Automatic Garage Door Opener Works For Your Cat

Using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi to perform a task in the real world is certainly a project we’ve seen here before, and certainly most of these projects help to make up the nebulous “Internet of Things” that’s all the rage these days. Once in a while though, a project comes along that really catches our eye, as is the case with [Jamie’s] meticulously documented automatic garage door opener.

This garage door opener uses an ATMega328 to connect the internet to the garage door. A reed switch is installed which lets the device sense the position of the door, which is relayed back to the internet. [Jamie] wrote an Android app that can open and close the door and give the user the information on the door’s status. One really interesting feature is the ability to “crack” the garage door. This is done by triggering the garage door opener twice with a delay in between. From the video after the break we’d say this is how [Jamie’s] cat gets in and out.

We love seeing projects that are extremely well documented so that anyone who wants to make one can easily figure out how. Internet-connected garage door openers have been featured in other unique ways before too, but we’ve also seen ways to automatically open blinds or chicken coops!

14 thoughts on “Automatic Garage Door Opener Works For Your Cat

    1. LOL! Yup, my first thought was that if your cat needs a garage door, it’s time to put Fluffy on a diet. I like yours better though.

      Seriously though, it looks like it only opens about 8″. Which is a clever use.

      1. We have several “stray” cats who live with us. They’re mostly outdoor cats, but they come in before dark each night. In the morning, if the weather is decent, we open the garage door by about 8 inches, and they can come and go as they please. Dry food, water, litter boxes and heated cat beds are in the garage, and they’re usually already in the garage when we’re ready to close up. (Yes, I said “heated cat beds”. They’re getting old and are VERY spoiled.)

  1. Tonight on Hackaday news: man discovers how to open a garage door that has every electrical engineer quaking with fear at their dump-seat, the ATMega328 itself can connect to the internet, and a new trick that can turn your garage door into guillotine so that you can behead cats; man call this the ability to “twerk” the garage door, because they sound relevant.
    I eat pizza, pizza is awesome, I like pictures of pizza, pizza is funny, pizza is adorable, you like pizza, pizza is truth, pizza is fact, everyoned worshipped pizza in the past, everyone likes pizza, we all like pizza, pizza will take over the world. Therefore I control/pander you with references to pizza, and it won’t be annoying.
    Annoying being the keyword here.

      1. I had a cat once-lets call him “Puck the Impaler” (Ala “Dracula”) who was one of the most prolific hunters I’ve ever seen. He was well-feed as well. Didn’t slow him down at all…

        I think it was his idea of fun.

  2. I like that idea because pets often need time outside, but with a busy schedule at work they end up staying inside most of the day. With this garage door opener tool pets could be allowed in through a crack under the garage door and security would not have to be compromised. Thanks for the post on the cat garage door opener!

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