Hey, I have been looking for a rasberry pi or arduino project in order to learn more about them

[G+_Barbara Frary]

Hey, I have been looking for a rasberry pi or arduino project in order to learn more about them. However the only one I have come up with is this one:

My community has a private dog park. We have a little trouble with people coming at night and not picking up after their dogs. Since most dogs have a pet ID I was thinking maybe a DIY project to record IDs and times. Very generally I was thinking about a Rasberry pi connected to rfid reader. The pi would take the id from the reader and send it to a database with a time & date stamp ( there is wireless at the park)

The main issue is that I am not sure if the range is big enough to be able to pick up the pet tag. My thought is I could get 90% of the dogs coming in within a foot of the reader but not sure that is close enough. Can the range be boosted? What is a good reader fro this application?

 

 

 

[G+_Matt Koglin]

Nice thought Barbara! I think you're correct about the range, though. I think you need to be in the range of an inch or so for animal RFID chips to respond. Not sure about boosting the range with a receiver, unfortunately. I'm curious though, so please post back here if you've figured anything out!

[G+_Ben Reese]

I'd be concerned about the privacy issues too. Even if you could scan every dog, I wonder how the owners would feel about their pets being tracked without their consent - especially if it's open to the public.

[G+_Reggie Henneman]

You could try an arduino weather station http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Weather-Station-AWS/ and save all of the information gathered to an SD card, just remember when communicating between devices you need to think about there respective voltages when an arduino communicates to a SD card you need to use a voltage divider to knock down the signal voltage

instructables.com - Arduino Weather Station (AWS)

[G+_David Wiggins]

I've been working with NFC/mifare tags on Arduino the last couple of weeks. The range on this of course is essentially touch, but they make inexpensive key fobs with the chip.

Since it is a private park, similar find could be added to collars. Or perhaps attached to the leash and tapped to the reader on entry. Granted, ensuring users perform an action is the source of the problem.

 

This whole post may be a hammer problem on my part.

[G+_Ben Reese]

What if instead you used a Raspberry Pi with a camera? A Pi Zero would probably be sufficient, but would require dongle for network connection. A bank of IR LEDs could give it night vision.

[G+_Mark Quinn]

I second the camera but first I would just put a sign on the gate saying area under video surveillance and see if it stops and maybe use a dummy cam with a blinking red light.

[G+_Aaron Bishop]

If the problem is only at night, how well lit is the park? Could it be that the owners have a hard time seeing the dogs make droppings? I wonder if you could take an old roomba and modify it for dried leavings if the park is small enough

[G+_Matt Koglin]

Or the super low tech method, just post a sign asking people to please clean up after their dogs and hang a piece of PVC stuffed with old plastic grocery bags. :D

[G+_Barbara Frary]

Thanks for the responses!

There are signs in the park, and as I said I was looking to do this type of project. The camera might be an idea. I didn't think the rfid would be a privacy issue since it would detect the pet ids but it wouldn't identify the individual dog, but it would be able to detect uniques. I would have to get permission from the coop but I don't think it would be a problem. Besides unauthorized use, even just usage stats would be helpful and it occurs to me a motion detector might do this as well.

I git a pi zero, is there a motion detector I could connect?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Barbara Frary most Arduino components will work on the Raspberry Pi IF they use 3.3v logic. Some components are 5v only and could damage the Pi.

 

Something like this should work great! EMY 5 X HC-SR501 Adjust Ir Pyroelectric Infrared PIR Motion Sensor Detector Modules amazon.com - Amazon.com : EMY 5 X HC-SR501 Adjust Ir Pyroelectric Infrared PIR Motion Sensor Detector Modules : Car Electronics Installation Services : Camera & Photo

[G+_Matt Koglin]

I wouldn't worry about privacy, more about practicality with an RFID scanner. The range that the (theoretically chipped) dog would have to be from the scanner is relatively small. Unless park visitors are willing to scan their pets in and out of an unsupervised park with a wand, the technology is not a good solution. IMHO, if you're looking for a good project to get started with a Pi, this might not be a great fit. If you want to catch people in the act, you could build a battery powered Pi with a motion sensor activated camera, or you could just buy a good reasonably priced game camera. https://www.amazon.com/s/&field-keywords=game+camera

 

Hope this didn't come off as discouraging, and I know we'd all love to hear about your progress if you DIY it!

[G+_Barbara Frary]

I don't take this as discouraging just realistic... and helpful.  thanks

[G+_Jason Marsh]

I wouldn't worry about "privacy" issues with noting which canines were in the public park. It's ok to observe and remember who and what you see in public places, and it's even ok to record where there is no expectation of privacy. Log them dogs!!!

 

The real issue would be range. If there is only one entry point to the park, you might be able to read the canine rfid, but you'd probably have to step all over FCC regulations to do so. A camera might be your best bet.

 

What happens if the data is leaked and then all of a sudden Bowser is thrown out because he told Mrs. Snuggles that he was at the store, but she could clearly see he was at the park, with that skank Missy. You know, the mutt that's always at the park late at night. It could be bad news for Bowser.