CartridgeGenius, a sneak preview
CatGenius
fit nicely on your processing unit, right under the regular control
panel. All electronic components will be on the back, except for four
buttons and a number of LEDs.
Installing it will be relatively simple and completely reversible. All
you need to do is to open the processing unit, pull the connector from
the RF-ID reader on the cartridge holder, route the wire through one
of the many holes in the cartridge holder to the outside and plug it
into the the CartridgeGenius panel.
It will also be very simple to operate. From left to right:
The first button enables fully-automatic mode. If enabled, an LED will
indicate this and you've got nothing to worry from there.
The next button allows you to insert and remove a virtual cartridge.
The third button allows you to select a virtual cartridge type: A 60
cycle cartridge (as supplied in the very beginning), a 120 cycle
cartridge or a maintenance cartridge. An optional cartridge for future
use is foreseen.
The last button allows you to manipulate the level of the virtual
cartridge selected.
Naturally al feline-lock is present too.
I will start hand-assembling 20 pieces before the end of the year, for
evaluation purposes. I will need a couple of people with an CG120
using stock firmware to evaluate the this device.
If this device will become commercially available, a price indication
is around 100 Euro.
weddlerr
firmware. Of course, If you would rather me stay with the catgenius
firmware side of things I will just keep running what I have.
Richard
gswens
to order parts to try it out for myself. I have an CG120 using stock
firmware to evaluate the this device and some experience soldering and
hacking.
Please let me know if there's any other assistance I can offer, or if
a deposit is required.
Thank you!
On Dec 7, 2:59 pm, Robert Deliën <Rob...@delien.nl> wrote:
> Here's a first rendering of what the PCB will look like. It's from before review comments were processed, but it's just a sneak preview.
>
> 104KViewDownload
Robert Deliën
> I would very much like to get on the list for these.
Geeh, thanks. I didn't expect to be much interest. I have ordered 20 PCB, which should arrive any day now. Today I'll have to order the electronic components and I'll probably spend the week between Christmas and New Year soldering it all together.
> I was just about
> to order parts to try it out for myself.
Yeah, I know: Ordering the parts is not the problem. Finding the time to do it all in is. CatGenius also too me a lot longer than expected. This software however is much simpler, so I expect it to be functional in a week or so.
> I have an CG120 using stock
> firmware to evaluate the this device and some experience soldering and
> hacking.
Well, if you're into hacking, CatGenius would be the thing for you. As soon as CartridgeGenius is available, I will OpenSource it.
> Please let me know if there's any other assistance I can offer, or if
> a deposit is required.
Thank you for offering, but I don't see how. You could solder your own board together, but that would make it more difficult for me to program the chip. And if it doesn't work, we would know what went wrong. I have prober soldering tools here, and it's really not that much work.
No deposit required; Consider yourself to be on the list.
Cheers!
Grant Swenson
keep the WAF high. If I end up getting a second CG120 or there's a
breakdown in the electronics of my existing one, I might try out that
option. For now, the RFID interception method seems the easiest.
Let me know if there's anything I need to do to get started or assist on this.
Thanks!
Robert Deliën
> Great. I agree CatGenius would be fun to play with...but I'd like to
> keep the WAF high.
Yeah, that's kind of the reason for starting CartridgeGenius. And to minimise the complexity of it all.
> If I end up getting a second CG120 or there's a
> breakdown in the electronics of my existing one, I might try out that
> option.
I've got three boxes, two of which are running CatGenius now. I upgraded the second box only two weeks ago because the original firmware messed up my box too often, but that' was probably because our new cat's abuse.
> For now, the RFID interception method seems the easiest.
> Let me know if there's anything I need to do to get started or assist on this.
Please note that I'm not really interception anything because interception would stretch the turn-around time too much and I'm not sure if the original firmware is tolerant to that. Instead I'm just emulating and RFID reader with a cartridge tag. CartridgeGenius is not communicating with the original RFID reader. The original RFID reader is not even connected anymore.
Perhaps a future version will have a connection to the original RFID reader, to allow the user to clone a cartridge tag into the 'Optional Cartridge'-slot. For now I don't see any reason for that, as I am not aware of any other cartridges besides the 60-cycle cartridge, the 120-cycle cartridge and the maintenance cartridge.
