A while ago our doggies got a bit too interested in the bird aviaries we have in the yard. I can’t blame them, they are dogs after all and it is in their nature to find these little things running and flying around very interesting.
Worried that they’ll get into the cages, I started thinking of what I could possibly do to keep them out. The one option would be to build a fence around the cages, thereby keeping them away from it. The problem with this was that it got in the way of viewing the aviaries. And the whole idea is to sit in the yard and see the birds from anywhere we sit.
I then started playing around with the idea of building a low voltage electric fence. Low enough not to hurt them, but high enough to discourage them from getting too close to the fence 
From previous experience with electronics as a hobby, I sort of knew what I wanted to achieve. I needed to build a pulsing unit that is connected to a step down transformer in reverse which will then send out the pulses which will cause you to shock if you touch the thin wire spanned along the outside of the cages. This will then convert the 12V into +/- 220V.
It was nice playing around with electronics again, and during my search I found a number of different ways to achieve this. In the end I had a unit that provided about 140V AC which is just enough to make you feel uncomfortable when you touch the wires.
With a slight adjustment, and putting in a ignition coil from a vehicle, the voltage can be upped to 30,000V. It’s a pity I didn’t know about this when we paid around R15,000 to put electric fencing up around our yard. Using what I’ve learned now, I can easily build the same system, that is integrated into our alarm system, for as little as a tenth of the price.
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