Before I found this thread I reached out to Petsafe after buying one of the feeders (which has been working great so far to be honest, if a bit noisy).
They came back that the current generation of the feeders does not have the API support and such that the previous model did because they changed the way it works. However, they were debating about whether they would attempt to add it back in or an equivalent. To me... that is a polite way of saying "nope" in most cases.
But I will keep hoping and just use the feeder with the built-in capabilities as is.
Hmm, this is weird. I just called PetSafe and also did the live-chat. And they claimed that current PetSafe Smart Feeders do have API support enabled. I don't know how to reconcile that with what @snell learned. To be fair, I never quite trust what these support teams say, so I'm not sure what to believe. I did purchase a unit and it's arriving tomorrow. I'll try it out and see what happens. Will let you know.
Is anybody still using this app, either the original @dman2306 version or the new @rpgruss device driver?
Here's what I've learned so far today in trying it out with a new Smart Feeder we just purchased:
When I use @rpgruss's device driver, I get the same error as @nzeroesc (see error messages a few messages above in this thread)
I suspected this might be because @snell was right (and I was wrong!) -- i.e., the PetSafe API was longer operational.
To test this theory, I tried @dman2306's app -- and while I can't get the app to operate, it does successfully create the feeder device and pull in all the attributes (e.g., schedule etc.) from the PetSafe app. This suggests to me that the API is working.
So I went back to @rpgruss's device driver, but I just can't get past the initial step of submitting the email address (userID) to the PetSafe API.
Curious if anyone has any ideas? I'm thinking about setting up a Home Assistant instance so I can do better dashboarding. If I do, I'll try to add this device on that platform. Dunno for sure.
So, my thought is the API is still there. Before seeing these are started some work on my own driver for it and it DOES respond to some stuff. But I wonder how well the newest version of devices support it, or if they changed the API structure a bit. That could easily explain why some things work and some things do not. I have had to deal with similar stuff on my own API drivers. If the company changes the structure of the API or adds a new version section that only works with a newer device... you can lose all sorts of functionality until that difference is understood. It may even only be new models that use it and only for certain functions even.
The Blink API is very much a mess of old and new areas...
To close the loop on your question, I tried every which way my menial lizard brain can understand to beat the code into submission without any luck at all.
I eventually resigned myself to letting the PS app tell me when it needs to be filled and using it to build feeding schedules. The added layer of functionality in my case would be reduced user friction from others in the house by not needing them to rely on an app as I could use RM to create additional notification paths for when things go awry.
Outside of that, it's been surprisingly consistent and reliable. This driver set not working is one of the last things keeping me from pulling the trigger on the litter box as I figured that would be coming along for the ride given the early code in the drivers.
Yeah I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the feeder hardware. And the app is decent too. I have a few little beefs (e.g., they ask how many pets your feeding, but then fail to use that information in split feeding scenarios), but overall I'm happy. Still I'd prefer to have it integrated into my overall home automation environment. My strategy at this point is to connect Petsafe to Home Assistant once I get it up and running this Fall. I have a Sure PetCare door that I'm planning to do the same thing to. Then I anticipate I'll be able to pull in certain events into Hubitat.
Let's stay in touch if any of us have breakthrough. Cheers...
I am also pleased. For years we have had a pair of Super Feeders. They are "dumb" but pretty tough and dependable. Give them power, they run for X time (configurable with a potentiometer), and will not run again until the power is cycled. So I had them hooked up to a ZigBee outlet and controlled them that way. Not too loud, fairly robust... but one of our cats determined how to pry at the inside to get it to drop a bit of food... so we could end up hearing her all night long prying away at it to get a morsel or two. She ended up even breaking a piece off.
So I got the PetSafe... and it has been good. A bit louder (especially when the food hits the metal bowl and rattles around) but easier to control portions, holds a ton more food (although there are options to expand the Super Feeders), and best of all she cannot pry at it. We got one of the splitters so it goes to two bowls (one for each cat) which is nice versus having two feeders. But it is also a disadvantage because the splitter does NOT have the mount to keep the bowls in place like the standard single bowl variety. So the cats (or floor cleaning robot at times) can push the bowl out of place if they get a little too overzealous while eating.
But overall, it seems excellent. I am debating 3D printing a retaining ring for the two bowls or adding some grip to the bottom of them but have not gotten around to it yet.
