Traps -- Home Made Examples -- Electronic

"The door falls when the solenoid is energized and bolt is drawn in. The solenoid is wired to the collector of npn transistor and to the positive terminal of detector power. The infrared detector has an led that lights up when it detects motion. I soldered a wire from the positive lead of this led to the base of the npn transistor, when the led lights up, it pulls the base voltage to 2.5V. The emitter of the transistor is hooked up to the negative side of detector power supply."

Patently Silly Presents: A Better Mouse Trap

A motion sensor, sets off motor/pulley/trigger to close trap door

"This electronics project captures a mouse by having a solenoid (electromagnet) drop a bucket over the mouse. The bucket is triggered by the mouse interrupting one of the infrared emitter/detector pairs around the bait." (Uploaded on Feb 6, 2007)

"Humane mouse trap using a Phidget motion sensor and Phidget 1 servo controller." For more information, see: http://www.youtube.com/user/trossenrobotics