So I am completely uneducated about anything related to circuits or wiring, and if you can bare through my ignorance, I would really appreciate the help. Basically, I have just moved into a new house with a wooden flight of stairs. This shouldn't be an issue but I have a kitten with cerrabellar hypoplasia, so it has no equilibrium and has a lot of trouble walking and balancing. During the day, I want him to be able to get up and down the stairs with out hurting himself. I want to design a device that will carry him down and up the stairs. The only idea I have is to use a weight sensor switch so it can be activated automatically. The device needs to move him approximately 10 feet, and stay at the current level until activated again. So it needs to move forward or reverse depending on where it is.

Anything at all would be helpful. Thanks again.

 

I've never met a cat that would put up with such a thing, although the Rumba cat (google for it) is famous.

Your solution might be a mechanical one. I'm thinking of a ramp. Perhaps kitty can negotiate a constant slope better than stairs?

 

Your solution might be a mechanical one.

Maybe a CATapult

 

Hello,

Better make a cat-ladder to cover the distance:
http://catladderhalloffame.blogspot.nl/

This would be much safer fro the cat.

Bertus

 

So I am completely uneducated about anything related to circuits or wiring, and if you can bare through my ignorance, I would really appreciate the help. Basically, I have just moved into a new house with a wooden flight of stairs. This shouldn't be an issue but I have a kitten with cerrabellar hypoplasia, so it has no equilibrium and has a lot of trouble walking and balancing. During the day, I want him to be able to get up and down the stairs with out hurting himself. I want to design a device that will carry him down and up the stairs. The only idea I have is to use a weight sensor switch so it can be activated automatically. The device needs to move him approximately 10 feet, and stay at the current level until activated again. So it needs to move forward or reverse depending on where it is.

Anything at all would be helpful. Thanks again.

How are you going to train the cat to use it? What should it do it the cat gets off partway up (or down)? What safeguards would you need to put in place to keep the cat from getting caught in the mechanism, say if it lost it's balance and tumbled off the front end (in the direction of motion) and then tried to hang on.

This just doesn't strike me as a very good idea.

Why is it so important that the cat be able to get between floors on his own? Why can't you just set up one floor or the other as being suitable and use a gate to prevent him from trying to traverse the stairs?

 

While I quite understand your compassion to your friend all of my kitties would be highly offended by such a device and never go near it again once it moved the first time.

Doubling up on water food and litter boxes is a far simpler method and something you should have by now anyway.

Just tell the human kitty has picked to carry said kitty up and down stairs with them.

 

Maybe a CATapult

Groan...

Bad joke!

 

I had an instant vision of those air transport tubes they used in supermarkets for sucking little cans of cash from the checkouts very quickly out to the back room.

 

I had an instant vision of those air transport tubes they used in supermarkets for sucking little cans of cash from the checkouts very quickly out to the back room.

I rather like it!