This is a little off topic but as an electronics tech who is keen on conserving the many endangered species I occasionally ponder the use of electronics technology to do the job of controlling predator numbers.  Here in New Zealand there are a number of really bad mammalian predators, the stoat being one of the worst but rats, mice, feral cats, and possums add to the problem.

The use in New Zealand of the mammalian pesticide 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) is really contentious and the media have recently been banging on about the by-kill of the kea, a unique, endemic, clownish, intelligent alpine parrot.  It is a valid concern but the pest problem is really bad and 1080 is the most cost effective option.

One of the newer mechanical technology methods of trapping stoats and possums is a pneumatically operated skull crusher developed by goodnature.

It looks like a really good idea and because it only needs to be checked once a month it is a more cost effective way of controlling pests.

I want to go a step further and have a completely automatic trap for all pest species that never needs to be maintained.  A big ask you may say. Well I say that if we have flown to the Moon, to Mars, and sent space probes to beyond our Solar system (and I say that we have to all of you Moon landing conspiracy theorists) surely we can trap a few animals in the bush.

So how would it work?  Since facial recognition software is now old hat it will be easy to develop species recognition software.  So all we need to do is to mount a camera in a trap and when the target pest is recognised some method of killing it is activated (perhaps mechanical but I like the idea of electric shock).  A trapdoor is then opened and drops the now dead pest on the forest floor.  The trap will then reset itself for the next baddie.

The trap could be powered by a solar panel, although this will not be very effective under the shady bush canopy.  Maybe the weight of the pest as it falls out of the trap could be used to drive a small generator?  Hmm, maybe not.  Could be prone to mechanical failure.  Modern electronics can be made to run on the smell of an oily rag so powering the trap may not be too much of an issue.

One problem is that the trap could be stolen by some nasty individual that thinks it might be worth a bit of money.  There was a case last year some time where a very expensive and specialised wildlife monitoring camera was stolen from a remote part of a protected area here in Christchurch city.  As well as being a financial cost it set the scientific work back a bit.

I like delving into the realm of “conservation technology science fiction” and I have been dreaming up a few scenarios.  We could employ a fleet of airborne drones with image sensing for pests and lasers deployed to zap them.  Hmm, that sounds quite feasible to me.  How about an army of nanobots that swarm over the land to seek out pests and then somehow kill them?  And then dismember them into individual molecules rather than having the carcase left behind to disrupt the ecological balance.

Now we really are talking science fiction! A bit like Michael Crichton’s book Prey.

Last week I was asked, as a favour, to look at a portable electric heater that was not turning off (a potentially unsafe condition). It was less than two years old and came with a two year warranty. The heater looked like it had hardly been used, probably because the owner spends time overseas. Unfortunately the sales receipt was not available so the retailer would not replace it.  The box had a sticker of $49.95 on it but they apparently sold for as low as $6.00 so the retailer had no idea how much to refund.  (Hmm, but why would they not simply replace it?)

The heater was marketed by Kent, a well known New  Zealand company.  When I approached them they were unsympathetic and they did not supply spare parts for the unit.  So I decided to have a go at fixing it.  It turned out that the rotary on/off selector switch, which I managed to dismantle, had been assembled incorrectly at the factory.  One of the switch contacts was laying at 90 degrees to the position it should have been in and therefore always making a closed circuit.  I doubt that it could have become dislodged during use so it looks like production and quality control both failed on this failed unit!

Speaking of faulty goods I chanced across this video clip about a shoddy Chinese made USB hub (I think the presenter may be a fellow New Zealander).

It is of shocking quality (pardon the pun) and was faulty from new. Politicians, consumers, and manufacturers are all complicit in this sad state of affairs. Consumers demand cheap products, manufacturers make cheap products, and politicians (as well as government agencies to some degree) allow it to happen.

Consumers and the environment are loosing out.

The sales of smartphones topped one billion units in 2013.  That’s a lot!  That means one out of every seven people on the planet purchased one last year.  Gee, if only I could get to repair a millionth of that volume my profits would look pretty damn good!

It seems that the way some of the importers of appliances get away with not having to supply spare parts is by offering a replacement warranty of say two or three years. After that you are expected to throw it away if it fails. Given that appliances often contain proprietary components means that they cannot be fixed.

This is another reason why the service industry is in decline and why there is increasing amounts of e-waste.

I had an inkling that there was a trade in counterfeit electronic components.  I have just now come across this video put together by the AAA Components Test Lab about how it is done.

As a technician and an environmentalist this sort of stuff is really annoying!  I am all for the reuse of components if they are as reliable as new ones but looking at the substandard “refurbishment” process of these semiconductors makes me mad! Firstly, the process of “blacktopping” where the parts are given a new label is downright dishonest.  Secondly, where are the antistatic precautions?  The components are thrown in plastic buckets and plastic bags.  That is going to make the parts really unreliable and shorten their service life.