Cheers!
Grant Swenson
seems like a better approach. I had intended to just "copy" a valid
cartridge, and replay it's signal. Your method seems more reliable.
I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.
Robert Deliën
I have attached a drawing of the final board layout. All controls and indicators are on the top, all other components are on the bottom so they don't bother you.
Seasons greetings too you all, and especially to Nelu for sending me a Christmas card with a proof quality silver coin on it (still a bit overwhelmed).
Cheer!
Robert.
Robert Deliën
The bi-colour LEDs for Poll and Opt are of a different type than the other LEDs. I tried to order similar looking LEDs, but their pinout was not compatible and I didn't want to start with hardware patches. In the final version this will be solved. If not too expensive, I will also consider a PCB with more layers to avoid the traces on the face side.
All-in-all I'm pretty happy with it.
Seasons Greetings!
Robert.
Jeff
something like this. It's about time I upgrade, so if you need a
tester I'd be thrilled. Merry Christmas.
Robert Deliën
The two pin headers on the right won't be mounted on the final version. The bottom one is a programming port and has a PICkit2 programmer attached on the photo. The top one is a serial port for debug information.
GI_J0E
these boards?
Jeff
Robert Deliën
> these boards?
Yes; I will need a couple of users to evaluate this. I have enough PCBs and components to assemble 20 pieces. However, I do not have 20 hours of spare time yet.
Software still needs some work. I estimate this to be around a week, but again, I'm doing this in my spare time and it's pretty hard to find a week.
I'm not sure yet whether I want users to be able to update their devices. It would be handy, but I really don't want to distribute the software...
________________________________________
From: catg...@googlegroups.com [catg...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of GI_J0E [jgr...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 2:06
To: CatGenius
Subject: Re: CartridgeGenius, a sneak preview
Robert Deliën
I'm afraid I'll have to bite the bullet on this: I will need to order new PCBs, as the ones I have now contain too many design errors. I have hired a professional layouter to do the first layout, but to no avail. I have requested 10 changes and 20 new PCBs. Unfortunately the old ones aren't good for anything else but software development:
Fraggboy
now and am frustrated that I can't re-use my cartridges. I've been
reading up and am wondering if you need any more beta testers?
On Jan 4, 1:05 pm, Robert Deliën <Rob...@delien.nl> wrote:
> Another small update.
> I'm afraid I'll have to bite the bullet on this: I will need to order new PCBs, as the ones I have now contain too many design errors. I have hired a professional layouter to do the first layout, but to no avail. I have requested 10 changes and 20 new PCBs. Unfortunately the old ones aren't good for anything else but software development:
>
> 152KViewDownload
>
> ATT00001.txt
> < 1KViewDownload
Robert Deliën
Yes, we still need beta testers for CartridgeGenius. A couple of people already came forward, but no beta testing has been done so far. The main two reasons for this are the firmware not being ready for that yet and a couple of errors in the PCB.
I'm making good progress with the firmware now and the errors in the PCB are fixed. New PCBs are ordered and expected around the 22th. Because this is still two weeks from now, I'm considering to assemble a couple more using the old PCB (with the errors reworked, of coarse). This is quite a lot of work and I don't think those samples will be suitable for end-use, so I won't assemble more that 3.
For these 3 samples I need 3 early-beta testers. To be one of these three beta testers, I need you be be somewhat familiar with software and electronics. It's most definitely a plus point if you own a PICkit2 programmer ($35) and if you can attach a serial port for logging purposes.
Feel free to apply by sending me an email to my email address, not the group.
Cheers!
Robert.
Robert Deliën
1. Serial cable to log debug output (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9718)
2. PICkit programmer to program new firmware versions (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9973)
Please note that some people have reported problems programming CatGenius firmware using the PICkit3 programmer. I am unable to reproduce them because I have a PICkit2 (http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49&products_id=152) programmer.
Robert Deliën
A brief update on the project.
Unfortunately I will not be able to release field updates for CartridgeGenius. Moving vital operational data to EEPROM to allow distribution of a binary application would solve the problem, but the PIC doesn't allow to reprogram it's program memory without erasing it first. And erasing can only be done for the whole chip, including EEPROM data.
The good news is that all functionality for the beta test is implemented. This is basically all functionality, except for the child-/cat-lock.
