Rogier Honselaar is a tech consultant in Germany. He wanted to be able to control a cat door remotely and also be notified when his cat came home.
"Gonzo" loves his automated cat door
As with most projects, Rogier started searching the Internet and found some interesting projects. He got the idea to combine some of his favorite projects and make a remotely controlled cat door and alert system for his cat, “Gonzo”.
When the idea was there, the execution was very easy using the IObridge module and components.
Rogier installed a Cat Mate Cat Door in his basement. The cat door opens when the electromagnet senses a magnet in the cat’s collar. By running the sensor and switch over the the ioBridge IO-204, Rogier can be open and close the door remotely. He is also able to monitor when the cat comes in and out of the door. The messages get pushed to Ping.fm via the IO-204 and ioBridge web service. Rogier and his neighbor follows his cat on Twitter @fellnasegonzo to make sure Gonzo is home safe and sound.
Cat Mate Automated Cat Door
Cat Door Switch and Sensor
At ioBridge.com, Rogier created a few control and monitor widgets. With some help from a friend, he controls and reads the widgets via a net-connected Windows Mobile app on his cellphone and can open and close the cat door on his Windows Home Server.
Windows Mobile Cat Door Control App
Windows Home Server Interface
Thanks for sending us the project details – we are happy to share. You combined some very interesting things together and created a very useful project. We wish you and Gonzo well and hope you enjoy the new cat door! Who let the cat out? Meow.
Over 2000 people came to the first annual Maker Faire North Carolina in Durham, NC. There were makers from all over. It was a blast!
We had on display web-enabled robots, toys, and interactive projects created by the ioBridge community. Some of those projects included, an iPhone and Twitter controlled Donkey Kong, X10 controlled lamp, streaming temperature sensor, and a remote controlled dog treat dispenser.
While we were there, we captured some footage of our projects on display and exhibits that we were able to see. There were so many great projects and so little time. We made a quick YouTube video and posted pictures to the ioBridge Flickr group.
Thanks to all of the volunteers, exhibitors, and sponsors who made the Maker Faire NC such a success.
ioBridge is an exhibitor and sponsor at this year’s Maker Faire North Carolina. We will have on display web-enabled robots, toys, and interactive projects created by the ioBridge community. Some of those projects include, an iPhone controlled Donkey Kong and a remote controlled dog treat dispenser.
Maker Faire NC is free and open to the public. Stop by and visit us!
Steve (aka Polymythic) created a Motion Feedback MP3 Player that plays music tracks at varying volume depending on the level of activity the system detects. The concept is to encourage more activity by creating a feedback loop between the volume of music and the level of your activity.
Motion Feedback MP3 Player
Motion is detected with a Parallax PIR Sensor. When motion is detected, the output pin of the sensor goes high. That out is monitored by the ioBridge IO-204. With or without a network connection, the IO-204 sets the volume of a DIY MP3 Trigger board from SparkFun. The volume is controlled by sending serial strings to the MP3 Trigger. Steve took advantage of the new Onboard Rules that turn the IO-204 into a standalone controller. When the IO-204 is connected to the Internet, the IO-204 also data logs his activity by sending it to the ioBridge data logging service in the cloud.
The ioBridge Team will be at Hack Pittsburgh Friday, November 13th at 7pm. We will talk about web-enabling projects and getting microcontrollers online fast and securely. The session will include hands-on demonstrations of ioBridge projects and Q&A. The presentation is open to the public. Get more details on the MAKE community bulletin board or on HackPittsburgh.org.
HackPGH is a non-profit group of makers from based in Pittsburgh, PA that runs a dedicated workshop for project development and training. To find out more about Hack Pittsburgh, visit HackPittsburgh.org – community-based activities, schedule of events, and projects.
We wanted to say thanks to everyone that visited us at the Maker Faire. We had a 10×10 booth filled with web-based projects – Scrolling LED Twitter Sign, Internet Controlled Donkey Kong, Power Monitoring, Dog Treat Dispenser, X10 Outlet Control, Temperature Charting and Logging, and an Interactive Message Center for the Serial LCD Screens. Our booth consumed 4 kWh over 2 days and peak power usage was 290 Watts.
Maker Faire Projects
Lots of people helped out to make it happen – thanks to OharaRP and thecapacity for working the LED sign. Maker Faire had some really interesting projects – underwater robots from Jesuit Robotics, a Giant LED display, Tesla Coils, Art Meets Science, cool stuff in the Maker Shed, and lots of people.
Here are some photos from Flickr of our booth before we got swarmed:
ioBridge went online in November 2008. Since that time, we have had the chance to work some really brilliant “makers” from all walks of life. Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 is May 30 and 31st in San Mateo at the fairgrounds – a gathering of people that make things, re-purpose dusty equipment, and bend circuits – our kind of people. The ioBridge team will be there with an exhibitor booth. We look forward to meeting some of the people behind all of the blogs posts, YouTube videos, and forum posts. Our booth will be filled with gizmos to play with, setup, and configure. We invite you stop by and say, “Hi” and experiment and meet the ioBridge crew. We would love to meet you and see what projects your are working on. We have a few surprises in store, so check us out. If you can’t make it to the Maker Faire, follow the action on Twitter – our booth will be live on the web!
Jason Winters, the famous Picodore and fishcam inventor himself, created a Do It Yourself (DIY) power monitoring system to chart and track power usage in your house using AC transducer clamps and an ioBridge module for web-casting the data. This project has found a lot of interest on the world wide web and the ioBridge community. Jason has used the system and discovered some amazing inefficiencies and some power suckers all around his house. I think we are interested in knowing where our money goes and how to become more efficient. I have also noticed lots of claims that this has been done before. If you dig deeper, you will find that no one has quite solved the problem quite like this and will be surprised with the ability to use it with Google Charts, Google Documents, and social networking widgets.
Jason has provided plenty of photos and details on how to recreate the power monitoring system for your own benefit. You can check out his Picobay Projects Blog or the very detailed Instructables.
