New need advice on building a animal call

Thread Starter

flip5998

Joined Sep 11, 2015
4
Looking to build a device that will emitt a pre recorded call when the sun goes down, to call animals. So i can catch them on my game camera. Would like it to turn on at night and off at sunrise. Also play a recording with say a 30 second delay between playback and run on 9 volt. Very new to this. any advice on components and build would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Looking to build a device that will emitt a pre recorded call when the sun goes down, to call animals. So i can catch them on my game camera. Would like it to turn on at night and off at sunrise. Also play a recording with say a 30 second delay between playback and run on 9 volt. Very new to this. any advice on components and build would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I would use an old magnetic tape recorder with wildlife tapes (or MP3 player) and buy a separate wildlife camera with motion sensor. If you are looking to make something from scratch, then you are picking the wrong project as a first project or you will need to be patient and learn about microcontrollers, circuit board design (and possibly fabrication) and various basics of electrons, sensors and actuators.

If you are hoping to build the camera from scratch, that is a whole different story.

Please clarify what you are hoping to achieve, your budget and timeline (and how much effort in learning, design and assembly you are willing to invest).
 

Thread Starter

flip5998

Joined Sep 11, 2015
4
I dont need a game camera, just want to build a small game call .just put out a pre recorded loop of animal sounds when dark and turn off in the day. Probably sounds easier than it is. I got a mp3 sound player that uses micro sd a ldr and a few resistors. I also got a solderless arduino breadboard for testing. And love to fab. Let me know if im on the right track. Thanks
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Set up something like this. Connect to Analog-in pin and, when input value goes up, turn on the animal call.

image.jpg

The circuit is a very simple voltage divider. When in light, the light dependent resistor will have low resistance and the output will have a low voltage. When in dark, the voltage at the node shown will go up.

To save battery power, don't connect the voltage divider to the battery + terminal directly. Connect to a digital output. You can turn on the output of that digital output for a fraction of a second every 15 minutes to see if it is dark or light outside. Once you know the light condition outside, then you can turn off or on another pin that will activate/deactivate the audio player.
 

Thread Starter

flip5998

Joined Sep 11, 2015
4
Thanks GopherT you guys have been very helpful. Now just need to get better aquanted with the parts and terminology. Like I said very new to this.
 
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