Hi,
I know the thread is kind of old... and that the petporte has being replaced by a "newer" model the Passport, but from what I have seen so far this new model has a few flaws :
1st: It isn't ditributed in Europe or at least not in France ... as Amazon.uk seems to sell it.
2nd: It's very pricy
3rd: It still is not fitted for itegration into home automation.
I've had several Petportes since the first model.
After mechanical failures on the first version (grrrr... damn brocken pins on the red and green locks), I switched over to a second version, having an ISS-E board.
I have come upon this thread only after I already took my soldering iron in hand and upgraded my board by a few optocouplers to be able to monitor led status and trigger the buttons remotely, and close the lightsensor circuit to force a blocked status at night. Associated to some logic inside à Siemens Logo I got a KNX implemantation of my PetPorte ... I admit, it's a hell of a toolchain just to switch between day and night mode.
I hence had been working on a smaller, nicer implementation using an Arduino and a Tapko KIMaip for KNX integration... It took me a few tryouts to get the optocoupler setup right and TADAM, I got it working on my testbench !!
But... as by Murphy's Law there is to be a "but", as I was installing my upgraded PetPorte back on the wall, I slipped. KNX 12V got in contact with Red button 5V which conluded in a nice little spark. ..... KIMaip dead, PetPorte MB dead..... GGGGrrrrrrrr !!!!! ... so much "work" for nothing.
At this point the story might becoming interresting as I had several options to poursue my goal:
- Get a brand new PetPorte
- Get a brand new PassPort
- Get a Dualscan Sureflap and add extra "outgoing" filtering functionality (as I have 2 cats), but new integration work has to be done
- Contact guys to get a new MB for my PetPorte (which doesn't seem to be an option anymore anyway)
- Get to work some more on my arduino board and use it to trigger the locks directly. RFID will be read by external TTL Reader provided at Priority 1 Design (Model RFIDRW-E-TTL) ; Buy 2 RFID so I cant have scan outside and inside
...So what did happen?
- First options are pricy ....
- I was tempted by the Dualscan, but my cat seems to be more of a Racoon and didn't fit trough so I returned it
....Hence... I worked on my Arduino.
I "redesigned" a new pair of custom boards to re-use existing pushputton and led places (top level). Bottom level holds the l293dne, dual powersupply (actully just diodes...), power monitor, buzzer and severeral connectors : locks and green door button, arduino, and "outside world" (Ground, 12V, KNX+, KNX-)
I based my software upon the projekt found at
http://respekt-empire.de/CatFlap/trac and tried to keep user interactions as close as possible to the orignial catflap.
Their code has been converted/upgraded to C++ and an Arduino Sketch.
I'm using RS232 for debug, so I kept the code as an option (can be actived at compilation using à #define directive)
I have integrated another communication option in my code to interface the catflap directly to KNX, and coded a suitable template for my Gira HomeServer 4 Supervision.
The best part is actually that everything should fit inside the Petporte:
A hearderless Arduino Leonardo will fit perfectly in the upper left corner of the Petporte casing.
The KIMaip will take it's place on the left side of the door frame.
The right corner and right side should coutain both RFID add-on readers. I plan on using the antenna's of my firsts PetPorte.
As of today, main code and implementation are ready, without RFID reader integration since I'm still working on a suitable library and waiting for the actual readers. Those should arrive shortly from Australia.
I'm trying to find the last bugs that might still be.
My code contains following options which could be activated:
- Connecting a Light Sensor to Arduino
- Connecting a Red_Door button and 2nd RFID reader for filtering cats allowed to go out (Dualscan mode)
- Using RS232 to monitor / control the catflap
- Using KNX to monitor / control the catfalp
- Night Mode can be blocked by "Night status" info or overriden by another "Force closed" input (which I plan to set/unset by a KNX timer)
- Day Mode to prevent cats to go out while it's the day (I kept this from the base code I used)
- Free modes: Entry (actuel PetPorte Free mode), no filtering cats coming from outside / Exit, no filtering cat wanting to get out (but keeping ovveride induced by night mode and vet mode) ... I admit, wihtout RFID for the time being I'm stuck with Free Entry and Free Exit mode !
I retrofitted the pushbuttons to behave as with original Petporte : actions can be triggered while holding the buttons down, prior to releasing them (Ex: blinking red led and buzzer indicating Vet mode has been activated and that button can now be released)
So what do you think, should I try to write a small tutorail or guide on how to retrofit a PetPorte to an Arduino ?