Battery Powered Cellular Activated Solenoid

My friend and I designed this for our engineering project this past semester. The idea came from my friends passion for hog hunting. He wanted to incorporate a cellular activated door trigger instead of using the standard release like he had been using for years. After some research we found the Botletics SIM7000A shield that accepts a prepaid sims card. This project uses three different battery sources, two would probably work but I wanted to make sure that when the solenoid is activated that the voltage didn't drop too much and ruin the arduino uno.

Below is a list of the items that were ordered for this project.

https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-A000066-ARDUINO-UNO-R3/dp/B008GRTSV6/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3W2GH7FCS3UBR&keywords=arduino+uno&qid=1684703306&sprefix=arduino%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/Botletics-SIM7000-Cellular-Antenna-SIM7000A/dp/B07H3XKNLH/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2G2PTE3JPSKUG&keywords=botletics%2Bsim7000a&qid=1684703262&sprefix=botletics%2Bsim7000a%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-3&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/EEMB-2000mAh-Battery-Rechargeable-Connector/dp/B08214DJLJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=213E6B22ARCE&keywords=lp103454&qid=1684703374&sprefix=lp103454%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WP1CYYW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Chamberlain-Replacement-Bright-Way-Group/dp/B01M3SPOTB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3F867CX5HKLIF&keywords=bw1250+12v5ah+battery&qid=1684703483&sprefix=bw125%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Channel-optocoupler-Support-Trigger/dp/B00LW15A4W/ref=sr_1_3?crid=WMRRELX75XQQ&keywords=arduino+relay&qid=1684703538&sprefix=arduino+relay%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/LLNSEAUTO-Popper-Solenoid-Replacement-Complete/dp/B0B1Q6MR6X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=X78YSACH8L24&keywords=50lb%2Bdoor%2Bsolenoid&qid=1684703572&sprefix=50lb%2Bdoor%2Bsolenoid%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-2&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Z8BF41H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/SpeedTalk-Mobile-Tracking-Locators-Wireless/dp/B01HE3V7UW/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2CTWCVM2H1F3G&keywords=speedtalk+mobile+sim+card&qid=1684709274&sprefix=speedtalk%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&smid=A13X3GVNM9G7YR&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyWkhQRUxKMU03NlRTJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjYxOTU2MjNRVjZYWlFLU05OMyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODA4NTk0MkNRTUg2S0dDWkhDQiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

The first thing we did is lay everything out in as small of a layout as we could lay it out in. We measured the overall height and width of everything and then designed the box to house everything. An electronic project box would work in this situation if you don't have a large 3d printer. The electronics box was to big to fit on my Ender 3, but luckily I have a CR10 as well. After I printed the box and lid I laid out the electronics in the box so I could start wiring it. I didn't like how everything was just thrown in the box, so I took the smaller measurements from the parts that were used and designed the electronics insert.

Sorry this was not designed using Autodesk products. I have access through school for SW and have become very familiar with this program. I am sure this could have been easily designed in Fusion 360, but I do not have access to this program at the present moment.

The next thing we had to do is figure out the code for this to work. I spent many hours working on this trying to get it to work. I got it to finally work three days before the assignment was due. I almost gave up on the project and went with the back up project that I did last summer on my own, but we decided to try it one more time and it worked.

One of the issues I was having is I had the code correct but I didn't have the 3.7 lipo plugged into the sims shield so it wouldn't receive a text. Once I figured that out things went a little better for us. The other issue we had was figuring out which example code that was on botletics.com we needed to use. Once I narrowed that down we were able to change a few lines and it started working.

The way this is programmed, when you send it a text with the correct password, the arduino and sims shield send a text back letting you know that it worked. If a text is sent to the system but isn't the correct password the solenoid will not activate and it will reply telling the sender to try again. This was one of the issues I was worried about when programming this. I get spam text or calls pretty frequently and was worried that this would activate the solenoid when nothing was in the trap.

After I got the code figured out we had to test the system out for functionality and video the product working. I have to say this was a challenging project, but a fun project.

I hope this inspires someone to make something similar. This type of system could work for more than a hog trap, take this idea and expand on it.