Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #15 – March 29, 2011, 08:22:17 pm [quote author="pppd"]Regarding cats not being able to learn.. I have heard/read that cats obey you only when you are around, so if you want them not to do something there must be something that's scaring them at all times not just when you are looking :) We'll see how it goes.. I will make the log public and accessible in real-time ;)[/quote]I sometimes feel cats kind of perceive things the other way around, one cat I know always seems to think it's her house and you are just visiting.. It's great to see where this is going! Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #16 – March 29, 2011, 11:25:11 pm I've done some more testing with dual stage triggering and it seems to be the way to go. The stand-by current is now 24uA ( it was around 400uA before ). Once the phototransistor is activated by IR ( I've used LTR4206e in a 'black' plastic package which cuts out visible light ) it triggers INT0 low level interrupt, then the CPU wakes up and cuts transistor power off and activates the IR demodulator and INT1 edge interrupt for a few seconds. Once done processing it goes back to sleep enabling the transistor and INT0 again.This is very good news because it's now reasonable to use CR2032 batteries rather than LiPo cells. It should easily last for about 3 months even if the cat violates zones frequently. It also means that I do not to worry about it being discharged below 3V and there is no need for voltage regulator to power the RFM70 transceiver :)And here is the victim.. her name is Yuki Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #17 – March 30, 2011, 03:26:03 am they can learn - they can learn very complex things (like turn the switch on one room and run to other room to enjoy the heater that switch turns on) ... but all cause-effect must be "immediate" ... the "I will not give you a treat because you did/didn't do something *last night*" ain't gonna work with a cat (not going to work with a dog neither and they are trainable). Only way to "control" her is to have 24/7 monitoring and immediate reward/punishment.Now, I know we discuss electronics here but if you really want your cat to leave "xyz area" alone - use citrus... just put a lemon, lime, orange or some other citrus there and cat will avoid it. They hate the smell of those fruits. Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #18 – March 30, 2011, 09:00:11 am [quote author="arhi"]the "I will not give you a treat because you did/didn't do something *last night*" ain't gonna work with a cat (not going to work with a dog neither and they are trainable). Only way to "control" her is to have 24/7 monitoring and immediate reward/punishment.[/quote] That was more a joke than an actual solution, like asking my cat if it jumped on the table last night and expecting her to tell me the truth ;-)You are right about the citrus fruits.. but it only works if you squeeze them on a cat. There is a a fruit bowl on my table and it doesn't work :) Besides.. where is the fun in that :P? Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #19 – March 30, 2011, 06:59:49 pm that's one resilient cat, mine 10kg monster keep min 2m distance from any citrus .. she's allowed on the kitchen table for e.g. but she will not go there if a single orange or lemon is on the table .. Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #20 – March 30, 2011, 07:13:14 pm i have been paying attention to this thread because my cat is always keeping us up at night, he loves to tap dance in the bathtub. closing the curtain does not help and i cant shut the door because that is where we hide his litter box.I have thought about building a sentry gun that will squirt him if he jumps in the bathtub.my cat is also fairly large, when he runs down/up the stairs, i sometimes think some is knocking on my front door. Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #21 – March 30, 2011, 09:33:48 pm wow, mine is about 3/4kg summer/winter, but still can make a lot of noise whenever she wants to annoy me :) Sometimes I'm wondering if I have a cat or a pony when it makes noise jumping around.Coming back to the project.. I am now working on bringing RFM70 transceivers to life.. I would use RFM12B but they need external antenna and use 868MHz. Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #22 – March 31, 2011, 04:34:43 pm This monster is quiet as night :D .. no sounds while she moves .. and when she want attention she "yells" .. that sound can wake up anyone :Dwrt transcievers not sure if 2G4 will be better then 868M ... but you can always put antenna in the collar :D ... now there's another idea ... have you seen the rfid key pendants .... they are small enough to add to the collar and they can store few kbits too .. so you could store the data in rfid device (pendant for e.g.) and from time to time read that data using external rfid reader to dl the data to computer ... or install one rfid reader with transmitter on the litter box .. that will insure data transfer at least 2 times per day :D Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #23 – March 31, 2011, 04:50:22 pm I guess I could put the antenna inside the collar, but I want to test these 2,4GHz modules anyway. I've bought them 4 months ago and still not tested. They should be swappable pretty easily together with SW of course.For some reason my cat likes to use the litter box at 3am.. and since my flat isn't really big you can imagine how much being woken up in the middle of the night by my digging in wood based litter.Yeah, RFID would be nice,, but that's more and more hardware. I will use on-chip EEPROM to store events in case the supervising station is down for some reason. So no data will be lost :) Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #24 – April 01, 2011, 07:01:46 am I ran across this ... Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #25 – April 01, 2011, 02:33:10 pm if i got one of thoes i don't think my cay would ever poop again! Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #26 – April 01, 2011, 03:18:33 pm I think mine cat would find some nice hidden spot in my apartment to get the "job done" ... and taking into account what my appt looks like - plenty of room to do that .. so I'd keep litter box "stationary, clean and easy to find" Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #27 – April 01, 2011, 08:55:37 pm This reminds me of another "invention" which suits April Fools' Day perfectly :) Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #28 – September 02, 2011, 02:25:49 pm It's been ages since I was supposed to work on it.. but it seems the primary goal of my university was to kill creativity by having me finish my MSc... not entirely true, but a good excuse for being late :) I am finally "free" to work on my hobby projects and this needs to be pushed forward as the first, but there are other coming up.By now my cat is finally used to wearing a collar so I will be able to swap it to my e-collar any day now :) I have also used hidden cam to find places he visits when I am not around and I must say it's just asking for trouble :P Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
Re: Indoor cat locator Reply #29 – September 03, 2011, 04:09:36 am In the absence of your continuing posts, I'd imagined that the cat had trained you :) Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 am by Guest
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