For anybody trying to integrate Petsafe Smart Feeder with Hubitat, I can share success.
I was wholly unable to get the HE apps/drivers in this thread to work. And I tried. And tried again.
Instead I set up a brand new instance of Home Assistant, which was way easier than I expected. I took the easier-but-more-$$$ path by buying turnkey hardware, instead of going the raspberry pi route or docker, et al. I bought the Home Assistant Yellow from SEED here.
Once HA was up and running, I installed something called HACS. Best as I can figure, HACS is to HA as HPM is to HE. IOW, HACS is the way to install community apps and devices.
With HACS setup, it was easy to install the Petsafe Smart Feeder on HA. Just followed online directions.
I then used HADB to link the Petsafe Smart Feeder on HA back to Hubitat, bidirectionally.
Finally, I used Rule Machine and other Hubitat goodies to automate the feeder the way we wanted.
And it's all working great. If anyone else wants help, I'm happy to give it. So many folks around here have helped me, I'd love to give some back!
Hey, just got hubitat and still learn things and have a petsafe Feeder here but I don't really seem to get it to work. I installed the HPM get to the login page and get the code and all to work but not sure what to do next as tried to create a virtual device for it but I don't get really much options like feed the cat manually and the features like that. Any help? Also if u could give a quick step by step on how to install it and get it working I'd really appreciate it.
I could never get it to work on Hubitat either. See my workaround immediately above your post. I admit it means getting another hub, but hey, it's an excuse to get another toy, so there's that.
I am waiting for the PetSafe feeder delivery on coming Friday. I came across this thread and
decided go take HA-HADB path thanks to your post. I found PetSafe integration through
the HA HACS service and installed it. But what do I do next? I cannot find any instruction
how to actually configure PetSafe integration in HA. The window for PetSafe integration
in HA has no any buttons and/or links:
Are you using the same integration or something different?
Could you please provide some info (link to the instruction will be OK)?
Lol yeah I can relate. I think the HA U/I just takes getting used to, no less (maybe more) than HE.
I’m on the road right now but I’ll check and respond later when i get home. It’ll be straightforward once I take a look I’m sure.
Edit: OK, here's the process I used...these steps assume you installed HACS and then installed PetSafe as a HACS integration. You can confirm this is the case by clicking HACS in the left hand pane of the main UI, and then selecting integration. PetSafe should be one of the tiles you see on that screen. If not, the PetSafe HACS integration has not been installed.
OK presuming all that is fine, then (remember I'm new at HA too, so I'll happily be corrected by other experts):
You still have to install the HA PetSafe integration on top of the HACS integration. From the main HA U/I, select Settings (bottom of the left hand pane) -> Devices and Services -> make sure "Integrations" is selected at the top.
If PetSafe shows up as a tile in this view, you've already installed the integration (which, in HE speak, is like saying you installed the app, best as I can figure). If PetSafe doesn't show up here, then click the blue "+ Add Integration" button at the bottom right to install the integration.
After I installed the integration, it creates one device (the dog feeder) and eight individual entities, which are like attributes in HE (things like battery level, food level, last feeding time, etc.)
At that point, you should have everything you need on the HA side. I then went back to HE, installed HADB, and the 1 device and 8 entities all came across as child devices of the HADB parent device. Note that (I think) the devices don't show up on HE until there is some event on HA to push across.
YES. And BIG Thank You.
Step 1 was missing. Now to complete integration I will need to create a PetSafe account.
I'll do this on Friday after physical feeder will be delivered.
Feeder arrived just now (a day earlier). By this time account was created and all SW components installed. Once feeder was connected to the WiFi HA Integration instantly picked it up and created all related instances. And for the HE integration all HA instances immediately became available.
Now I have to think about what exactly i want to automate and how. This is not very easy task.
cool glad you made it. You might want to check out the HA community as there is a thread on the feeder.
In the meantime, I do the following with automations (just ideas to get your juices flowing):
on our wall-hung tablets around the house, a dashboard indicates if/when the dogs have been fed. Like most, our house is chaotic with my wife, my kids, and I all coming and going. And the biggest source of daily confusion was "I didn't feed the dogs, I thought you fed the dogs?". This solves that.
we use dog presence (which we derive separately from a Blue Iris integration) to determine whether to feed the dogs each morning and each evening.
When food level is low, we have a notification setup to warn whoever is home to refill the feeder with food.
Few other little things, but that's pretty much it.
