Electronic Dog Kennel

[dan.gennard]

I am designing an electronic dog kennel. This kennel has a door that will only let the chosen dog into the kennel. It does this using RFID tagging and 1 geared motor to raise and lower the bridge with to micro switches at the top and bottom to cut the motors off. Inside there is a 175w infrared heat lamp that will be linked up to a temperature sensor to keep the kennel at a constant temperature. This will all be linked up to a microcontroller pic16f877a to control the system. Basically I need suggestions into what type of circuit boards and coding that you guys would think are involved in this project. Any and all help will be much appreciated. Cheers guys.

 

[vne147]

I am designing an electronic dog kennel. This kennel has a door that will only let the chosen dog into the kennel. It does this using RFID tagging and 1 geared motor to raise and lower the bridge with to micro switches at the top and bottom to cut the motors off. Inside there is a 175w infrared heat lamp that will be linked up to a temperature sensor to keep the kennel at a constant temperature. This will all be linked up to a microcontroller pic16f877a to control the system. Basically I need suggestions into what type of circuit boards and coding that you guys would think are involved in this project. Any and all help will be much appreciated. Cheers guys.

Have you thought about how you are going to prevent re-triggering of the door when the dog is inside the kennel? I'd think it would be a challenge to design something that could sense when the dog is near the entrance, open the door, allow the dog to walk in, and then close the door. Once inside, the dog would likely be right next to the door (unless this is an incredibly large kennel) so the system would have to ignore the RFID tag at this point, but then when the dog stands up or taps on the door to get out, it would have to sense this some how and re-open the door. Doesn't sound like a trivial problem to me and I'm not sure at first thought how to go about doing it. Ideas anyone?

 

[Ubergeek63]

I am designing an electronic dog kennel. This kennel has a door that will only let the chosen dog into the kennel. It does this using RFID tagging and 1 geared motor to raise and lower the bridge with to micro switches at the top and bottom to cut the motors off. Inside there is a 175w infrared heat lamp that will be linked up to a temperature sensor to keep the kennel at a constant temperature. This will all be linked up to a microcontroller pic16f877a to control the system. Basically I need suggestions into what type of circuit boards and coding that you guys would think are involved in this project. Any and all help will be much appreciated. Cheers guys.

it's been done as a feeder... at least you are not planning on having it battery operated as well...

personally i would use an LPC111x, a less money and a lot more horse power

 

[flat5]

Infrared beams senders/detectors and/or motion detectors might be useful to clue the system when a dog is in his/her kennel.

 

[vne147]

Infrared beams senders/detectors and/or motion detectors might be useful to clue the system when a dog is in his/her kennel.

I agree there are multiple ways the system can detect when a dog is in the kennel, but determining when the dog is ready to leave the kennel would be the tricky part IMHO.

 

[dan.gennard]

the door of the kennel will remain open at all time while the dog is within the set distance. This project is in fact already built its just the electrical parts that still need to connected up and programmed to all work in the correct manner.

 

[vne147]

the door of the kennel will remain open at all time while the dog is within the set distance. This project is in fact already built its just the electrical parts that still need to connected up and programmed to all work in the correct manner.

That simplifies things a bit. A few thoughs. So the system will detect when the RFID tag is within a certain distance from the kennel. It should then open the door and keep the door open while the RFID tag remains within that distance. It would probably be a good idea if you have some safety feature in place to keep the door from reclosing with the dog still inside should the system lose contact with the RFID tag either because of a programming bug or hardware failure, etc. Maybe you can build the door so it is kept closed with springs in one direction. So from the outside, nothing can get in unless the door is opened by the system but from the inside, the dog can push his way through the door against the springs. Just a thought.

More along the lines of your question. Can you tell us a little more about exactly what you've built so far? Is the motor for the door and all the microswitches in place? What are the specs on the motor you are using/want to use?

 

[apdta]

I like the idea and I would like to distribute these kennels to my clientel. If you'd like to talk to me about selling your kennels, please let me know.

Profit Don Mega