My pet turtle...

[Externet]

Bureaucracy, my pet turtle hides very well and am afraid of fatally hurt her with the lawnmower.
A flashing led attached to her back would allow me to find her but only at nights. A couple of coin cells could be made to last with one of those circuits that briefly pulse.

Guys, I need your input to other options. A tiny 1MHz or 100MHz radio beacon ? For an acre ? How ? What else ?

She wore a red 4" x 4" piece of plastic film attached to the back with duct tape; but either does not like the color or found the way to detach it. Never found the film anywhere.

Miguel

[Dean Huster]

Miguel, you have entirely too much time on your hands!

[Externet]

Yesssss, I do.

[jwax]

Invisible Fence?

[CeaSaR]

Have you given any thought to painting part of her shell
with brightly colored fingernail polish? The shell is basically
one huge fingernail, and if you are concerned, you can paint
a design that only covers part of her shell. Simple, cheap,
and easier to attach than electronics.

CeaSaR

[gerty]

Years ago a friend worked for TVA as a electrician, they had a rat catching contest.
The object of the game was to catch as many as possible, paint them (electricians were orange) and release them. The only rule was you cannot repaint one that was captured by another trade group. After 2 months there were a bunch of orange, lime green, and yellow rats running around and the inspectors, foremen, vendors were left wondering what was going on, of course the tradesmen denied any knowledge of it..
The rats were real indignant, but continued to raid the lunches..

[haklesup]

An IR LED may be visible via cell phone camera even during the day. All you need is a cheap CMOS sensor camera and a fairly bright flash from the IR LED. IR also has at least a chance of shining through the green grass blades.

Bright colored paint may help depending on how sensitive your eyes are to particualr color combinations. If you're red-green colorblinnd (like a lot of norehern european males) then a red film may be harder to spot than it would be for other oeople. I think you would need a reflective paint.

If you're hell bent on cementing something to her shell, might as well be a 6" flag pole with a little orange flag. These guys don't exactly roll over and if flexible enough, will still allow access under low objects.

Another solution is to get a small dog and train it to find the turtle on command (while not harming it of course). Now, what to name the dog, "Anarchy, go find Beaurocracy"

[jwax]

OK, Invisible Fence idea was stupid.

What's this turtle worth? How about:
http://www.homesecuritystore.com/p-1541 ... strap.aspx

[dyarker]

"Anarchy, go find Beaurocracy"

[Externet]

At least we can have a little fun on the subject...

I thought of a 1/8" fiberglass six inch pole with an orange flag, attached with a silicone blob, but would impede Bureaucracy to get under higher brush for the long naps. She hides veeery well.

A 7555 IC with a duty cycle of 5 seconds high, 55 seconds low could power a 1MHz monolithic oscillator on the high times; all powered with a couple of 3V coin cells. The problem is the radiating antenna... maaaany fine wire turns on a piece of nail as core ?

This simple without the modulation part :

---> http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... p024.shtml

And turn an AM portable radio (has a loopstick) for direction ?

Oh boy ! What am I doing ?

Miguel

[Robert Reed]

Externet
This is beginning to take the form of another offbeat N&V article One of the reasons I am thinking of not renewing my subscription! But on your end, if you come up with a working solution, go ahead and submit an article on it. With what I have been seeing the last few years, you have a good chance of having it published.

[jwax]

You can find very thin gauge spring steel wire, very flexible, for an antenna. If the right material, it will be very flexible, and very easy for the pet to get under things, unimpeded.

Here's another locating device:
http://www.amazon.com/Click-Wireless-Lo ... 422&sr=8-1

[haklesup]

You may be on a useable track with the AM noise maker (no modulation required, so it's not really any kind of a transmitter). Just need to experimentally figure out a way to keep the power low enough so that you only hear static on the AM radio when you are within say 1 meter or so. In this scenario, you may not use it to find her before mowing but you can be alerted before a mower gets too close.

Search on Proximity detector and check out this chip

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... 209A-D.PDF
http://www.nationalrf.com/type%20rpd-2.htm

Or maybe RFID is the way to go. Think passive RFID sticker antenna and a department store security portal

[MrAl]

Hi,

Teach her to stand up when she's called

Seriously though...

You cant put her in her own little fenced in area or something? That would be better i think. You might get used to the 'device' and one day it becomes detached and you're in a hurry and you think she's over there when really she's under the lawnmower.

[Lenp]

I can see it all now

Start with an RFID tagged turtle
Add a push mower with sensors left, center, right and an array of sirens/lights for alarm
or
a riding mower, same sensors but with a faster response time and an auto-turtle avoidance servo steering system.
Now, there's a YouTube moment for sure...
Maybe...
A glow-in-the-dark paint job on the turtle and then just mow in the dark?

Seriously...I do understand
I have a cat that eats metal and plastic chips and curls form the shop. Yes, I do vacuum the shop but she still finds the curls lodged in some corner or under a bench someplace I missed. Keeping the shop doors closed is not always successful.

Illogical Flow
Does it make her sick? Yes.
Is she stupid? It sure appears so
Is a cow magnet an option? No since most of the chips are aluminum/plastic
Can I get rid of the cat? No. Wife would have to go first!
Get rid of wife? No comment!!!

Len