Hi all, I’m posting this GREAT project on behalf of @arduinobasics1 . There is a youtube video and also a hackster.io project page if you’d like to replicate parts of his project.
I think the natural evolution of this project would be to trigger a camera (still or video) to come on and start recording at the time of the alarm tripping.
I’m tempted to re-create something like this for the goal of catching which of my cats (probably all of them) are going on the kitchen counter at night…
Anyone have any good ideas for ways to startle the cat when they trip the system? I used to have something like this: Amazon.com and it worked well, though the refills were sort of expensive. Maybe I can do some soldering and integrate it into my Cayenne setup…
I also think that is the evolution.
I think @ats1080s and I have already accepted defeat and surrendered our houses to the cats…keep fighting the good fight @rsiegel! My kitty happens to be especially good at typing on my keyboard when I leave the room lol.
-B
I put the white flag up long ago. They do what they want… You’re just wasting air to yell at them lol
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Whatever you decide, it should include lasers. For sure, lasers.
Craig
ps. This is why I want to get the ESPs working. They would be great window break, motion, or door sensors, running on batteries.
Thanks @bestes for posting this on my behalf.
The full tutorial including the parts required, Arduino code, fritzing diagrams etc etc can also be found on my blog: http://arduinobasics.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/arduino-based-security-project-using.html
Yes @rsiegel, there are few ways that this project could be improved. Including the camera option that you suggested. If you put the RFID tag on their collar (if your cats allows this), you could probably modify the code somewhat just to notify you when a tag has been scanned by the RFID reader. The cat would have to get close to the reader - so a couple of cat biscuits near the reader may work??
But if you just want to scare them off the bench upon detection, then you could just load some dog barking sounds on the SD card to play on a “loud” speaker… but the bad thing is that it would probably wake you up.
Notifications on your phone could work to alert you of the event (if you are awake at the time)…
My last idea would be to squirt a water gun when the laser trip wire is tripped… but would need to make sure that it is pointed away from the electronics (of course).
Good luck 
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electric squirt bottle. -Spritz!