I have a dog with health problems that needs to go outside a lot. I'm just tired of getting up for him, and a doggy door is not an option.
I'd like to be able to hit a button from my couch, and have the door open up. It only needs to open up about 9 inches. I'm ok with taping down the latch, so I don't need anything that turns the handle. Just needs to push it open and closed.
For $30, I thought about buying a remote control car, attaching to the door, and just doing forward/reverse on the remote, but to leave those cars on, I don't think the batteries last so good. Plus, a car on the floor would be in the way.
why is a doggy door not an option? the weight of a roller soor assembly cut into an existing door might be a lot easier than opening the whole door?
I like the idea of a wheel on the floor, rather than messing about bolting things onto the door frame etc. Also, if someone gives it a shove, the wheel should just slide on the floor, rather than grip, preserving the motor and gear train. That or you have a servo lift the wheel off the floor when not in use.
Do you need to un latch the door too, or is it a simple case of pushing it?
a simple low geared motor, with a nice grippy RC car wheel mounted directly onto it, mounted on a pivoting arm with a servo to lift it off or push it onto the floor (only needs to lift it a few mm, so you can play with leverage ratios here).
A servo to operate the door latch (maybe this could be included in the same servo as drops the wheel to the floor?), and a simple contact switch for sensing the door is shut.
An arduino can manage the logic, a single motor driver for the motor. That just leaves the controls.
Passive IR
an ultrasound distance sensor mounted on the top of the door, that detects when something of approximatly your dogs height approaches the door (but can differentiate between people and dogs)
A microphone, setup as a clapper (clap on, clap off)
an IR reciever, setup to recognise a specific button off your existing TV remote? Eject?! ha! (i like this one best)
It is also possible to make a door with a sensor so that it can open and close automatically when the dog is close to the door. With today’s high technology it is no longer impossible to make things easier or faster. I also thought about upgrading our door because of my Airedale dog. He has a stray dog and always wants to go outside and play in our yard. And the automatic door looks good for him.
How about a doggy with magnetic latching at the bottom of the flap? Could be hard wired or remote. This would only require a simple normally open/normally closed circuit to operate.
