Greetings, I am new to the forum. I want to make a device that will send a message/email/other home automation protocol message when an event happens (trap trips). I have looked at several microcontrollers ESP32, firebeetle, etc..., Pi and Arduino devices, but looks like the Pi Zero might be my best (easiest) solution. I wanted to keep it simple, and very cheap (under $20 if possible)... I need the device to be battery powered, and portable. (I don't like the idea on connecting a wall outlet to a metal cage.) It doesn’t need to be on all of the time, when the event happens two contact plates touch, a circuit is closed (or a button pushed) the device powers up and send the message. At this point it can be programmed to shut down, or just let the power drop off until it fails.. I don’t really care here... It’s a pain to get into these attic areas every day to check, as fiberglass insulation gets everywhere, I would rather know when something is trapped, so I can go take the squirrel to a park and let it go. I had one die and decompose in a trap a long time ago, and it was messy.. Don’t want to do that again. My purpose is not to kill them,, just get them out of my attic, they are damaging my home.
My experience with power bricks is that there is usually a button that has to be pushed to activate or wake them up, they don't usually just serve power when the connected device powers up, at least the ones I have. I can't seem to find any 5V batteries with a micro USB cable ready for the Pi Zero. Weird, I would have thought someone somewhere would have made one by now. I don’t need more than maybe 5-10 minutes of on time, the pi to power up, connect to my home Wi-Fi, send the message, then shutdown, all of that is easy enough to set up. I had thought there would be some IoT sensor or device out there to handle this type of thing, but I haven’t found anything yet... So it’s back to a Pi solution...
I work in Critical Infrastructure and Cyber Security and am expanding my skillset a bit with some of these types of projects, and IoT and IIoT sensors and like devices are on the rise... It seems that a device similar to this could be used for a whole slew of functions and situations, weird no one has a solution yet... I'm starting small and simple, with plans to go on to bigger and better things.. Any help, recommendations, or suggestions are welcome 
