If you have cats or other unwanted animals trespassing in your backyard
I'm going to show you how to make a motion-activated water spray repellent
that's not only more adaptable than commercial versions but can be made for
as little as $15.00 in 45 minutes- even if you have no previous skills in making stuff.
You may be aware I have a bit of an ongoing cat problem
but if you knew here, cats have been frequenting my backyard causing all
sorts of havoc like (beep) on things scratching stuff, eating my grass and
then remembering that they don't like grass and then attempting to return it thinking I won't notice.
So I made a couple of cat deterrents in the past and we had some
good fun testing out the effectiveness of these devices. So after I made my
first deterrent video a few years ago people asked if I could do up some
instructions that were a bit more realistic and practical because
apparently some people like to retain their central door locking components in
their car but also some people said things like they didn't think they would
be smart enough to make a DIY animal repellent which I don't think should
stop anyone. I'm not smart, I still can't work out why doorways in
my house don't work sometimes. So this is what inspired me to work out a nice
simple recipe for people to build their own repellent that's not only cheap but
can be made by anyone easily.
Now I know since I made my original video there are
now commercial spray is available on the market however these ones can be really
expensive, if you're looking at setting a couple up which is very likely you'll be
pushing close to the $200 and for that all you'll generally get is
something that only comes with a lawn spike and sprays an area that's too wide
So good luck using that around outdoor furniture and electronic appliances.
Now what I'm going to do today is give a basic overview of how to make
an ultra cheap motion-activated sprayer in its most simple form, but also for
those wanting to have a crack at building this following some more
detailed instructions I've done it up as an easy to follow illustrate eBook.
it's just a few dollars and will help support this channel so I can hopefully make
some more frequent videos for you. Link is in the description.
The book also has a chapter on making a more advanced repellent which still works out under $20
but it looks way cooler, is way more durable and
there is also a stack of optional mods so you can use it indoors without water, to say
stop a cat going into a bedroom or adapt it to have different sprinkler fittings
depending on your situation. Even adapt it with a doorbell to serve as a
cheap Wireless driveway buzzer but if you can't be bothered making one I'll be
giving away some of my hand built prototypes too. Details at the end of the video.
Okay let's build ourselves a cat repellent. Now the primary ingredient for
this contraption is stuff well not this much stuff more like this much. Thumbs up
more specifically a 12 volt solenoid like so. You can buy them
online pretty cheap or you could salvage one from your washing machine. If you do
don't stress they grow back. This one is half-inch o r if your finger
gets stuck you know you've got the right size. Then from your local hardware store
you're gonna need a couple of articulation rises, an end cap,
a coupling and a reducing coupling like this. Check the inside of all your
plastic parts because sometimes they're made pretty crappy like this one which
has a big plastic dagger growing inside this tube. Grab your backyard garden hose
sprayer trigger, handle spraying thing. Then all you need from this is the
plastic adapter in the bottom which you should be able to un-thread. If you can't it's
because they've glued it in because the manufacturer is it cheap and they
don't want to put a rubber washer in there. You can buy them separately but
they can cost more than an entire trigger spray yeah the world is stupid
you'll also need a 12 volt power adapter I salvaged this one from a telephone
equipment apparently. get yourself a 6 amp rectifier diode at the rectifier diode store
Then at the heart of our spray deterrent is this little gem which is a
12 volt infrared motion detecting module you can buy them online for about $3-bargain!
