# Rat-infested tree and a lucky find



## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Sometimes it's the small things...

This year, as part of our walk-through haunt, we're adding a rat-infested tree. We have a dead tree covered with vines. When I spotted the Cowlacious Cave Eyes kit, I knew it was a perfect match.

So you'll go round the corner and see a whole bunch of rat eyes staring out at you, blinking (with the sounds of rats squeaking, too.)

I noticed the circuit board comes with holes in the corners so it can be used with standoffs, so I looked around the house for a suitable plastic box to put it in. No luck, nothing I had was quite big enough.

It turns out that CVS Drugstores has a small school supplies box made out of recycled materials. Guess what? Use your CVS card. $1.74 with tax!

See pictures for the way it's set up. I know it's just a circuit board in a "project" box, but I like the way it came out.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

I realized I forgot to mention...the Cowlacious board doesn't do sound, I'll have an mp3 player looping through a playlist of rat squeaks, connected to portable laptop speakers also hidden in the vines.


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## PirateLady (Jul 23, 2010)

Can't wait to see the tree.... nice idea...


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

So this got an upgrade...I had an Arduino plus an Adafruit WAV Shield that didn't get used for other stuff. Now the rats will sit there in their vines, blinking their eyes..and when someone gets close, they will REALLY start complaining, courtesy of a motion sensor that will tell the Arduino that someone's there.

I found a bunch of rat sounds on the net and mixed them together using Audacity into one big, loud, very upset bunch of rats. It's a bit scary all by itself.

Plus I found good code for reading the Parallax motion sensor and making it a bit more stable than some of the examples out there.

One more project down, only a bunch of LED spotlights and assorted other stuff to go...


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Any chance of an upload of the Rats audio file? Built myself a random blink unit using a Picaxe but need something for the audio


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## psyko99 (Jan 11, 2008)

That's a good use for those boxes. My dad bought a ton of them a while ago. So whenever I need a project box, I go to raid his stash. I'd love to see a video of the final project once you get it done.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Oh please please post a video! I LOVE stuff like this and don't have the brain capacity to make it! Lemme SEE! lemme SEE!


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

OK, I'll upload the "angry rats" mp3 tonight.

When it's all set up later this week I'll take video. 

I can also share the code for the Parallax PIR and Arduino, if anyone's interested.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I wouldn't mind seeing the code - I use Picaxe and a different PIR with no problems but still interested

Thanks for the upload


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

OK, here are links to the angry rats squeaking:

MP3 version: http://www.4shared.com/audio/0kbueXpl/Rats_squeeking_25sec.html

WAV version, compatible with Adafruit WAV Shield: http://www.4shared.com/audio/5tR6IBPY/Rats_squeeking_25sec.html

The Arduino code is attached below - it's based primarily on this code:
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/PIRsense
The main improvements you get are that he gives the PIR time to calibrate to the surroundings, and there's also a quirk with the Parallax PIR where if you're just looking for it to change state, it can give off brief false readings. So he wrote a small routine to discard those, and as a result it triggers much more reliably.

And I've added the code for the Adafruit WAV Shield. Note that I haven't updated to the new WAV Shield library because it's not needed for this application.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Thanks very much for this - downloading now

FYI MP3 version times out - wav comes down fine though


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Hmm, no idea why the mp3 version doesn't download, but it's the same sounds as the wav, so you can convert if needed.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Update: We had our week-before-Halloween Haunted Walk last night. Lucky thing, too - looks like rain next weekend. The Cowlacious Cave Eyes kit, acting as rat eyes, was a BIG hit. It was combined with an Arduino and an Adafruit WAV Shield; when people got too close, the rats got "upset" and started squeaking, and this creeped people out more than the other stuff! I think it's because the rats were right after some scary, but obviously not real, stuff.

Here are some pics:









Rat eyes at night









Another of them at night.

The camera doesn't catch what people see, which was the tree and vines dimly lit. These pictures just give you red beady eyes in the dark. Here's the tree with a flash:









In the lower center is the PIR, mounted in a PVC cap that's painted black.

And here's a quick video, without the upset sounds (battery had died in that by this point):

Rat Eyes build :: Video of rat eyes video by Jeff_Haas - Photobucket


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