Detecting the presence of pests

Development of custom firmware and hardware for an Australian start-up

Representing one of our first custom development projects back in 2015, we were approached by an Australian start-up who were looking for a small movement sensor that could be fixed to rodent traps and bait stations as a way of monitoring whether any rodents had been trapped or were present by taking bait.

The brief was to design a device that would log movement over certain defined thresholds and that could also communicate with internet gateways should they be present. Staff could then check the devices that may be in ceiling and wall cavities by walking around with their smartphone and get the data and time when the device registered a pest being present.

To complicate matters the device had to have a movement algorithm that would filter out human movement, such as when the trap was emptied or when the bait station was attended to. Furthermore the device had to get between 9 months and one year's life from a coin cell.

This was an early example of how our technological know-how could be applied in the development of a device that could easily integrate into a broader system.

"We chose Blue Maestro given their experience in developing small Bluetooth compatible devices."

Gary McMahon, Baitsafe Australia