Remote control doggie door.

Thread Starter

ilovedogs

Joined Jul 29, 2009
5
I need to develop a remotely controlled doggie door. I am thinking of a spring loaded door that has a servo to hold it in place when manually closed. Then have the servo rotate/withdraw/whatever, to release the door to open. The remote needs a range of approx 500 ft.

Any ideas? New to this, so please be specific in your responses.
Thanks in advance.
Dog Lover
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
What kind of door? A gate, or something for your house? Also, what kind of trigger mechanism? I've heard of commercial models that use low power transmitters so when the dog gets close it opens, but that may not be the best idea. Nor is a simple photosensor or pressure pad switch, as you don't want your local racoon letting himself in.

You need to define your application a little tighter I think. The actual mechanics is not has hard as the sensor trigger.
 

Thread Starter

ilovedogs

Joined Jul 29, 2009
5
Here you go. We have a dog that follows our car up our long driveway to a roadside gate. To keep from having a catastrophic dog failure event, we put the dog in the garage, then drive out the gate, then open the garage by remote. This allows the dog to come and go to shelter while we are gone. Works fine. But,,,garage is almost permanently open, which makes it constantly full of cobwebs, dirt dauber nests, and even he occasional bird nest. Basically, permanently dirty.

If we could mount a doggie door, spring load it to the open position, and operate it remotely from outside the gate, same benefits for dog, and less intruders. The distance is about 425', downhill from gate to house, so line of sight would hopefully be maintained. I was thinking if door was spring loaded, I could close it manually, engage the solenoid (either a pin, or a cam), and with remote in the car could activate solenoid to release the door. Once open , if a stray signal reactivated the solenoid, it would be of no consequence as door would already be held open by spring.
I know it seems like a lot, but I love the wife, and wife loves the dog. What's a guy to do?

Any ideas? Any cost estimates for trans/receiver/servo combo?
Thanks again
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
So you want something like a garage door opener for the door?

There have been some similar thread doing something similar for chicken coops. I think I saw them within the last three months, it was even spring loaded similar to what you describe.

An alternate thought though, the dog can push a door open and closed (a standard doggie door). What if you had a remote lock on it?
 

Thread Starter

ilovedogs

Joined Jul 29, 2009
5
remote lock is actually what I am thinking of creating. Spring loading is just so our old dog, who never follows us up the drive can also get out. He is a bit feeble and I don't think he would go through a closed door.
 

ELECTRONERD

Joined May 26, 2009
1,147
Here you go, it has some features that you could exclude, but it is a nice set up.

http://www.designnews.com/article/1...ted_Doggy_Door_Cares_for_Your_Best_Friend.php

They have a video and also the complete building instructions.

-EDITED-

Oh, I thought it could be opened by a remote control...what you could do is use the sensor to detect the collar or let the dog step on the switch they mentioned and that will notify you that the dog wants to be let inside or outside, then you could use your remote control to let him in or out. You'll just have to figure out the RF part.
 
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