Rant: That 'earthquake alarm' bottle cap gadget was a total scam

Saw this video of a DIY sensor cap that hooks to a soda bottle and is supposed to scream when a quake hits, so I dropped $35 on the parts from a seller in Phoenix. Turns out the vibration sensor just kept going off every time my cat knocked over the bottle, and it never once activated during real tremors we had last month. Anyone else fall for one of these and have a better solution for a cheap early warning?

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ben4025mo ago

@jenniferwells probably just cheap parts marketed as something they ain't though.

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jenniferwells5mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. Did you ever test it by actually shaking the bottle hard to see what level of vibration it needed, or did you just assume it was working based on the cat? I wonder if the cheap sensor was more designed for a door alarm than actual seismic activity.

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