Hey all, just curious if anyone has had any success building your own Wireless Gate Trigger for a hog trap. We are running the Spartan Cameras currently, and we have the actual trap pretty much built. We were wanting to set up the gate with a remote trigger, but just haven't had much luck finding one. Best price I have found is about 900 bucks for the electronics, and that just isn't in the cards. We are looking at other trigger types, but seemed like a remote tigger paired with our spartan would give us the best trapping percentage overall. Anybody have any input or experience on building your own? Or a lead on a set up thats a little more cost effective? Would be much appreciated!

Look at car alarms and door poppers using electric soleniods.
Powered by a lawn mower battery with a solar cell on it to maintain power.
The alarms with autostart feature so you can start your car from inside the house will usually have longer range.
Mount the alarm up high on the trap also helps so you can easily trip it from stand 100 yards or so away.
There are some car alarms that can be accessed by your cellphone but haven't researched them too much.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Vern! Ended up getting a GSM relay switch off amazon, not 100% sure yet what we will use for the actual mechanism to release the door, still in research and development! Will try and get some pics and step by steps for anyone interested when it all comes together.

There are 12VDC linear actuators that would probably fit the bill for what you are trying to do. Just need to figure out how much stroke you will need and how much weight it would have to push or pull.
You can get as fancy or basic as you want, raspberry pi would allow you more than a single function if your goal is to do more than just a switch trigger.
Anyway here are some actuators that will do what you need:
https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Motion-Actuators/b/ref=dp_bc_4?ie=UTF8&node=350654011
Should be able to get something there a little cheaper than buying a gate actuator or anything like that.

On a similar note, is there any solutions to cellular traps in areas w no cellular svc? Some kind of radio/closed circuit tv? Anybody know anything about that?

I have built a few for the large round hog trap.. I use a push pull solenoid. Im gonna try an actuator that roughneck showed. Built a buddy one using a honda trunk latch.
what it cost me
gsm controller 30.00 prepaid alarm sims card 8.00,antenna booster 12.00, solar charger 30.00, solar charger controller 15.00
solenoid 30.00 ammo box 7.00 and 12v battery 20.00
total cost around 150.00 plus the 5.00 a month sim card charge.

Search Hunter-Steve he had some pics up of his DYI control
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Espy, What GSM controller did you go with? I am thinking of doing this, but I am considering using a raspberry Pi (arduino) set up, so I could also use it to spin my feeder. I guess I could just use two GSM controllers.

No issues at all. I usually add a larger antenna due to poor reception in my area.

Well, looks like I got some work to do. All I gotta do is convince the wife I am not building something nefarious.

You know that Raspberry Pi and Arduino are not the same or even similar, right? By themselves they are not interchangeable. A Pi is a full computer whereas an Arduino is a micro-controller. Think of it like this, a micro-controller (Arduino) is part of a computer (Pi). Anyway, for your spinner project an Arduino would be better suited as you don't need a full operating system (like Pi provides). You need limited functionality of an Arduino firmware to interface with a spinner's motor.