About the CatGenie AI

[Robert Deliën]

Lectori salutem,

It has been sitting around here for a long time, but my newfound unemployment created some time for me to investigate the newfangled CatGenie AI a little further. One of my conclusions is that over-engineering doesn’t necessarily lead to more customer value.

Previous versions were fully  implemented on one main circuit board doing everything. The control panel was a foil-based passive component, and the cartridge tag reader was an after-thought, preceded by a passive connector to an I2C memory chip on the cartridge. The new setup is completely different, and boy, did they go to town!

The AC board

The board we all know and love is still there, in the same form factor, mounted at the same location. Though the MicropChip PIC MCU has been removed. A big 16-pin connector has taken it’s place. Separating mains from low voltage circuits fell short on the previous design. This design is much better, though creep distances could have been larger still. They also have added three opto-coupler driven TRIACs. One is replacing the dosage pump relay. The other two seem to be involved with the scooper and bowl motors. Their role is still unclear,  but they are not replacing an additional two relays. They could be facilitating a soft start, to ensure these motors start in the proper direction, even under load.

The DC board

At the side of the cartridge well, where previously the the RFID tag reader board was living, now a much large controller board is mounted. It is marked DC BOARD and it still contains an RFID tag reader (ST CR95HF), the same as used on the latest revision model 120 RFID reader board. The STM32F030 has been replaced by a more capable STM32L462, handling the business logic. A MicroChip (Atmel) ATWINC1500 IoT module is used to connect to WiFi networks. Both are probably running proprietary firmware, and are interconnector through both SPI, I2C and UART. OTA firmware updates are supported according the companion app description in the App Store. It is unclear whether these updates will be pushed over WiFi, BlueTooth, or perhaps both.

The DC-board is also handling the water sensor and the cat detector. New are two connectors for two RCDs/thermistors, placed before and after the heater element in the fan enclosure. With the air intake now placed under the hopper hood, this allows them to take in warmer air from the box interior, allowing to modulate the heater to maintain the desired air temperature, saving energy. I think there’s a mistake in that thinking; When the air used to dry the granules mostly stays within the box, the air will get saturated with water and stop drying the granules after some time.

An optional battery holder has been omitted. Probably because batteries are nasty components, not due to their chemistry, but due to local legislation. Some countries don’t allow their import within products, others demand a disposal plans and some airliner don’t want them on board. Not even coin cells bearing not energy at all.

 

The Control Panel board

The real pièce de résistance in this new design is the control panel and it's circuit board. The control panel has just two illuminated buttons, and 4 indicators. The buttons bear a Play and a Repeat symbol. The indicators bear a droplet icon, an exclamation mark icon, a WiFi/BlueTooth icon and a lock icon. The first is always visible and can be illuminated by three LEDs, showing bars in the icon. The latter three are only visible when illuminated by their single LED. I was surprise to find oud the control panel lens is made of glass and not even strong glass.

I’m all for simple user interfaces, but operating a complex device with just two buttons doesn’t always simply the user experience. Perhaps they worked around that by providing acoustical feedback. I understand the box talks at you. I really hate being talked at. Especially by dumb devices.

I really like the buttons, though. They are capacitive proximity buttons. Very safe. But in a time when even the cheapest gadgets from China have a graphic color user interface on a capacitive touch screen, this interface looks cheap. And the irony here is, that they’ve spent a lot of money on this cheap look, because in fact this control panel is not cheap at all. The printed glass lens must be expensive, they’ve put an expensive Cypress CY8C4128 controller on this board, because it also doubles as a BlueTooth interface. A weird design choice. And I can’t think of any reason why they need 8 conductors in the cable connecting in.

As a whole, there surely must be a simpler way than employing no less than 3 CPUs to get this job done.

The AI

I have not powered up this box, no manual is available online, so most here is just guessing. However, the purpose of the IA part is getting clear after reading the description in the App Store. This description says that the user is able to add profiles for their individual cats to this cat box, and that it will report each cat’s habits. I think the AI part is utilised to determine which cat in using the box, probably by the times at which it is using the box, and possibly by the pattern it induces on the cat sensor. I doubt if that works reliably, but if does, it’s a nice feature.

The water sensor

The same light guide water sensor is used, but it is handled on the the DC board. I’m curious to see if the op-amp circuitry, capable of overriding software opening the water valve, is still there.

Conclusion

As said before, this setup uses 3 controllers, with each a ton of firmware in it. Writing alternative firmware for it, is a helluva lot of work and takes a considerate amount of time, effort, skill and perseverance. Especially if it all comes down to one person doing all the work.