With all of our ingredients let's kick this build off with some
thread sealing tape. Thread tape is the stuff you picked up as a kid thinking
that was normal tape and then you're like what the (beep) is this stuff & why does dad
have this useless tape in the shed that doesn't stick to anything or maybe that
was just me anyway we need to wrap this around all
the threads to stop any water leaks I've put some around the reticulation riser
which is on the spraying end of our device however you want to make sure you
have a generous amount sealing the parts on the inlet end where the hose connects
next up grab your end cap and you're gonna want to drill a small hole in the
center of it with a drill because that's what it drills for. Drilling a 4 or 5
millimeter hole should be sweet as give it a little drill in the reverse
direction just to smooth out the edges because you want this to be pretty tidy
for nice water flow you can then screw the hose adapter into the coupling and
thread these onto the inlet of the solenoid valve there should be an arrow
embossed on the solenoid valve showing which way the water flows on the
business end of our solenoid valve you can also put the other coupling on then
the sprinkler riser and your end cap with the drilled hole in the end and
there you go easier than Lego you've made the spring bit of this cat
repellent let's move on we can now wire up the motion sensing
part in my original video I use an alarm motion sensor which had to be hacked to
activate the water spray but this time round we'll be using this dedicated
infrared motion sensor switch which makes hooking it up as simple as 3 wires
let's do it on the motion sensor board grab those three wires and strip them
back get your 12 volt power adapter if it has a plug on the end you can chop
that off this can also be powered from common household batteries which I go
into more detail about in the e-book take the positive wire that's coming out
of your power adapter then twist this together with the red wire coming out of
your motion sensing board then the negative wire coming out of the power
adapter gets twisted with the black wire from the board we've now made two of our
three connections yes I'm good at counting now grab that diode you can
draw a little face on him if you want to you know it's not totally necessary but
I guess I'd call it a strong suggestion and you'll probably regret not doing it
bend these arms down and tighten him down under the terminals
of the solenoid
grabbing that negative black wire connection we just made wrap that onto
the leg of the diode this leg then that yellow Y gets twisted around the other
leg of the diode okay you can now solder all those connections first I've
soldered this one and then I've soldered that one and then I've soldered the
other one pretty self-explanatory I guess with that done you can then take
them all up with insulation tape though not that white that doesn't stick to
anything then grab yourself an angle grinder and then do this you know why
then Chuck the little plastic hat onto the solenoid that way the cats won't
know what it is for the final stage of this build we have to get the little
infrared sensing eyeball then with a few spots of hot glue in the end of the
sprinkler riser we're gonna stick that in there if you're just using norcross
glue you'll have to hold this pose for around 12 hours then as dodgy as it is
the quickest way to give the motion sensing eyeball and board some
protection from touching on things and going zappy zap is just by wrapping it
in some insulation tape this motion sensing tube of doom then needs to be
hot glued onto the side of the solenoid pointing in the direction of the thing
that's gonna get wet and that's it you've completed the build celebrate by
giving it a good sniff that's a smell of success and a cat free backyard and
probably toxic melted plastic vapours I'll hang on we've sniffed too soon the
motion sensing board needs to go somewhere so just glue it onto the back
of the solenoid and she'll be right we are done good build team it's time to
test it out now you can get your standard hose connection and hook it up
and fire up the tap if there's any bad links you might want to add some more
thread sealing tape to those sections after powering this up it works pretty
well when it sees movement directly in front the spray then gives it a decent
doused with water which will deter whatever animal or human is causing you
issues I'll show you how to mount it up now but further to what we've done so
far in the e-book there's more details on the specific parts and
you might encounter while making this basic version of the sprayer as well as
very straightforward guide to making the fancier version which is weatherproof
and a bit more practical for mounting on a standard tripod thread so you can use
it with all kinds of cheap camera clamps and suction mounts from eBay which is
perfect for any imaginable animal deterring needs you might have now for
mounting the basic build one of the simplest ways is something like cable
ties to a stake for grass areas or for paved areas easy options cable ties to
the leg of a chair or a table as I've done in the past you can simply gaffer
tape it to a brick or an option I haven't actually tried myself you could
just tape it directly to a cat and then let it play with the other cats whatever
you choose it definitely does need to be something sturdy though because you got
to remember it recalls as its price so you don't want this thing flying around
on the end of a garden hose at 1:00 a.m. keep in mind with this spray off
depending on your deterring requirements you can experiment with the nozzle hole
size a smaller hole can project further but with less water volume and reducing
the pressure can minimize the effect if you want to simply remind a family pet
not to go into a specific part of the garden I'm actually going to give a
couple of my fancier build prototypes away if you keen on getting your hands
on one of these to enter the draw I guess make sure you're subscribed and
drop a comment below saying anything really actually may be why you need one
I just so I know who actually wants one and who doesn't if you're new here and
it's been a few years since I've uploaded this video I've thought ahead
and I'll be saving a couple to giveaway in the future too
now as for putting this particular bill to use in tackling my own backyard cat
invasion I'll be right back with the new video
showing you the results of how it performs which you don't want to miss so
make sure you're subscribed and click this get out of the upload notification
bill hit the like button I'm Craig Turner my youtube channel is turn 81 and
I'll see you soon
you