OK, HE n00b here. Just got the HE C-7. Love it. I think that this is going to be a good fit for me and my family (if I can make home automations wife/family friendly). I'm getting familiar with apps, devices, app code and driver code. I have installed a few and especially like the Echo Speaks by tonesto7 (that rocks). What I am looking to do is be able to keep track if my cat is out in the garage or not. He loves to go out in the garage and "chill" away from our other cats and foster kittens. The issue is keeping track if he is out there or not as different family members will et him in our out. We cannot put a cat door there as we have dogs who would go out there (not a good idea) and the foster kittens should never be out there. We just cant find a convenient system to track whether the cat is in the garage or the house. I was thinking a presence system would be great but don't think they have the granularity of "room to room" awareness but rather a couple hundred feet radius at best like the HE presence has with the iPhone. Not sure if there is a HE compatible fob system that might be able to detect when he is in the garage or not that could be used with triggering a light to show a color (red=garage, green=house), but we all thought a light color would help all. We have that setup but not everyone remembers to notify Alexa to se the color to garage or house.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this I would be greatly appreciative. This is right now the #1 home automation issue I need to solve.
Thank you in advance,
Norbert
I understand you don’t want pet door, but take a look at this. It works well for us. The locks in the door are activated by the cat’s microchip. It keeps and notifies presence, you can set schedules, etc. So, you can program which microchips unlock the locks. It lets our cats out onto our enclosed patio.
https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-doors/microchip-pet-door-connect
There is a Hubitat driver. Get the “Connect” model.
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Very interesting! Not sure about the free passage one way (out). I sometimes allow the feral (community) cats that I take care of into the garage when its really cold or heavy rains for safe shelter. I would not want them coming in, but there is the lock feature, so....
The cost is a bit higher than I can justify with the wife, but home automation is not cheap. lol Much appreciated for the suggestion.
Since you want to keep it on the cheaper side, I have a suggestion. Rather than using Alexa to have your family set the cats presence, maybe try a button at the door or wherever you move the cat into the garage. Sonoff has a button that is cheap. I have one of their motion sensors and it works great with Hubitat, so I would assume the button works just as good.
The other option would be Bluetooth LE, which is what @thebearmay posted. It is low power so it would probably have good accuracy as walls would probably kill the signal. So if the sensor is in the garage, and the cat is in the garage it will probably be 80+% accurate. I have thought about doing this with my cat to see where he is hiding sometimes. He usually hides when people are over, so knowing where he is would be nice. Would be nice to know he is not hiding in a room someone would be staying in, as some of our friends and family aren't super accustomed to cats.
Though, having a physical button there would probably be a good first step in family reliability. I actually use a ST button when we take the dog out to set a reminder for 3 hours from when it was pressed to take him out again. Really only took the wife a couple weeks to get in the habit of pressing it when the dog was let out.
https://www.amazon.com/SNZB-01-Wireless-Supports-Connected-Required/dp/B08BF9YQK1
Without a microchip, the feral cats would not be able to go through the door. If you put it in Curfew mode (we leave it in curfew mode always), it will let the microchipped cats come in after curfew (7:30 pm is set for us) but not go out. Then, when curfew ends (4:00 am for us), the door unlocks, microchipped cats can go in and out but animals without a microchip cannot go through. It’s a standard vet microchip that our pets already have. You just program each microchip for access.
The only issue is that it took a bit of training to get the cats to figure out how to push the door open with their head. Had to tape the door up so they got comfortable over a day or two going through the tunnel, then use of treats and pushing them through a couple of times to realize how to push it open and go through. The cats love their freedom now, go in and out without having to wait to be let in/out.
The locks do make a loud noise when they engage/disengage if a microchipped cat is near, that scared the cats at first.
Edit:
Well, consider this, @norbert.h.davis: before we had the pet door, the door to the patio stayed open in Spring, Summer, and Fall. Bugs and flies came in the house, and the cooling bill went up because of all the hot air coming in from the patio. We expect that the pet door will pay for itself this Summer, and we have no bugs or flies. My wife is thrilled!
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