Help with co-habitation using lasers

Most motion sensors are designed to ignore pet-sized moving objects.

@Lampy Motion sensor aimed at the couches would not keep them out of the room, and would require we arm/disarm each time we want to use it the room. A IR/Laser/Sonic/focused PIR Sensor trip line would allow us to step over the line during the normal course of being home. Eventually I might even be able to tie it into the alarm panel so the higher sensors are active when the house is armed.

@mblatz Correct. Must be easy to use or my wife won’t use it. Also, they are 10 years old and still seriously fear vacuums. I think after a couple of tries, they will learn to avoid the room, and then it will only go off occasionally when they eventually forget and decide to test it again.

They don’t care about their names. They are James Bond (International Kitty of Mystery) and Scuttle. Scuttle was originally supposed to be Pussy Galore, but that was 86’d by female family members at the time…

@carpa area motion sensing can be dialed in, but still is out of scope since I need to be able to step over the line.

@Owen_Soccer22 yes they are…unfortunately.

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Not being a lover of feline dander allegren vectors, or sophisticated in electronics, a simple 5 or 6 farad capacitor, two wires with a 1 inch gap and a piece of catnip behind usually deters them.

As Mark Twain said: A cat that sits on a hot stove learns not to sit on one … or a cold one. The Egyptians idolized cats … see where that got them.

@Photomancer I don’t like anyone else’s cats. Just mine.

Here are my book recommendations for you:

  • One of my favorite classics:

https://www.amazon.com/101-Uses-Dead-Simon-Bond/dp/0517545160

  • and it’s sequel:

https://www.amazon.com/Cats-revenge-More-than-people/dp/0671443542

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sorry to hear you were shot down on one of the names - great choices tho.

I always thought a good name for a dog with be “sex”…especially if it got away from you - folks would ask what you were looking for …

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I just want to thank you for your demonstration of dedication to your furry family members. So many people think of {pets, children, etc.} as “disposable”, like their favorite underpants, it’s refreshing to see someone dedicated to the decision to acquire a companion, and stick to the commitment. :+1: Thank you.
PS Sorry, got nothing on the Automagic Vacuum Deterrent Device. But once you figure it out, you can use it to turn on or discharge anything you want to hook to the output, I’d think. Might even be marketable, if you wanted to dedicated the time and energy to making it so…

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Your use case has lots of needs beyond protecting your couch. Most IR/Sonar/PIR only have short working distances for what you want. Only a laser beam would traverse that distance and stay usable. You would need to setup bounce mirrors or use multiple units. If you want to DIY something you can look at this instructable.

As @Photomancer suggested a charged cap is easy/peasy. Not particularly cat friendly though. Or the wife either when she picks it up off the couch wondering what they heck it is. Zot!

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@Lampy Not sure that a cheap laser pointer would work long term…they tend to get hot and burn out quickly. If someone has a long term laser solution, that would be great…for the most part, it’s got to be on 24/7.

My distances are 48" for the lower crossing and 87" for the higher crossings. Someone mentioned earlier using garage safety sensors. I may start there, but I’d prefer to source a high power IR LED and custom build the circuit.

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Its not a lost cause. Its a work in progress! I’ll be meeting @Clayton in a few days to pitch the Blynk solution I use in my classes. It can use any of the sensors mentioned and allow control from a cell phone. I did the second reply to this post with a few more details.

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I think an Arduino, a PIR sensor (or multiples), an MP3 Sound Effects Shield, and an Amplifier circuit might do the trick w/out using an actual vacuum and its associated higher voltages.

Using an MP3 player also allows you to mix up the sounds played when triggered so that the cats don’t become habituated to the stimulus.

I’m guessing < $50 in parts to implement.

This Talking Dog Collar Adafruit project covers interfacing arduinos and interfacing with the MP3 board and amplifier. You’d replace the Bluetooth comm with the cheaper PIR sensor input. Some code tweaking would be needed but that should be straightforward assuming you have some programming experience.

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You do not HAVE to have a vacuum. What you want is the SOUND of a vacuum. The protection circuit is one item. The deterence activation circuit is a whole other event.

One thing with “the sound of the vacuum” is that cat auditory senses probably exceed ours in sensitivity and frequency response. Who says that a recording that we percieve as a vacuum will sound like one to a cat, or elicit the same response?

On top of that, one of our rescue cats that we acquired as a 1 year old had never seen seen anything but canister vacs for a couple years with us before we bought a dyson. She ignored the box when we brought it in. Was curious when we laid it down and stared opening it, but once she could see it in the box, recognized it as a mortal enemy, started hissing at it, and shortly left the room. So I really wonder what exactly they sense that generates such a response to one that has never been turned on, or even out of the box.

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@kbraby you nailed it…

Moving on with the PCDS (Persistent Cast Deterrent System), instead of trying to cobble together something completely from scratch, I have a couple of garage door safety sensors -

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Chamberlain-Garage-Door-Opener-Replacement-Safety-Sensors-2-Pack-801CB/100651226

I cannot find specifications or a wiring diagram online that tells me which wires send/receive power, and how much power to use. How does someone go about reverse engineering (or simpler yet, fiddling with) something like this without breaking it?

I’d probably start with something like this, in hopes someone else already did the hard work…
http://pages.mtu.edu/~suits/electronics/GarageElecEye.html
Then verify, test, implement.