I know that I am in the middle of moving… But I had an idea cross my mind and I was wondering if there was anyone else out there that would find this useful at all?
I have a Litter Robot - self cleaning litter box… But the problem is sometime it can be forgotten about and not emptied for a while… Sometimes longer than it should…
I am thinking about making a virtual device type for the Litter Robot that will show how many times it has cycled since it was last emptied and give you a simple button to reset the count and see if it is currently cleaning… I would also have a SmartApp that would let you chose a door sensor to be used to couldn’t the cleaning cycles and update the device as well as let you choose how many cycles you want it to go before sending you a notification…
I haven’t seen anything like this in the forums yet… But if someone has please let me know…
Sounds like a great idea. Although I don’t know anything as far as whether or not you could get an alert after the sensor is triggered x times. I’m not familiar with little robot, but have worn out several littermaids over the years. With our cats at least I would have concerns about them throwing litter ( or worse) onto the d/w sensor and having it not make contact any longer.
I’m not worried about the sensor. I found a good place to put it on the back side where I don’t have to worry about ‘stuff’ getting in the way because the opening for the cats is in the other side…
I love this idea - to notify me when it’s NOT working, as early as possible. The actuation count/frequency statistic could also be useful for maintenance checks.
I don’t have a specific need to monitor a litter box (looks like a cat pressure cooker, you sure?), but the logic can apply to many other chores and systems.
So I am still doing some testing… But for anyone who is interested I have pushed the code:
There are two parts to it:
The virtual device - Copy the code into my device types and then go to My Devices and add a new device and for type select ZP Litter Robot
The SmartApp - Copy the code into My SmartApps - Then using the SmartThings app on your phone install the smart app - Select the contact sensor that is installed on the Litter Robot (Or whatever you want to use it for) and then select the number of cycles before alerting.
All interactions (Cycle count reset or Manual cycle) are done through the Virtual Device not the SmartApp - Its treated like any other device.
It allows 5 minutes for a cycle to complete. And if it doesn’t it allows another 5 minutes… And if it’s not done by then it will tell you that there is an error with it.
Note: The LitterRobot Virtual Device will show up as a ‘Dimmer Light’ - This was the best way for me to interact with the cycle count… If anyone has a better idea please let me know.
Just installed the deice/app and wanted to check in. Manual operation by clicking the cycle button on the device type works fine. I also ran the litter box a few times to verify it would pick up the cycling. Everything looks good so far – I’ll post back if any issues arise. Thanks ZP for the awesome contribution!
I currently use a smart outlet on the Litter Robot so it can be disabled remotely if I don’t want it making noise. It might be a cool additional feature if your SmartApp could disable a selected smart outlet when the cycle count reaches a certain number so you don’t have any accidents. It gets messy if you let the thing cycle while overfilled.
@EvilBit - This is based off of your idea. I also included the idea i read somewhere of power cycling the outlet to cause it to start a cleaning cycle… So now you can manually execute a cleaning cycle. I also did some code cleanup and it is no longer a ‘Dimmer Switch’
Damn…now I need to convince the Mrs that we need a Litter Robot. Since we are talking about automating that device, I wanted to ask about it. What does everyone think about it? I want to use it for three cats.
We’ve been using a self-cleaning litter box for a couple months now and absolutely love it. Keeps the smell minimized, reduces the number of daily chores, and the two cats seem to like it too.
@zpriddy – haven’t tried the update yet, but so far, everything seems to work as expected. Thanks for the contribution!
but that has been fixed as well.