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I built a better mousetrap

Fast_Eddie

Fast_Eddie

Upper-middle fi
Yes, really. I've talked about this before, but never really started a thread on it. Recently, my moustrap was involved in a tragic closet storage accident. The box was killed, but the electronics lived to see duty in mousetrap 2.0.

It uses an infrared beam kit to trigger a solenoid that closes a door. Got it together just in time. We saw one mouse and caught it just a couple of hours after we set the trap out. Not fifteen minutes later, we caught a baby. Last night, four more babies caught. Whew. Must be getting close to the end.
 
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Pic 1

Here you see the basic box. Made from one piece of that hobby wood they have at Home Depot with plexiglass cut for sides. The plexi has two missions. First it lets you easily see if you have a guest. We'll discuss the second in a minute...
 

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This shot shows the box that the IR kit is in. At this stage, it was being powered by a 9volt battery. That worked, but not as well as I'd have liked. I've since upgraded to an external SLA battery. The kit and solenoid are designed to work on 12 volts, so that's working much better and it will last for a very long time.
 

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Mousetrap 1.0 had a sender on one side and a receiver on the other with two small holes for the IR beam to travel through. This had two problems. I couldn't put it against a wall, where mice actually travel, and when I caught one, they kept trying to chew out the small holes. One suceeded and I had to fix it up.

So I wanted to reflect the beam and get the electronics all on one side. I was going to use mylar tape, but it turns out the plexi reflects plenty well all by itself. Works perfectly and signal is more than strong enough. Additionally, the box with the beam kit is totally indipendent of the rest of the trap, so it's reversable, and it's easy to leave behind when you need to dispose of the guest!
 

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This is the latch set up. The solenoid is a sprinkler part from Home Depot. You can remove the top and plunger. I've replaced that with a bolt to help direct the action to the latch. The rest is pretty self explanatory. HD also supplied the hinges and the angle aluminum stock for the actual latch. If you look closely you can see a black screw that acts as a stop for the latch. That lets you adjust the sensitivity of the latch to make the solenoid's job a bit easier.
 

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Finally (for now) our first guest. You can almost make out one of my modifications of the original design here. The current to the solenoid would drain the battery quickly and I thought it best to figure out a way to turn it off once a visitor has entered the trap. I realized that the latch would conduct electricity, so I simply cut one of the wires and attached one end to the door side of the latch and one end to the solenoid side. When the door closes, the ciruit is broken. Works well.
 

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Here in Denver, we have dumpsters for our garbage in the alley behind the homes. Very nice for getting rid of garbage, but it does make a nice breading ground for mice. Inevitably, they get into the houses from time to time, especially in the fall. After catching this guest, I caught five babies. Four of them last night. We'll see if that does it.

The trap in total cost about $120 to build. Yeah. That's a lot for a mousetrap, but we will use it for years and it's cheaper than an exterminator. Plus, we have pet mice, so the wife and kids couldn't stand the idea of killing the uninvited mice. That's really what lead to the project in the first place. We bought several no kill traps but none of them worked for us. But it quickly grew into a hobby project for me. I've built a few things like this over the years but this is the best built and most developed project I think I've ever done outside of some car work.

Hope you enjoy it!
 

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Excellent work! :thmbsp: Nice way to treat those cute little mice, too! :yes: Better Karma for you that you catch and release them humanely (you do release them, right?).

In our home, we don't even step on cockroaches, catching them for release outside, instead. (My wife is a sweet-hearted Buddhist.)
 
Okay..I smell a business opportunity. But to keep costs down, let's move operations offshore and outsource everything....:D

But really.. topnotch job:thmbsp:
 
We live near a huge park. I take them over there. I suppose it's more humane, but I do sometimes feel bad- for the park workers I mean. They have a lot of buildings for the park equipment and such. I'm sure they all end up in there where they're dealt with in another manner. There are just a lot of mice in our neighborhood. You can't just let them live in your house. I have no ill will for anyone who kills them. If we don't we'll be over run soon. But I'd just as soon leave that for the natural preditors at the park. I guess with my trap, they at least get a chance. Mainly, though, it was just a cool project to do. Fun to see it actually work, and very well I might add!
 
Ingenious, but I go with Victor spring traps, quick and cheap. As to the humanity, those little buggers did over $99 worth of damage to our cars so I do not feel especially kindly toward them.
 
Nice job on the mousetrap Eddie. You might have too much time on your hands though, time to crank up the tunes and build a RCM. :D
 
merrylander, I would have gone that rout too, but for the wife and kids concerns.

cabinover, I have NO time and projects like this don't make it any better. This took more time than you would imagine. I spent the better part of a Saturday on it, then a couple hours on Sunday. Finished it up an hour or so a night for the rest of the week. This weekend we got to fire it up and do some damage. I'd say there are more than 12 hours in it, and that's with the IR kit allready put together. That took me a long time too. I don't do enough of that stuff to know resistor values and stuff off the top of my head and the soldering was very slow for me. I wanted to do a good job, so every joint took a minute or two.

Thanks for all the compliments guys. Made my day.

Take care,

Ed
 
I'd very seriously like to buy one. Let me know when you get into marketing them. My cat in my avatar is of no help whatsoever :boring:. James
 
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