I have a project I'm working on at our farm, combining PIR sensors and something that will make a loud noise. The goal here is to scare wild turkeys. We have quite a rafter of turkeys all-of-a-sudden, and I'm really concerned about them eating everything in sight come spring. I'm working on lots of other things, but this particular one has me a bit stumped.
I'm aiming for a sound kind-of like a .22 - so loud enough to freak out the turkeys, but not loud enough to freak out people in the area. (There are lots of people shooting guns off out there, so a .22 wouldn't be a problem.) I'd like to be able to repeat the sound if the turkeys come back, but I wouldn't want it to be continuous, or even more than a few cracks per triggering event.
Two things I've thought of, and may do at some point for this part of the problem are 1) make a propane sound "cannon", and 2) make a large Marx generator. The propane cannon I'd like to wait on, because the farm has neighbors, and I'd have to go to a lot of lengths to make the thing, only to have to make sure it gets used rarely. Those are supposedly not hard to make, but not popular with people, and since this will be unattended, I'd need to put lots of safeguards in place. Those vary in sound from a 20-gauge shotgun to literally like a cannon. Ouch.
The other option, I think, is a Marx generator. I have a few concerns about that
- It wouldn't be loud enough
- I only have 12 power at the farm to work with
- They're also fairly dangerous, so I'd need to shield it a lot
- While it looks pretty easy to set up, I'd have to give lots of thought to MOSFETs vs. relays for that. Seems like one of the many good ways to burn out a digital out.
I have thought of speakers, but I'm not seeing a good way to make a sound like that well with speakers. OTOH, I'm not an audiophile, so maybe that would be easy and I don't know it.
So, the question is, can anyone think of a good way to make a nice, loud "crack" sound, that's relatively easy to automate with an Arduino, that's relatively safe, and that I'm not thinking of?
Thanks for any thoughts.