An in my opinion better alternative would be to develop an replacement DC board, and a replacement Control Panel board, compatible to this AC board. Still a lot of work, though. Especially is a graphic user interface and smart phone apps are involved.

Let me know what you think, guys.

[jimmy.jay]

I will keep buying older used boxes without AI for cheap and keep my cartridgegenuis going....!

jj 

[IR Tankless]

Do you know if the hash counting solution is storing on board chip or on cloud? If on cloud we can try to intercept it. 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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[Jay W]

Hi guys,

I'm not an engineer of any kind so I"m not sure if I can help but I do have 2 cat Genie AI's that I"ve been running hard for almost a year if anyone has any questions. 

When you first set up the cat box you use bluetooth connect to your box then you use the app enter the wifi password to connect the cat box to your wifi. After that I'm pretty sure everything is wifi directly to the cat box. When I check my bluetooth connections the cat boxes aren't even showing up in my list of devices.

Yes the cleaning count is kept on the web. In fact I can see exactly how many cleaning left on each cat box anytime anywhere through the app.

It also sends me alerts of what is wrong via alerts on my phone whether it be a dirty light guide, drainage issue, low water, solution out etc. Sometimes it alerts 50+ times an hour so there is a glitch there, I had to kill the sound on it because it wouldn't stop alerting me about the same error over and over again.

I can also remotely start the cat box cleaning from my app but I haven't found a good use for that. 

I have both AI's on cat activation to get double the cleanings per cartridge but otherwise I would use their scheduling program to make sure they never ran at the same time. The cleaning cycle seems about the same as the 120 but Robert you were mentioning damp air recycling. Do you need me to time the drying cycle or any other parts of the cycle?

My favorite part of the AI is they reduced the power consumption so I can run 2 AI boxes on a 15 amp circuit without tripping the breaker. I cannot run a 120 and AI on the same circuit without tripping the breaker. The app does not alert of power outages btw.

[Robert Deliën]

> Do you know if the hash counting solution is storing on board chip or on cloud?

I doubt hashing is off-loaded to the cloud; That would make the box inoperable during an Internet outage.

> If on cloud we can try to intercept it.

I don’t think the algorithm is exchanged, except perhaps during a firmware update.

> I'm not an engineer of any kind so I"m not sure if I can help but I do have 2 cat Genie AI's that I"ve been running hard for almost a year if anyone has any questions.

Interesting...

> When you first set up the cat box you use bluetooth connect to your box then you use the app enter the wifi password to connect the cat box to your wifi. After that I'm pretty sure everything is wifi directly to the cat box. When I check my bluetooth connections the cat boxes aren't even showing up in my list of devices.

That makes sense.
Did you boxes receive a firmware update already? If so, does this involve connecting via Bluetooth again, or does the box update autonomously via Wifi?

> Yes the cleaning count is kept on the web. In fact I can see exactly how many cleaning left on each cat box anytime anywhere through the app.

I’m sure the counter on the cartridge is sent to the cloud, if for nothing else: for convenience of the user of showing it on the app.

> It also sends me alerts of what is wrong via alerts on my phone whether it be a dirty light guide, drainage issue, low water, solution out etc. Sometimes it alerts 50+ times an hour so there is a glitch there, I had to kill the sound on it because it wouldn't stop alerting me about the same error over and over again.

So it’s not tested. Or not very well, at least...

> I can also remotely start the cat box cleaning from my app but I haven't found a good use for that.

Yeah, that reminds me of the tray-open (and -close) button the remote of CD-players...

> I have both AI's on cat activation to get double the cleanings per cartridge but otherwise I would use their scheduling program to make sure they never ran at the same time.

That would be an easy feature to implement in the could. I’m surprised that they haven’t.

> The cleaning cycle seems about the same as the 120 but Robert you were mentioning damp air recycling. Do you need me to time the drying cycle or any other parts of the cycle?

Well, the system isn’t fully closed, so saturated hot air escapes and is replaced by non-saturated environment air. So it will eventually dry, but I seriously doubt if it’s going to be that more energy efficient.
How long does a drying cycle approximately take?

> My favorite part of the AI is they reduced the power consumption so I can run 2 AI boxes on a 15 amp circuit without tripping the breaker. I cannot run a 120 and AI on the same circuit without tripping the breaker. The app does not alert of power outages btw.

Another reason for a feature preventing to run two boxes simultaneously.
Do you have the impression that AI is used to identify which cat is using the box, and perhaps what it is doing?