Why a pointer for a cat: harm or benefit?
A speck of light moving chaotically across the floor resembles a small creature that the cat happily hunts for. The pet is driven by the instinct of pursuit; the lack of a three-dimensional form does not matter. Active play allows you to fight the main enemy of living in an apartment - adynamia. A teasing toy helps prevent obesity. The pet gets tired and quickly falls asleep.
The automatic laser has multiple speeds and timer settings, providing up to 16 operating modes. You can turn on the toy and go about your business. The pet will be so busy that he won’t care about anyone.
However, cat owners who have tried the teaser on their pets believe that the toy is dangerous for cats for the following reasons:
- The laser beam can burn the retina of the eye, and the cat may lose sight. Even when a bunny is reflected from a glossy surface or mirror, significant damage is caused to the eye.
- The pet bumps into furniture while jumping and may fall out of an open window.
- The game has no logical ending. The cat cannot catch the light spot and eventually becomes frustrated.
Video: How big wild cats react to a laser dot
With the advent of laser pointers, many people began to play pranks on their pets. Cats especially often chase the pointer's beam. This toy completely captures the pet’s attention; he follows it around the house, not noticing any obstacles. This is how domestic cats show that they still have predatory instincts. An employee of an organization that rescues and cares for feral cats likes to play with his cat Jack, shooting laser pointer beams around the room. The pet is delighted with the game and chases the red dot everywhere. He decided to check how big wild cats react to a laser beam, whether they are interested in such a game and whether they will even notice this red dot.
The guy waited until dark, took his laser pointer and headed towards the cages where the big cats live: leopards, cheetahs, lynxes, pumas, lions and tigers. The cheetahs were the first to be tested, and they liked such an entertaining game. The cats ran after the laser beam with great pleasure. The video shows cheetahs running after the laser and showing great interest in it. They even stuck their paws out of the cage and tried to reach the point. The lynx also turned out to be interested in the laser beam, and the leopards also liked the game.
When a laser beam ran in a cage with a puma, the animal even got scared and began to run away. The cat alternately showed interest and then jumped away in horror. The tiger generally expressed obvious dissatisfaction and hurried to get away from the annoying red dot. This game clearly seemed uninteresting to him. The adult lion even began to show aggression and rush at the cage. Among all the representatives of big cats there were also completely uninterested individuals; they did not pay any attention to the dot running back and forth.
Most likely, the largest cats are not at all interested in the laser point, because in life they do not pay attention to any small animals. They are large predators, and their animal instinct is designed for large prey. And smaller wild cats will not refuse small prey.
This exciting entertainment - cats playing with a laser beam - also caused condemnation. There is a claim that a laser beam is harmful to a cat's vision and to play you need to buy a special laser pointer with low power. It is believed that green beam light is safer than red. A cat's vision sees the green beam much more clearly, even in daylight. Games are games, but the safety of your pet must be observed.
Laser pointer for a cat: rules for safe play
To keep your cat safe when playing with a laser pointer, you should adhere to the following rules:
- Do not direct the laser beam so that it hits the cat's eyes. A single exposure injures the retina, and repeated exposures lead to loss of vision.
- Do not point the pointer at glossy or mirror surfaces. The reflected beam has the same negative effect as the direct one.
- If you highlight a wall with a red or green dot, an enthusiastic cat will run into it and hurt itself.
- The movements of the beam must be coordinated, otherwise an overexcited hunter will damage the situation.
- These disadvantages can be avoided if you purchase an automatic toy. The device is designed in such a way that the wandering spot is always directed towards the floor. A person may get tired, the hand will twitch and direct the beam in a dangerous direction. An automatic toy has no such disadvantages.
Be sure to read:
Cat repeller: what is it for, types, how to use, how to make it yourself, instructions
DIY laser toy for a cat via the Internet
Good day, dear DIYers! In this article, AlexGyver will show you the process of creating a high-tech cat toy. More specifically, it will be a remote-controlled laser. Well, or an attempt to attach a laser to a webcam and control it online (oh, to kill a cat, since the author made a device for a cat). Although, a dog can also be entertained this way.
When the owners leave their home, our smaller friends become bored.
Cats usually sleep and get fat, or wander around anywhere, looking for adventures on their tail. In this article, we will make a high-tech toy for cats. With its help, you will be able to play with it from any place where there is Internet access.
The solution is simple and does not require much money.
Materials and tools. 1. PTZ webcam. 2. Capacitor 6.3*470. 3. Resistor 10KOhm. 4. Laser pointer.
Glue gun, soldering iron, solder, screwdrivers.
We purchase a cheap webcam (1300 rubles) with a two-axis rotating mechanism, and attach a laser module from a cheap pointer (50 rubles) to it.
The webcam itself connects to a WI-FI router, then you can control the direction of the camera and laser via the Internet. The laser can also be activated remotely. In addition to the rotating mechanism, the camera has a built-in microphone and speaker.
There is a built-in infrared illumination, which allows you to see perfectly even in complete darkness, within the room.
The camera comes with a power supply and a USB-MicroUSB adapter.
By the way, since it is powered by USB, you can also use a powerbank.
Download the Sannce Cam application, add a device, set up a Wi-Fi connection, and then follow the instructions. We will not describe it in detail; the sequences differ slightly for different manufacturers.
We connect, and the camera works. To be honest, controlling using the phone's sensor is not very convenient.
