Dog Blocker Early Development
October 2012 - March 2013
Over the course of several months, countless prototypes were built and tested. Different detection technologies were tried: Sonic, laser, sonar, infrared, etc. Different alarm types were also tested: Simple buzzer, security alarm, ultrasonic, etc. The testing was done not only to determine what worked the best, but also what used the least amount of battery power. Programming was very involved, including writing two public domain Arduino tone libraries (
ToneAC and
NewTone) because the existing libraries didn't do the job. Much was done to reduce the power to a point where standard alkaline batteries will last for years. Ultra low power and sleep mode were extensively used, as well as highly optimized code which executes quickly when not sleeping.
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