. the blacksnake was large and took an hour to get out from under the seats). Good luck
  • HenrymouHenrymou Posts: 128
    edited 2007-02-21 08:16
    yeah I have a question, does mouse blood ever spray on the LCD.
    Because I have a lizard which eats mice, and when he bites them.. aw man do they spray.
    maybe you should add winshield wipers to your LCD lol
    peace
    -Henry
  • boeboyboeboy Posts: 301
    edited 2007-02-21 14:52
    What if the mouse gets stuck in the trap doorfreaked.gif

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    lets see what this does... KA BOOM (note to self do not cross red and black)
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-02-21 16:32
    The mouse would have to be at least 8” long for this to happen since it needs to be on the opposite side of the enclosure to trip the door. If we get a mouse that big I don’t think that standard servo is going to stop him. =)

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • Lab RatLab Rat Posts: 289
    edited 2008-12-09 19:06
    i like your collection of junk in the background it kind of matches my own collection
    Beau Schwabe (Parallax) said...
    Chris Savage said...

    What did you glue everything with? That stuff looks like the glue they use to hold cars together!

    Chris,


    smilewinkgrin.gif I<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> think you are right about the cars - that great stuff is called "gorilla glue". It's like a gremlin, water is the catalyst. smilewinkgrin.gif
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    Parallax posesses power beyond belief.

    Believe in it.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-12-09 19:19
    The bench in question can be seen at the link below. This was from my old computer shop in NY. I worked on all non-computer related projects at this bench (really two benches side-by-side). I think it was pretty organized. =)

    http://forums.parallax.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36827

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Engineering
  • Dave-WDave-W Posts: 94
    edited 2009-06-26 01:07
    Hello Chris Savage,

    You just have·to make some additions to your "Green Varmints Trap".

    First would be a EEPROM to keep track of how many rodents you relocated to a "Greener"·location.

    Next, would be a real time clock chip to tell when you caught them. This would tell you what time of the day they·have the·activity for·looking for food, what time·of the year they prefer to be in your living space or outside·enjoying the fresh air and ·how long they had to wait for the next transport to a new life in paradise!

    You could post a train schedule but you would have to teach them to read first. Save that for the next Nuts and Volts issue....



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    Dave W.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2009-06-26 16:28
    Dave,

    The better mousetrap was one of those projects I have been meaning to revisit for years now. I suppose the main reason I have not is for lack of the original problem. Since I have moved from NY to CA I have not lived in an area where there is a mice problem. I have rattlesnakes, small lizards and moles, but no mice.

    I suppose the concept could be applied to the moles and even the lizards just the same, however I picture that if I put the trap out in the back yard to see if I can catch one, if a snake tries to enter it will trip the trap before being fully inside. This could be a problem.

    The original project was thrown together in two days (one for testing and one for final build). Afterward I saw plenty of things I would have done different including much that I learned during the operation of the unit. Some day I will do something with this again and I will follow up here with a post. For now, any local mice have a reprieve. Take care and thanks for your thoughts.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Engineering
  • RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
    edited 2010-05-14 15:12
    That is so cool...
  • SB316SB316 Posts: 33
    edited 2010-05-14 20:31
    Why not just use a regular live trap?

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    SB 3:16
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2010-05-14 20:47
    SB, you didn't read the first message in the thread, did you?· smilewinkgrin.gif

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    Chris Savage

    Parallax Engineering
    ·
  • azclawsonazclawson Posts: 10
    edited 2010-05-17 02:19
    Ive seen purely mechanical enclosure-type traps before, but they were for larger animals and the spring-loaded door could hurt the person setting up the trap anyway! lol.gif
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