{"id":323,"date":"2018-06-03T21:22:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T10:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianboake.com\/?p=323"},"modified":"2025-09-01T19:39:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:39:45","slug":"hootie-the-animatronic-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ianboake.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/03\/hootie-the-animatronic-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"Hootie the animatronic owl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

3 June 2018 and updated 27 June 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conceived as a scarecrow<\/a><\/span>, albeit in owl and not human form,\u00a0Hootie<\/em> changes randomly between pre-recorded, real owl calls<\/a><\/span>, flapping its wing tips and turning its head, which holds a 10mW laser<\/a> <\/span>beam. Birds hate the laser beam. Watch the video, which shows birds (actually flying rats<\/a><\/span>) offered yummy food, and yet even the most brazen of them scatter when the head turns and they are exposed to his imposing laser beam. Its main use is to keep other birds from defecating on garden furniture (what my wife originally wanted it for) around homes or, more significantly, preventing them from pooping on PV solar panel,s thereby shading<\/a><\/span>\u00a0them from the sun and reducing the energy that they produce. I keep seeing other applications, like keeping seagulls off of boats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boat owners could benefit from owning a Hootie to keep seagulls off of their canvas biminis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I had a glitch with Hootie because I didn’t keep up with technology in power converters. I used the 7805 voltage regulator, and yet the cost of buck converters has dropped in price. A far superior way to derive the 5V from the 12V is to use the LM2596S buck converter. The 7805 degraded over time until it was struggling to produce the required current to charge the battery of the powered speaker and supply the Bluno controller with Bluetooth. I rewired the system and tested Hootie from the phone APP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current ones I see at Bunning were developed long after my first incarnation of Hootie; perhaps they got their idea from me. I like to think so \ud83d\ude01<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good on them for commercialising what I discovered by trial-and-error:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AVIX Autonomic the automated laser bird repellent<\/a><\/blockquote>