This video shows a squirrel getting wet from the newly installed defense system. It is designed to chase away wild turkeys, but squirrels are a nuisance too. So don't feel bad for this fellow's free bath.
Here's the story:
A gang of turkeys show no mercy on our gardens. Often twice daily visits, always cause a mess.
They make a mess by digging holes and kicking landscaping materials everywhere. After they have their fun they leave like they haven't a care in the world. I get the pleasure of cleaning up after them.
But hopefully these feathered monsters will learn not to mess with my home. Because I have created an automated defense system (intelligent water shoot'n sprinkler).
I quickly found that those $50 motion sensing sprinklers are horrible. Triggered by everything, including wind and moving clouds. So I built a more sophisticated version that uses a video camera, RaspberryPi computer, and ESP8266 WiFi module. These devices communicate with each other on a private LAN.
The video camera analyzes the image and determines when motion is caused by a small animal. Then it sends an alarm event to my OpenHab based home automation system. OpenHab does two things: (1) It instructs Amazon Alexa to say "Attention, I've detected an intruder, it might be turkeys" and (2) It turns on a sprinkler that is connected to a custom designed WiFi controlled water valve.
Yes, a lot of work just to get turkeys off my lawn. But I'm at that age where chasing things off my property is expected.
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