Detect when a pet enters a room alone?

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I’m trying to figure out a way to reliably detect when my small <10lb dog enters a room by himself. I do not want the piston to trigger if I enter the room, or the dog enters the room while I’m already in it (a bonus). I only want it to trigger when the dog enters on his own. I’m essentially creating an invisible boundary to notify me when my dog tries to sneak into somewhere he’s not supposed to be.

I realize a big part of this is sensor selection and placement, and that’s the area I’m having the biggest trouble with. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

#2

I was thinking of two motion sensors or something similar that can be mounted at two different heights… you know where I’m going with this lol. If only the lower motion sensor gets tripped, your dog is busted!

The motion sensor has to be focused, some have put a small tube to limit its ‘sight’.

#3

*imagines dog in stealth suit curbing the wall to bypass the security (Mission Impossible style)*

#4

LOL, that would require lasers :smiley:

#6

This was the best option I could come up with as well. The only problem is the reliability/speed of the motion detectors (and as you mentioned the sensor focus). If the bottom were to trigger a split second before the top I’d get a false reading. Unless there’s a way to program, “as long as both sensors activate within a __ second timespan”?

The motion sensor focus is the easy part. The only downside is having to dedicate two widely capable sensors to such a specific menial task lol.

#7

There were some ideas a while back in the ST forums about ‘trip’ sensors, might be worth a look if you want to explore other suggestions people have come up with.

#8

I think beacons (IE: Bluetooth Low Energy dog collar) will play a key role in the future of SmartHomes…

Many now let you tweak the sensitivity levels (distance) before triggering an alert.

The battery life is getting better too…

#9

I’d like to think that too. For example, it is incredibly frustrating to see SmartThings hubs with unused Bluetooth radios, or for the ‘Personal Devices’ in the ST app to not be fully integrated into SmartThings, and for SmartTags to be basically sandboxed off.

There are game changing possibilities from just letting us know Bluetooth devices can detect each other.