Currently I'm still looking into a couple of minor bugs in the area of context restoring at power-up: We want the device to assume the same configuration as it had before it was powered down. This weekend I will assemble the Beta devices and send them out to the people who volunteered to participate.
Cheers,
Robert.
Robert Deliën
http://www.litterbox-central.com/litter-box/catgenie/topic3601.html
On Jan 15, 2011, at 14:44, Robert Deliën wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> Four CartridgeGeniuses have been assembled for the beta test. It took me over four hours and I still need to program and test them. We're getting close now:
> People who have been granted one of those have been notified.
>
> And now it's time to relax.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert.
> <4 Geniuses.jpg>
Robert Deliën
I'm running a bit late: I expected beta software to be ready last friday, but I stumbled upon a strange bug and I still haven't found out what's causing it. Worse than that is that I can no longer reproduce it. This weekend I hope it will be ready.
The beta version will have a feature the original version won't have: When selecting a cartridge level of 0%, the level counter will be set to 1 instead of 0 cycles-left. This will enable you guys to test the auto-filling feature by selecting a level of 0%, hence 1 cycle, and start a program. Somewhere during the washing cycle, depending on the firmware in your box, the counter will be decremented, hit zero and the auto-filling featuren will kick in to refill the virtual cartridge.
In the mean time I'm considering the following extra features:
Hold 'auto'-button during power up: Configure CartridgeGenius to enable auto-filling, cartridge inserted, select a 120 cycle cartridge and fill the cartridge.
Hold 'select'-button during power up: Configure CartridgeGenius to disable auto-filling, cartridge inserted, select a 120 cycle cartridge and fill the cartridge.
Hold 'fill'-button during power up: Configure CartridgeGenius to disable auto-filling and cartridge removed.
The first two allow me to make two flavors of CartridgeGenius light editions. These will have no buttons or LEDs installed and can be mounted somewhere inside the box. The 'auto'-button or the 'select'-button will be hard-wired, depending on the flavor. The first will produce a CartridgeGenius that will never be empty, the other one can be refilled by unplugging and replugging the box.
The third option is an attempt to bring the software back in a defined state, if something ever goes wrong.
Cheers,
Robert.
________________________________________
From: catg...@googlegroups.com [catg...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Deliën [Rob...@delien.nl]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 15:34
To: catg...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: CartridgeGenius, a sneak preview
The genie is out of the bottle:
Robert Deliën
> think that by having an option to 'set it and forget it' while the
> actual PCB is inside the CatGenie makes it very useful.
All units will have this functionality. Once auto-mode is active, this mode is stored in EEPROM and you cold build the PCB inside the unit without ever thinking about it again.
However, when auto-mode is not active, the unit will not refill the cartridge upon unplugging and replugging. Instead it will restore the previous level from before it was unplugged. The flavor 2 solution would make sure the cartridge is filled upon each power-up.
> The only
> thing I see an issue is that if a person wants to install it on the
> inside, they can't hold any buttons while turning it on (Due to the
> switch). It would have to either be mounted outside, or wire the
> switch(es) on a wire so it can be routed through an opening while the
> 'bulk' of the CartridgeGenie is located inside.
I can think about plenty of ways to keep the button down mechanically.... Perhaps a jumper would be nice on the next version... Buttons on the exterior would require drilling, wiring, etc.
Cheers,
Robert.
Robert Deliën
Today the Beta testers' samples have been shipped. I have no clue when you will receive them, neither did the people at the post office. Please let me know when you have received it.
Installing it should be a breeze, as long as you follow these instructions. Please read these instructions before following them.
1. Remove the processing unit from the base, disconnect all wires and hoses.
2. Put it on a thick towel on the table with the GenieEyes sensor down and the control panel facing toward you.
3. Turn loose the 4 screws at back of the unit, now facing up.
4. Whilst pressing down the water inlet with both thumps, gently lift the rear shell with 8 fingers, 4 on each side.
5. When the rear shell is removed, remove the now loose screws from it.
6. Locate the original cartridge reader. It's a small (1 x 3cm) green circuit board on the left side of the cartridge holder.
