The local outdoor cats kept bothering my indoor cats, so I built a sprinkler that turns on when Frigate sees a cat in the backyard.

The system has four parts:

  1. A cheap security camera
  2. A DIY sprinkler controller running ESPHome
  3. Frigate NVR
  4. Home Assistant
Diagram of the backyard cat deterrent system connecting the camera, Frigate, Home Assistant, and ESPHome sprinkler controller

The camera points over the backyard and Frigate runs detection on the stream. I track people and cats, but only want the sprinkler to run when there is a cat and no person.

Backyard security camera used for Frigate cat detection

Frigate

In Frigate I added cat as a tracked object on the backyard camera. The cat threshold is lower than the person threshold because the cats are smaller and further from the camera.

backyard:
  ffmpeg:
    inputs:
      - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/backyard_record?video&audio
        roles:
          - record
          - detect
  detect:
    width: 1280
    height: 720
    fps: 5
  objects:
    track:
      - person
      - cat
    filters:
      person:
        threshold: 0.9
        min_area: 2500
      cat:
        threshold: 0.5
        min_area: 1250

Sprinkler Controller

The sprinkler controller is just an ESP32 switching a GPIO pin. It sits in an old outdoor irrigation box with a power supply and relay board.

Backyard sprinkler and controller box connected to the garden tap ESPHome sprinkler controller inside an outdoor irrigation box 
esphome:
  name: sprinkler
  platform: ESP32
  board: az-delivery-devkit-v4

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  power_save_mode: none
  fast_connect: true

api:

ota:
  - platform: esphome

switch:
  - platform: gpio
    name: "Switch"
    pin: 22
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF

Sprinkler and Solenoid

I'm using the GARDENA Comfort Circular Spike Vario Sprinkler because you can adjust the spray over a 360 arc which I've set to about 270 degress to cover the corner it sits on. For the solenoid I'm using a Holman 25mm because it accomodates regular garden hose adapters.

Home Assistant

Home Assistant listens for Frigate's cat occupancy sensor. If there is no person in the backyard, it sends me a notification, turns on the sprinkler, waits 30 seconds, then turns it off.

alias: Backyard Cat Notification
mode: single
triggers:
  - entity_id: binary_sensor.backyard_cat_occupancy
    from: "off"
    to: "on"
    trigger: state
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.backyard_person_occupancy
    state: "off"
actions:
  - action: switch.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: switch.sprinkler_switch
  - delay:
      seconds: 30
  - action: switch.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: switch.sprinkler_switch

Original Mastodon post