Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Depending on which hemisphere of the Earth you're currently reading this from, summer is finally starting to fight its way to the surface. For the more "green" of our readers, that can mean it's time to start making plans for summer gardening. But as anyone who's ever planted something edible can tell you, garden pests such as squirrels are fantastically effective at turning all your hard work into a wasteland. Finding ways to keep them away from your crops can be a full-time job, but luckily it's a job nobody will mind if automation steals from humans.
[Peter Quinn] writes in to tell us about the elaborate lengths he is going to keep bushy-tailed marauders away from his tomatoes this year. Long term he plans on setting up a non-lethal sentry gun to scare them away, but before he can get to that point he needs to perfect the science of automatically targeting his prey. At the same time, he wants to train the system well enough that it won't fire on humans or other animals such as cats and birds which might visit his garden.
Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/04/30/training-the-squirrel-terminator/
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday May 02 2018, @06:17PM
That won't hurt anything. You can safely shield an AC with mesh or expanded metal so long as you don't restrict the airflow.
What concerns of heat conductivity do you have? According to this forum post: http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/showthread.php?36094-max-operating-temperature [refrigeration-engineer.com], condenser temperature is usually 15C higher than ambient. And maximum temperatures all appear to be well under 100C. You might get hot enough to burn but if that side is hanging outside of a window, it doesn't matter one bit.