7. Locate the wire connected to the original reader. It has a red, black, blue and white strand.
8. Gently pull the wires, all at the same time, to pull the connector from the original cartridge reader.
9. Gently lead this end of the wire to the front side of the opening of the cartridge holder.
10. Now lift the opening-end of the cartridge holder, and only that end of the cartridge holder, no further than 1 cm.
11. Lead the under the cartridge holder, to the right side of the cartridge holder.
12. Put back the cartridge holder.
13. Lead the wire through the hole in the right side wall of the cartridge holder, into the cartridge cavity.
14. Now you can put back the rear shell and put back the screws.
15. Finally plug the connector of the wire now in the cartridge cavity into the CartridgeGenius' connector.
16. When you put back the processing unit onto the base, connect the hoses and wires, you are ready to start using CartridgeGenius.
Good luck!
Robert Deliën
And today I have found the first bug: the brown-out detection isn't enabled. I knew that, but I thought it would affect normal operation. But it does: when briefly powering down the box before powering it up again, the device may not have been reset properly. It will have a strange combination of light on and it will be unresponsive.
The magic window seems to be 1...4 seconds. Any shorter and the power will not have sunk deep enough for the processor to stop. Any longer and the processor will have been reset by the low voltage. Anything in between may bring it in an undefined state. Te final version will of course have the brown-out reset feature enabled.
(Sent from a mobile device; Please excuse grammar, typos and brevity)
iPhoneSP - Cassio Simões
Sent from my iPhone
Robert Deliën
> Robert, when will it be available for testing/purchase?
I have sent you a reply to your direct email address.
The answer for the group is: Beta samples have been shipped to the beta testers and they have been notified. Manual assembling and building some stock will take some time, but so will shipment and beta testing, so I expect first commercial availability in March.
If you're really adventurous, you could buy one now. It will do what you need it to do but it won't be as good as the final version, but you can always ship it back for an update.
Cheers,
Robert.
iPhoneSP - Cassio Simões
able to use cartridgegenie with it in the future (using some gateway
such as netmedia).
Cheers
Sent from my iPhone
Robert Deliën
I will add a simple possibility to operate CartridgeGenius over it's serial port. But it will be really simple: Think single-byte commands, but enough to hook it up to a domotica system so it can send you an email if the cartridge is empty.
Cheers,
Robert.
________________________________________
From: catg...@googlegroups.com [catg...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of iPhoneSP - Cassio Simões [cas...@iphonesp.com.br]
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 17:02
To: catg...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: CartridgeGenius, a sneak preview
Robert, have you checked out iRule for iPhone? It would be cool to
Robert Deliën
Did anybody else receive their beta sample already?
Cheers,
Robert.
On Feb 1, 2011, at 15:47, Fraggboy wrote:
> Hello. I received my CartrideGenius yesterday. The installation went
> smoothly. I noticed that with the percentage LED's that when my cat
> used the CatGenie, it ran the program, and the 100% LED started to
> blink, thus meaning it's not 100% now. I'm OK with that, but I'm
> wondering if others may not like the linking LED's. The only other
> blinking LED is the Poll LED, which is very slight. It stays off, and
> quickly lights up briefly to let the user know it's communicating with
> the CatGenie. What I personally do is cover the top with a hand towel
> so I don't see the LED's at night. So far, so good. I'm slowly
> checking things out for stability and to report any bugs. . .
Richard W.
Richard
Sent from my iPhone
Patrick O'Neal
Cassio Simoes
Robert Deliën
> when the virtual cartridge is installed. I have toggled Auto on and
> off to no avail.
It will light up if you get the child-/cat-lock activated, but that will never happen since simultaneous button presses aren't handled yet.
Robert Deliën
> was only spinning the bowl. I know that this mode isn't supposed to
> scoop at all.
Was it only spinning? Nothing more? No water, no do dosage? I haven't tried the maintenance program myself. If the box doesn't report any cartridge errors, accepts it and starts the program, there's really not any other influence from it anymore.
The maintenance program may be take very long because the dosage pump is very slow: Pumping a quarter of the cartridge contents into the bowl will take several minutes.
> I un-plugged the CatGenie for about a minute and
> plugged it back in. The CatGenie went through the self-test, and the
> bowl started to spin again and the scoop came down and back up, and
> back down and stayed down. The pump is running and the hot air is
> going.
