I'm wanted to install some doggie doors in the house for some future residents, but I want to keep the other varmints of neighborhood out. I've seen doors that are wired up, and with a collar on the dog, will only let that dog in. Anyone have experience with these? Any DIY solutions that I can wire up to my existing HA setup?
I had one for cats actually. Is used a magnet on the collar to unlock the door.
After about a month, I took off the magnets, and modified the door so the magnet wasn't needed.
It wasn't that it didn't work, it was the magnet was a hassle! I'd find all kinds of stuff stuck to the magnets that the cats had found in their "adventures", like paper clips, metal filings, etc! Also, I found that the metal food bowls I had presented a "challenge" and couldn't be used... The cat would stick to the food bowl, and knock it over!
I've seen a version that used RF or IR (can't remember). It was a bit more expensive (and larger on the collar) and might be good for dogs, but appeared too large for cats.
machead wrote:
This is the most likely commercial candidate to hack I've seen so far, but oh so very ugly! And I've no idea what it might take to make externally controllable although it ma simply require SPST switches across the contacts of the existing push buttons (assuming they aren't capacitive or membrane.
This can be a relatively easy DIY project, Marc. You need a proximity reader that's good for at least half the width of the pet door, a prox keyfob or card (cut off all but the essential part) which you can affix to Fido or Mitsy's collar, a power supply and a solenoid to release the door. For a more robust door, you can use an electric door strike of the same variety used to regulate entry to apartment building lobbies.
Since all of these are existing technology items, your only challenges will be in building a door that swings in and out but can be controlled by the strike. The simplest solution is two doors -- one for ingress and one for egress -- side by side.
Another possible lock/release mechanism is a solenoid cabinet lock. These draw a short bolt, usually about 1/2" throw, out of a fixed strike plate inside the cabinet when 12VDC is applied. When power is lost a spring drives the bolt back into the plate. To make this work you'll need to integrate a magnetic sensor to keep power flowing until the door realigns after the pet passes through. That way the bolt won't throw with the door open which would otherwise keep it ajar for every pet in the neighborhood.
If anyone's interested, I can supply all of the components except the pet doors themselves.
Sorry.. you seem to be looking at technology here and not what's real.
Given enough time and resources, you can train your pet to use a keypad too! :)
Remember, the original post contained "I'm wanted to install some doggie doors in the house for some future residents".
That kind of means that it should be something quite simple for the "future residents" (not who installed it).
I know for me as someone who shares a house with 4-legged critters, (I don't own them.. they are roommates) an ABSOLUTE WORST CASE would be if my DIY solution failed, and my own pets came to harm because they were "locked out" of their house. (even a power failure could do this unless the DIY solution takes this into account).
I know in my own case, there has been a time that a neighborhood "critter" tried to enter. My roommates defended their turf, and that critter was never seen again...
Robert L Bass wrote:
that's good for at least half the width of the pet
affix to Fido or Mitsy's collar, a power supply and a
door strike of the same variety used to regulate
in building a door that swings in and out but can be
ingress and one for egress -- side by side.
draw a short bolt, usually about 1/2" throw, out of a
lost a spring drives the bolt back into the plate. To
flowing until the door realigns after the pet passes
otherwise keep it ajar for every pet in the neighborhood.
doors themselves.
>
The hardware I suggested is real. It also uses current technology. Is that a bad thing?
Yeah, right. I never could train a dog not to poop in the house, much less use a keypad.
Properly installed, my solution would be quite simple. Even a dog could operate it. I can't promise that the ASA crowd could manage it though.
If that's a major concern, add a backup power. It would be trivial to provide several days' power for such a low-current solution.
Apparently the OP wants a solution that does not require future kirttens to defend their turf. He seems interested in providing a technology-based solution to allow resident critters in while keeping alien-critters out.
operate it. I can't promise that the ASA crowd could
Hmmmft.....
I wonder if a caveman could do it.
That's a hoot! The Law Of Unintended Consequences operating at full force!
