This is my first attempt to setup a way to let me know when my dogs want back in the house through the patio door. I was thinking of using a motion detector or a pressure pad that would turn on a light telling me they want in the house. Any help is always appreciated.
you could use a contact sensor on what i assume is the flap so you know it opened or closed but i assume you want to know if they are in or out of the house... the problem is if you have more than one dog ... not going to work.
for one you could have a presure sensor in front of the inside and outside the flap and turn a light green or red if they are in or out.. for more than one dog look for something with tags built into their collar that you can integrated with hubitat.. like a presence sensor.
Well, my first thought way NYCE's Curtain Motion sensor, it's what I use to turn on the under hand rail LED strip to light the stairs for my 15 year old Whippet. But you need something outside the door, and I don't think it's rated for that.
She also won't bark at the backdoor when she wants in, so I went with a button that flashes a light in the kitchen so we don't forget she's out there.
An outdoor rated pressure mat could certainly be made to work.
We have a touch sensitive doorbell that our dog nudges with his nose to let us know that he wants out. I expect that something similar could be used for the opposite - letting you know that they are ready to come back in. Search for "pet sensitive doorbell" or some other variation and you will find a number of options.
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Welcome to the community!
How big are the dogs? We use the SurePet Pet Door, which unlocks when a pet with a permitted microchip (any of the standard vet microchips work) sticks their head in the door tunnel.
Dominick Meglio (@dman2306) ported the driver to Hubitat from SmartThings. Works great. We have an enclosed patio, and a rule turns on the patio lights at night when pets have gone outside onto the patio. You need the Connect model in order to integrate with Hubitat.
https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-doors/microchip-pet-door-connect
You can do this with a camera using Blue Iris (BI). Basically you would setup two zones, one by the back door and one further out. Motion would only be triggered when the dog was coming from the patio to the door. You could use the artificial intelligence built into BI to recognize the trigger was created by a dog thus eliminating false alerts. Using MakerAPI you could then have BI trigger anything (light, Alexa, Google, etc) you want in Hubitat.
Sounds kind of complicated, but it's really not.
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