A better Mouse Trap?
My brother ordered me a few esp8266 boards a few months back.
The esp8266 if you haven’t heard the buzz on it is a $3 wifi chip that got a lot of coverage on places like hackaday. Two additional good sites for more info would be espressif.bbs and esp8266.com.
In the down time between Uthernet activities I have been experimenting with the esp826-01 module. Two recent software developments are making it a lot simpler to utilize the chip as a native processor and not just a serial wifi modem. That would be that a) the Arduino now supports the esp8266 as a direct target and b) a mobile developer called blynk (backed them via kickstater) supports the platform along with a lot of other embedded devices.
I wanted a very simple project for my first foray into this platform and decide to upgrade my mouse trap. My house backs onto a forest. Some times mice find their way in somehow and my cat has something new to play with if she is quick. I have used these catch and hold traps but sometime I put them down and forget to check them when I get busy.
I figured why not use the esp8266 to signal when the mouse is in the house and send an alert to my smart phone so I can go and release the little pest elsewhere.
So for my prototype I am using
Hardware
- esp82266-01 modified to use deepsleep
- magnet placed under the ramp
- magnetic sensor attached to a GPIO 16 and RST
- battery
Software
- Arduino 1.6.4 with esp8266 support
- Blynk
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015 @ 11:15 pm 
Uncategorized, Wifi
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June 4th, 2015 at 9:11 am
Regarding those types of mouse traps, I too have used them. I got the metal ones and put them in the basement. I found that in the quiet of night, I could hear the occupant rattling around in there. But you’re right: it’s a real shame if you forget the little guy in there!