There's a thread in CHA that's got to be three or four years old, maybe more, about a guy who designed a visual ID system to monitor his cat door. He examined a silhouette of the animal seeking entry via his PC and if it matched a cat, he let it in. The best part about the images he captured were all the non-cat creatures that sought entry. There was a bird silhouette, a shadow of a racoon and some bulbous nosed creature I think might have been a possum or a badger.
If I were going to design a pet door, I'd look at something akin to the passive tags they use to prevent shoplifting. Might even be possible to buy a used commericial assembly off Ebay.
You might be able to do it with a reflective collar and some IR emitters and detectors. A reflective collar would send back a very "hot" signal not likely to be detected with anything but such a collar. You might even be able to make the emitter out of one of those laser levels that shoots out a broad line. That would be easily reflected back to a photodiode and positively detected if the animal had a reflective collar. The big payoff is that there's nothing more expensive than an off-the-shelf collar to lose if that cat somehow ditches his collar.
-- Bobby G.
Take a Blue permanent texta and use it to colour the animals tooth! Problem solved!
to defend their turf. He seems interested in providing a
alien-critters out.
Heh, I recall someone that cobbled up a pet recognition setup using a camera. Apparently the profile of his kitty was distinguishable enough from the local varmints to make it practical. Don't recall the website though...
operate it. I can't promise that the ASA crowd could
recon it'd be harder than customer support?
Yeah... sure...
affix to Fido or Mitsy's collar, a power supply and a
door strike of the same variety used to regulate
The latter will be an expensive solution because the door has to swing both ways. Stick with Marc's suggested solutions. You'll actually wind up spending less money.
in building a door that swings in and out but can be
ingress and one for egress -- side by side.
What an idiotic suggestion. Instead of one big hole in the door you wind up with two??
draw a short bolt, usually about 1/2" throw, out of a
lost a spring drives the bolt back into the plate. To
flowing until the door realigns after the pet passes
otherwise keep it ajar for every pet in the neighborhood.
That won't work. The pet door will "swing" back and forth after the critter passes through. The Solenoid could engage every time it does and if you're not careful adjusting the gap you could wind up with the latch engaged in exactly the way you don't want it to (allowing another critter entry or a critter that shouldn't be "outside" a way out).
While the tags are cheap, those readers are significantly more costly than a prox reader.
I'm pretty sure it was mentioned here in CHA - anyone interested can probably find in through Google Groups. Oh heck, I'll do it:
This falls into the CATegory of, "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it on my own computer." Quantum Picture, a home-based image processing business, had a problem. Its cat, Flo, kept bringing live mice and birds through the cat door in order to play with its prey inside for hours.
Quantum's solution? They built an image-processing system that can recognize whether the cat has anything in its mouth. The cat door won't open if that's the case.
This is a fascinating experiment in using image-recognition software for benign purposes. I myself have the exact same cat door model in my own home (unmodified, of course). So I can attest that something like this project is, in fact, possible.
You may not need to spot terrorists out of a Super Bowl crowd at 100 paces. But Quantum's Web site -- complete with three small AVI files that show its system at work -- is worth a look just for the ingenuity of it all. Oh, by the way, the name of the project: Flo Control.
IMAGE PROCESSING RUNS PET DOOR AND KEEPS NUISANCES OUT
-- Bobby G.
I would be surprised if no one has used the injected pet chips as a way to control the door rather than the magnet. A magnet operated door is a security concern with large pets and small burglars. When I kept pets, I preferred dogs big enough to make a new door wherever they wished. ;)
That's a darn good idea - the problem is that the readers are so expensive - at least that's what my vet tells me. The one I see listed in "it fell off a truck" Ebay (item number 120035993005) is selling for $225. Searching other sites reveal that they seem to all sell for $200 or more. For cheap, I don't think you can beat a cannibalized laser level, a simple photodiode circuit and a reflective collar. Heck, it might even be possible to barcode the collar and read it using a handscanner reader.
If you could get a used microchip reader cheap or build one, it would provide a pretty unique ID to ensure varmints didn't also use the door. I had a squirrel trapped in the house for an entire workday. Those little fuc|
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