LaseCap Bird Abatement

A friend of mine who owns a berry farm mentioned that a lot of yield is lost to birds accross the whole industry. Farmers will use various devices like nets and propane noise-makers to try and keep them away from the crops. One of the modern devices is a laser that scans the ground to scare-off flocks. These devices are quite large and expensive which lead me to try developing a smaller scale version with better software options.

Earlier designs incorporated a boresight camera to view where the laser was aiming. This was simplified to a "sprinkler" style system that would scan a specified area at interval.

A stepper motor drives the pan rotation via a timing belt. All connections to the top go through a slip ring so the laser can rotate continuously. A hall sensor is used to "zero" the bearing of the laser. The pitch of the laser is controlled by a servo.

Everything is encased in sealed plastic container, with a length of clear PVC similar to a lighthouse.

The device is controlled by a Raspberry Pi 3+ with a custom hat PCB and PWM controller.