This is an old revision of the document!
Squirrels in particular love to munch on birdseed and they will drive you nuts with their combination of intelligence and persistence, making it nearly impossible to keep them away from your birdfeeder. Luckily, you have Vizy to help you defend your birdfeeder from these unwanted guests.
This guide will describe how to set up a “squirt defense” for your birdfeeder.
Materials you will need
Start by measuring out the length of wire and strip the ends. In one end, attach to pins 2 and 4 of a terminal connector as shown (12V and B0). The polarity of the two wires does not matter.
On the other end of the wire, use wire nuts to twist and attach the sprinkler valve.
At this point, you can test your sprinkler value. It will make a satisfying click when it engages. You can fire up the Birdfeeder app and click on the Defend
button to verify before deploying. Note, sprinkler valves are rated for 24V AC. We are driving it with 12V DC. Most valves should engage at 12V DC. For example, the 3/4” Orbit valve that we recommend works well at 12V DC.
Attaching the sprinkler valve directly to the sprayer as shown below is a simple solution.
The assembly of such a contraption is fairly self-explanatory. Just pay attention to some details:
Mounting the assembly to a PCB pipe with some hose clamps is also a nice solution. You can angle-cut the PCB pipe (see below), which makes it easy to drive into the ground and stay where you want it.