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IEMI Labs
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SensingDesign complete (stages 1–6, rev A), not built, not validated

PestTrap

A camera delta trap that texts the consultant on the day of the first catch

Photographs the pheromone sticky card inside a delta trap up to 6 times a day, counts only the new target moths, and sends the grower and the crop consultant a same-day first-catch alert with a thumbnail they can confirm.

Who buys it
Independent crop consultants and pecan cooperatives running trap lines for 10–40 growers, and larger orchards running their own traps; Texas pecan (pecan nut casebearer) first.
Why it pays
On a 300-acre orchard, one mistimed or extra casebearer spray avoided is about $7,500–12,000, plus about 36 hours of trap checks a season (est.). A consultant can cover about 3 times the traps for the same driving (est.).
Target price
$249 per trap + $39 per trap per season; co-op LoRaWAN gateway at cost (target)
First-minute wow
A text on the morning of the first catch with a thumbnail of the moth on the card, and a Confirm button that sets the biofix date.
See the CAD designConcept page
PestTrap concept: the idea and where each part goes
The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

  • Smallholders abroad have no channel or network → Texas pecan beachhead through consultants, co-ops and extension demos, with species packs later
  • Camera traps cost about $2,400 (Trapview) or $300 per season (FarmSense, 2022) → $249 per trap with a BOM of about $60, so a grower can trap every block
  • Solar panels get shaded, stolen and dirty → no panel; 2× AA lithium cells last more than a season at about 2.6 mAh a day
  • AI species ID on bycatch and debris is unproven → count only new blobs since the last image (tray fiducials for registration), a 3-class classifier, and human confirmation of the first catch
  • LoRaWAN can't carry photos → 11-byte counts, a 48 × 48 thumbnail only for first or doubtful catches, and full photos synced to the consultant's phone over Wi-Fi
  • Texas heat and rain → white ASA, camera and LEDs inside the delta roof behind PC windows, Li-FeS₂ cells instead of Li-ion

Use case

First casebearer catch of the season

Crop consultantPecan growerPestTrap cloud

  1. 01Trigger: the 07:00 capture in block 3 finds 2 new moth-sized blobs, classified as casebearer (confidence 0.88 and 0.71)
  2. 02Send: counts and a thumbnail of the best detection go over LoRaWAN to the co-op gateway
  3. 03Alert: the consultant gets a text with the thumbnail and taps Confirm; the biofix date is set
  4. 04Action: the grower is told to start egg scouting 7–10 days later, and the spray is timed on evidence instead of 'to be safe'

Outcome: About $9,000 of spray avoided on 300 acres in a year when one spray is skipped (est.)

How it works

Architecture

  1. 01

    Sense: OV5640 camera with 2 off-axis LEDs looking down at the sticky card; SHT40 for degree-days

  2. 02

    Decide: ESP32-S3 registers the image to tray fiducials, finds new blobs and classifies each crop on the device

  3. 03

    Send: RAK3172 LoRaWAN counts to a co-op gateway with LTE backhaul; full photos over Wi-Fi to the consultant's phone

  4. 04

    Tell: SMS or WhatsApp first-catch alerts, a confirm queue, a route list for full cards and old lures, and season reports

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $59 per trap, about $95 with a share of the co-op gateway and first-season lure and liners (est.).

BlockPartWhy this part
Vision MCUEspressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8Camera interface, PSRAM for a 3 MP frame, int8 models, Wi-Fi AP for photo sync
CameraOV5640 5 MP with a 120° lensSees the whole 168 × 200 mm card from 118 mm
RadioRAKwireless RAK3172 (STM32WLE5 + SX1262)LoRaWAN US915, micro-amp sleep, and it runs the schedule while the S3 is off
Power2× Energizer L91 AA + TI TPS63802No solar panel or Li-ion in the Texas heat; more than a season per set
MicroclimateSensirion SHT40Degree-days measured at each trap

Mechanical

Printable CAD

7 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render
PestTrap printable parts, rendered from the CAD
Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

  • Count accuracy on real, dusty, crowded cards is unproven; one bad first-catch call loses the consultant's trust (field test T10)
  • The pecan casebearer season is about 6 weeks, so $39 a season must be justified by a few alerts; more species are needed for year-round value
  • Rural LoRaWAN coverage needs a co-op gateway that someone owns and powers
  • Training data: thousands of labelled casebearer crops are needed before launch, and the source is not yet secured

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.