Invisible Fence Doorman Pet Door controlled with Relay Switch--tracking its state?

Wiki Projects & Stories
#1

I have an existing pet door that opens and closes based on the proximity of a dog collar.

I can toggle a single button on the pet door to leave the door on automatic (based on the collar) or locked (I lock at night) or open (I open in the morning)

I have hard wired a relay switch (similar to the one I wired for the garage door opener) to the door to toggle between the 3 different functions of the door

My question: is there a way to program or create something in smart things to keep up with which door function is active at the moment.

I can toggle through the door functions with the relay switch with smart things but have no clue if the door is open, closed or locked in the app, without walking out to the dog door in my garage.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or thoughts
Tim

#2

( since this didn’t have a category, I’ve moved it to project so you can get individualized responses To your setup.)

There should definitely be a way to do this, but it may depend on the specific equipment. What’s the brand and model of the pet door? And of the relay that you’re using?

There have been several project reports posted on different automatic pet doors, but again, I think the solution is going to come down to the details of your specific set up. :sunglasses::dog:

#3

Thanks for changing the post, new to the posting side. The pet door is from a company called invisible fence, its their model called the doorman. The relay I’ve tested is the evolve, I took my garage door relay and tested it with the pet door. I have the mechanical side done but not sure if the software side of smart things will keep up with how many times I’ve pushed the relay button in smart things and communicate back with the app… again any help is appreciated
Thanks
Tim

#4

Which evolve model? Sorry to be so picky, but it can make a difference.

#5

As far as keeping track of how many pushes, that can be done a couple of different ways. Typically you would create a virtual switch which represented each of the three states, and then you would turn the virtual switches on and off as you cycled through the pushes. That way a particular virtual switch being on tells you that the pet door is in that state.

There are then a couple of different ways to keep the virtual switches in sync with the physical device. Core generally gives you the most options and is really good at counter type applications.

#6

No worries thanks for the help, I was actually wrong its the linear FS20Z-1

IMG_9994.JPG4032Ă—3024 1.89 MB

#7

Wow thats awesome, I will try and dig into core asap. I appreciate the help!!
Thanks
Tim

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#8

OK, so this is just a cycle switch? There are three states, and each button push just changes it to the next state in the cycle? Or is it a pattern switch, with a tap and a double tap or something like that?

If it’s a cycle switch, then I would think definitely three virtual switches and use core to turn those on and off based on keeping track of the events. Ask in the core peer Assistance thread and the experts there should be able to help you get it set up. :sunglasses:

#9

(Sorry, I keep thinking of “one more thing”…)

If you take this approach, the virtual switches are just going to be indicator lights for the state that the door is in. You don’t want to press on the virtual switch itself or everything will get out of sync. You still want to change state by pressing the tile for the physical relay switch.

I just wanted to be clear on that. It would probably be possible, again using core, to set it up so that you could have each of the virtual switches be a control that goes to that state, but that’s actually going to be a lot more complicated unless the door also has a reset option that always initializes it to the first state.

#10

Yes its just a cycle switch. so i will have 4 tiles total. 1 that is the relay switch that allows me to toggle between the functions of the door, and 3 other tiles that are identifiers that show me which function the door is currently at

the door doesn’t to my knowledge have a reset option, whichever function you are at it stays at, i could program it be a specific day and time similar to a thermostat but it never is consistent with our schedule thus the relay idea

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#11

I was just thinking… With core, you can have another approach which might make even more sense, and that’s just to change the color of your relay tile based on the state of the device. Kind of how people do with the thermostat where it’s blue if it’s in cool mode and it’s orange if it’s in heater mode.

I don’t do that myself because I rely on text to speech and it’s really hard to do things like color codes with that. But I know there are people doing that with other devices, so as I think about it now, that’s going to be more useful to you ( as long as you aren’t colorblind, of course) and that way nobody can mess it up by pressing a virtual switch tile by accident.

Again, the people in the core peer Assistance thread can help you get that set up. :sunglasses::tada:

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#12

Boom, dude you are rocking it!!! I need to get on here and ask more questions
Ill keep you in the loop if i run into any issues.
Thanks a ton

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#13

It’s a cool project, I’m glad you’ve added it to the forum. I’m sure other people will be interested as well.

Once you get the piston set up to do the indicator colors (core calls a rule a “piston”), post a screenshot of the piston here so other people can check that out, as well. :wink:

image.jpeg1189Ă—1138 190 KB

not my dog, but mine knows the same behavior

#14

Yeah, I have zero experience with Core so it might take a while, will see once i start reading.
Ill post once i figure it out
Thanks

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