Security camera to catch cat

Questions
1

Yeah, odd title I know. Basically, we need a security camera, or something.

See, we have a mother and kitten that have taken up residence in our shed. We are trying to gently catch them. We have a box with a mechanism that manually releases when a human pulls a latch. We can’t use an auto trap, because if the mom triggers it, and the kitten is behind her, the door might come down on the kitten.

So we need a camera to monitor the trap so we know when we can spring it. Its gotta live stream, and withstand a bit of weather. I figure a security camera, but the privacy on those are garbage. Any suggestions?

PS want to assure all involved, mom and kitten will be just fine when we catch them, they won’t be split up, and will go to a good home

2

This kinda touches to robotics and might be hard to achieve well (so that the cat is not injured if there happens to be a bug for example :sweat_smile:).

Latest topic about “healthy” cameras is here: Security camera setup for beginners?

3

Perhaps if you shine a laser pointer into the trap, the kitten pounces and the mother follows. Line of sight will be necessary so no need for the camera.

4

I feel like a Raspberry Pi /Pi zero with a Pi camera attached could achieve the job for like 20 or 25 dollars? I know there’s simple software for running Pis as webcams out there, though I don’t have any off the top of my head.

If you succeed, I demand cat pictures.