Can a "smart home" be considered "smart" if your favorite cats go to the litter tray?
Of course, we forgive a lot to our pets! But, you must admit that every day, several times, sweeping the filler around the tray and determining by smell that it is time to change it is somewhat annoying. And if the cat is not alone at home? Then all worries increase proportionately.
For many years I was worried about the organization of a cat litter box. Everyone thought about how to make life easier for himself (the issue of refusing cats in the house was not discussed). They taught cats to trays with a mesh, to trays without a mesh, to a toilet bowl with a shelf, and so on. All of these were half measures.
After buying an apartment in a new building, I decided to provide a separate toilet for cats (we have three of them) and somehow automate the process. Around the era of computerization, and cats rummage through the filler! Repair contributed to this, it was possible to immediately bring communications.
Searching for solutions on the Internet led to the purchase of an automatic toilet from an Austrian company, the advertisement of which convinced me of the correctness of the chosen direction. The toilet was connected to the water supply and sewerage, flushing was automatic after the cat left the toilet.
I paid more than 17 rubles for a toilet, a power supply, and a key fob for setting the toilet's functions. The money was big, but the end justified the means.
The toilet had a training tray, which was inserted into its bowl and the filler was poured into it. The cats figured out where they need to "go" and it's time to take out the tray.
It was the last day of euphoria, and support calls began. Omitting all the subtleties and vicissitudes of this period, I will only say one thing - the tray is very, very, very far from its advertising. It worked so poorly that it's just a "catastrophe"! Immediately it became a pity for 17 thousand and the costs that were spent on the supply of communications.
When I realized that I had been hit, a dilemma arose: βWho is to blame and what to do?β Running around and proving something to someone is unpromising. I decided to correct the situation myself.
The result of two years of work was the current model of the toilet, which is free from the shortcomings of the prototype. The toilet is fully automatic, allowing intervention in its management, via the Internet. The toilet has a new flushing principle, the priority of which was fixed on 03.04.2019/XNUMX/XNUMX in ROSPATENT. The toilet detects the appearance of the cat in the bowl, and tracks her movements throughout the process. After the cat has left the tray, a pause is maintained. If the cat is no longer within the sensor's field of view, flushing begins. If the sensor saw a cat before the start of flushing, then the pause is repeated. Flushing is carried out with a small jet pressure. Flushing can be single, double, etc., for better cleaning of the bowl. The flush duration is set by the time relay. After the end of the flush, the toilet goes into standby mode. Then the process is repeated. It is possible (if there is Wi-Fi in the house), flushing via the Internet using a smartphone. If, at the time of control from a smartphone, there is a cat in the toilet bowl, then external control will be blocked.
The toilet detected movement, the lights turned on.
Pause time countdown.
Start flush.
Flush.
Source: habr.com