Badger repellent

Hi Ruud,

that is good news!

Urine would destroy the grass, make it yellow or even dead. It is no good idea. I read somewhere, that chunks of human hair deter marders and similar species. I do not know whether it works on badgers.

VBR from Ivan

After a week I have the impression that my LED flash lights have a deterrent effect on the badgers.
My lawn hasn't been dug all week!
Someone gave me the tip that badgers don't like human smells, and advised me to urinate on the grass, but I think that's a bit of a strange solution!...

I'm back! Thanks Ivan for your help.
From the information I have, badgers should be scared by flashing lights, especially blue light.
Another problem is that we literally live 'in the middle of nowhere', and we have a very big 'garden' around the house.
Bacause of that, I am going to try the 12 Wat LED flashers first, most of the materials I have laying around.
I think sound or ultrasound could work, but it probably would make them move to another area of our garden...
Well, time will tell!

Here's one I recorded a couple of years ago: Badger

Hi Ruud,

I have probably never seen a badger. Ultrasound is used to scare martens, it may help against badgers, too. Please try not to scare your neighbours!
The best solution may be to install a badger dog into your garden, but it has many other requirements   .

VBR rrom Ivan

Ruud, 

I don't know anything about badgers, but perhaps you could combine the random LED flashes with some bursts of ultrasound as well using some of those 40kHz ultrasonic transducers used for range measuring devices. I have seen mole repellent devices that use ultrasound but don't know how effective they are. 

I remember seeing an article in the Take 20 series of Practical Wireless for a gunshot simulator where the noise from a zener diode or BE junction in avalanche breakdown was amplified and gated into short bursts, perhaps this would work?

With the LED bars if you get the pulse width right you could use a series inductor and flyback diode to limit the current and avoid having a lossy series resistor in circuit, or drive them with an H bridge and series capacitor?

I may be way off the mark, but thought I would share my thoughts. 

Regards,
John

By the way: I am the 'old' Ruud from the Netherlands, but you wouldn't let me in. 
(Or I forgot the password, that might also be a reason....)

I'm planning to make a badger repellent to chase away those pesky critters that ruin my lawn at night...
My plan is to program a microprocessor (PIC16F628) to randomly control one of the four 12 Watt LED bars every 15 seconds.
The LED bars are then driven via a power FET.
The intention is that each LED bar flashes 3 times for half a second.
This reduces dissipation in the circuit and ensures that the LEDs do not overheat.
Does anyone have experience chasing away badgers?
It is a protected species. (But I'm not so sure if that also applies if they are in my garden... )