Using a mouse and laptop will be much more comfortable. It’s just that with a smartphone you get bored more often in transport, but your pet gets bored at home.
Although there is a slight delay in the transmission of video signals and control commands, it does not interfere much with the entertainment.
The horizontal rotation angle of the webcam is slightly less than 360 degrees.
This budget camera, unfortunately, does not have a controllable output with which you can turn the laser on or off. In order to prevent the laser from glowing constantly, we will have to disassemble the camera and find a way to control it. Let's start disassembling.
The screwdriver turned out to be too thick, and the screws were too deep, so the author slightly drilled the holes in the back wall.
So, the camera is completely disassembled.
Let's start searching for control signals, and we can control the engines from a smartphone. You can try looking for the necessary signals at the terminals of the stepper motors. The motors are installed unipolar, five wires are connected.
We connect the oscilloscope to the two outer terminals.
At the moment the engine turns, jumps (rectangular signal) from 0 to 5 volts are visible on the oscilloscope screen.
If we connect an LED to these terminals through a resistor, we will see the LED blinking frequently.
But the signal is only present when the camera is rotated. We need the laser to glow for a few more seconds after the end of the turn. So that we have time, for example, to turn in the other direction, stop, and the cat continues to see the luminous point.
At first the author wanted to use digispark, but this made the task a little more difficult. But I want to make the scheme as simple and cheap as possible.
Continuing the search, we connect to the negative power wire of the USB connector and the rightmost terminal of the engine connector.
The oscilloscope showed +5V DC voltage, dropping to zero when the motor rotates.
It would be logical to take the simplest timer 555, the red price of which is 10-15 rubles.
The trick is that this timer's starting pulse is a logical zero. To adjust the on time, the timer needs a 10 KOhm resistor and a 6.3 V electrolytic capacitor at 470 μF (10 rubles).
Let's assemble the simplest circuit from these three components.
To begin with, on the breadboard, instead of a laser, for now we will install an LED with a resistor.
Everything is fine! The LED goes out a few seconds after the engine stops rotating.
Now let's replace the LED with a laser. We will use a cheap laser pointer for 50 rubles.
We disassemble its body, we need to get a board with a laser and a lens.
The board is already ready to work with a voltage of 5 V; a current-limiting resistor is already installed on it.
We remove the extra button and a piece of the board.
There is a contact on the board for connecting the negative power wire. We solder a plus onto the body of the laser module. We tin the negative pad and the radiator, solder the wires.
We look carefully at the diagram and begin to solder the delay module.
The fourth and fifth legs of the timer are not used, they can be bitten off. Our circuit is elementary, there is no point in making a printed circuit board. We simply solder with a surface-mounted installation for compactness.
The laser is connected directly to the circuit. There are three wires left that connect to the main board of the camera. Everything according to the diagram is +5 V, ground and signal.
In order not to violate the integrity of the soldering of the camera board and not to damage its connectors, we simply tin the ends of the wires.
And insert it directly into the camera plug, pressing them tightly in the connector to the contacts.
Let's strengthen the created collective farm with hot snot to prevent the wires from falling out of the plug.
You can check!
We used only the horizontal axis motor to control the laser. If necessary, you can connect a second, vertical motor to the same board, separating the outputs from the motors with diodes.
The laser glow duration is controlled by the electrolyte capacity. The larger it is, the longer the laser will shine.
There is plenty of space in the camera body to accommodate our tiny circuit.
But for the laser itself it was no longer found.
We will attach it to the outside of the body. Let's drill a small hole for the wires near the intended location of the laser.
We bring the module wires out.
That's it, let's assemble the camera in reverse order.
The last thing left is to target the laser and attach it to hot glue.
Turn on the camera and align the point where the laser hits with the center of the picture on the smartphone.
We finally fix it after shooting with a good layer of glue.
Now everything is working perfectly!
How to attract a cat's attention if he is sleeping or in another room? The camera has a two-way audio function. Turn on this mode on your smartphone and call your pet!
AlexGyver implemented the idea for you, many thanks to him for his efforts!
Happy crafting everyone. Link to the camera used
Original video:
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Advantages and disadvantages of laser pointers
The advantages of playing with a laser beam are the indescribable delight that your pet experiences while chasing an elusive moving dot. The cat gets very tired, falls asleep quickly and does not disturb its owners at night. An animal that spends its entire life in an apartment receives physical exercise.
Muscles, ligaments, and the musculoskeletal system work and become stronger. Excess calories are burned, which protects your pet from obesity and chronic diseases.
To prevent the cat from getting tired of the game, it is alternated with others - a wind-up mouse or a fishing rod with a fish at the end. However, thoughtless passion for lasers harms not only the physical, but also the mental health of the cat.
The pet becomes overexcited and may get injured. The unattainability of the goal makes the pet angry; he realizes his inability to catch the will-o'-the-wisp. The cat gets a nervous breakdown and loses interest in games.
Benefits of toys
A laser pointer that makes your cat move actively has health benefits:
- normalizing weight (if the cat has extra pounds or is prone to obesity) or maintaining it at normal levels;
- beneficial effect on the heart muscle and vascular system;
- strengthening the musculoskeletal system;
- development of the muscle corset;
- improving the functioning of the respiratory system.
After such games, your pet will sleep better, and a strengthened immune system will help prevent the development of many diseases.
