That's an idea, but perhaps a little more logic programming that I care to do. I used to have the LR on a smart plug that would watch for power draw. If there wasn't any, and it was between a certain time frame, turn off. But then the HE LR integration came and I moved that plug. It's not the end of the world, but a power on/off would be nice. Even if it were only on the HA side. The use of MSR allows me to create logic/rules from either hub, without the need for HADB. Which I was running for quite sometime when I had Aqara sensors in the house. I've ditched those since, just need to create a post to sell them
You can turn off/on the device via the vacuum.turn_off/on services in HA.
That information is missing in the Services section of the HA Litter Robot documentation. Thanks for the info, Nate. Great driver.
I am not seeing that in my HA. Can you give me some steps on where to find that? Or a screenshot or two? And yes, great driver, thank you.
I think it used to be documented on the vacuum entity itself, so it wasn't included on the litterrobot specific documents. Also, it's a soon to be deprecated feature, but should continue working for 6 months. I'll work on adding a separate entity when that happens.
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You can call it in an automation, script, or developer tools:
service: vacuum.turn_off
target:
entity_id:
- vacuum.critter_shitter_litter_box
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When I opened the app just a bit ago, I got a notification there is a whole new app coming in the next few weeks. Based on the description of the "enhancements" I really hope they arent going to a CSAS (Cat $**** as a Service) model.
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Yep. That’s the one I got.
I believe you guys are overreacting. 1.6.1 has been in beta test for a few weeks. The “subscriptions” that it allows you to manage is a recurring shipment from the Whisker online shop. It’s been purchasable for some time from the Whisker online shop, now can be managed in the app. No big deal. Similar to the litter (Dr. Elsey’s Ultra) and prescription cat food (Royal Canin Gastrointestinal) Autoship I’ve had for a few years with Chewy for Thor and Loki.
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You are probably right. Just seems so many business want to monetize every thing. I’m just getting tired of subscriptions. . When ever I see “exciting enhancements “ I hear a cash register. Yeah I’m a bit cynical. I’m trying to be better about that.
I have found the Dr. Elsys works the best with it. Love your names for your catto’s!
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Love the CSAS and Dr. Elsey's reference. Hoping to prod a few wires with the meter this weekend and consider a local solution. Unfortunately traveling for work the next couple weeks so it may be a concept design only for the next month or so.
One of my elders just started prescription food. Are you getting yours delivered to your house? Right now I'm getting my Rx food through PetSmart but I'd rather have it shipped to the house. (And not use PetSmart's Door Dash delivery service, which I don't today anyway.)
Yes, and the cat litter. It’s shipped free over some minimum, and it’s always over the minimum.
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We have a diabetic cat, and get his prescription food, insulin and syringes shipped to the house with chewy. You will need to send them the script to put on file.
I’ll add I hope somebody figures out how to get this working again, I just finally got around to including it a few months ago.
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I’m going to give it a try as soon as Nate Spencer’s revisions to his Home Assistant integration stabilize.
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Figures.... I just removed the LR manager integration. My life360 with state app went sideways, so I was on an app removal kick.
Has there been any improvement there?
To be honest, no. Nate Spencer’s Home Assistant driver has stabilized, but another round of changes is planned soon when Whisker (Litter Robot) changes the API again (removal of Reset).
Here’s a discussion:
There are two APIs in use. Neither is published, both were reverse engineered by Nate Spencer, who wrote the original integration for SmartThings for the “old API” (ported to Hubitat by Dominick Meglio), and who also wrote the Home Assistant integration for the “new API”.
The old API, used in the Hubitat integration, is a polling API, only supports the Litter Robot 3, and necessarily has a polling delay (default of 5 minutes) for response. It is no longer maintained because Dominick Meglio has left the Hubitat platform for Home Assistant. The new API, used in the Home Assistant integration, is a “cloud push” API, has almost-instantaneous response, and is actively maintained by Nate Spencer. The new API, and the Home Assistant integration, supports Litter Robot 3, Litter Robot 4, and the Feeder Robot.
When I spoke with Tom Denton, Director of Software Engineering at Whisker, in January 2022, he indicated that, while the new API had been released for the Litter Robot 4 (and Litter Robot 3) and Feeder Robot, the old API would continue to function. Well, we see that’s not true - the onboarding and authentication has changed.
The Home Assistant integration works fine, is fast (cloud push rather than polling), supports LR3, LR4, and Feeder Robot, and is actively maintained. The Home Assistant integration integrates effortlessly with Hubitat using HADB.
I’m just not sure that it’s worth the investment in time to fix the onboarding/authentication with the existing Hubitat Litter Robot 3 driver, given that yet another change is planned soon. Another factor is that I’ve been ill and am facing abdominal surgery in about a week. Time is limited.