That's probably the recovery program, activated because the last program didn't complete. CatGenius does something similar.
> I had to reset CatGenie by:
>
> Putting CartridgeGenius back to 120 cartridge, and insert the
> cartridge.
> Un-plug the CatGenie, OR lift up the unit for 3-5 seconds.
> Place unit back down and during the self-test, press and hold the
> Start & Auto buttons together. When the unit beeps and Blinks
> initiate again, release both buttons. Wait until the third set of
> Beeps and Blinks. You are in Clog-Clear Mode.
> I went and pressed the Auto button until #3 and #4 LED"s are lit up
> and press Start. This will start the correction cycle. It will wash,
> drain, and dry. My scoop was down the whole time until after
Weird; I'll have to go and try this myself.
> Your CatGenie should be back to normal. Mine did. I just set it back
> to the 120 cartridge, inserted it, and pressed the Auto button.
At least that's some good news, though I never doubted you wouldn't be able to get it back to normal.
Cheers,
Robert.
Patrick O'Neal
The auto feature worked like a charm!! I had the virtual cartridge
set at less than 25% (No LED's were lit up),and it's been a little bit
since my cat used the CatGenie. This morning I saw all 4 LED's lit up
registering 100%! My cat can go outside whenever she likes, so she
doesn't use the CatGenie that much.
Robert, since my CatGenie registers the Red/Green Opt cartridge, what
should I expect out of the CatGenie? What did you program it with?
Meaning, what behavior should I expect when I execute them?
No one else has received their test unit? For what it's worth, I live
in Las Vegas, NV. I take it the rest of you are far away? I would
have expected everyone else to have received theirs by now. It
originally showed up January 29, 2011, but the mailman didn't come to
my door. Lazy!! I had to wait until Monday to pick it up.
Richard W.
Sent from my iPhone
Robert Deliën
> set at less than 25% (No LED's were lit up),and it's been a little bit
> since my cat used the CatGenie. This morning I saw all 4 LED's lit up
> registering 100%! My cat can go outside whenever she likes, so she
> doesn't use the CatGenie that much.
That's good to hear. Please not that the level indicator rounds down, so on a 120-cycle cartridge a level of 1, 2 or 3 will not show any LEDs.
> Robert, since my CatGenie registers the Red/Green Opt cartridge, what
> should I expect out of the CatGenie? What did you program it with?
> Meaning, what behavior should I expect when I execute them?
The Opt-LED is a red/green bi-color LED. It can indicate red, green and when both colors lit orange. Please note that the LED currently mounted is not the final LED, as it look differently from all other LEDs and the red and green part are too far apart to make a clean orang. Perhaps I will leave it off all together.
The Opt-LED was intended to load special - experimental - cartridges. For example a cartridge with more than 120 cycles. Or a license cartridge for CatGenius firmware, to satisfy the CatGenius copy protection mechanism on model 60 boxes.
Currently the optional cartridges hold the following types:
Opt-green: A second 120-cycle cartridge
Opt-red: A third 120-cycle cartridge
Opt-orange: A second 60 cycle cartridge
I am curious to hear what level your box indicates when you present it a full 60-cycle cartridge. Could you please check that for me? You can get the box indication by briefly pressing both setup- and start-button simultaneously.
> No one else has received their test unit? For what it's worth, I live
> in Las Vegas, NV. I take it the rest of you are far away? I would
> have expected everyone else to have received theirs by now. It
> originally showed up January 29, 2011, but the mailman didn't come to
> my door. Lazy!! I had to wait until Monday to pick it up.
That's really weird. Perhaps the postage wasn't sufficient, but the lady at the post office convinced me that it was right that way. Perhaps the blizzard is slowing things down?
Robert Deliën
Let's hope it's that. I can imaging a jiffy envelope it more attractive to be opened by 3rd parties than a regular envelope. Anyway, all shipments are marked as gifts and they all contain a note that it's sent free of charge, so I don't expect any additional taxes there.
Robert Deliën
No, it won't; I have just checked-in at my hotel in Korea. This is no fun place, so I have plenty of time to refine the firmware during lonely nights at my hotel room.
Robert Deliën
>> Opt-green: A second 120-cycle cartridge
>> Opt-red: A third 120-cycle cartridge
>> Opt-orange: A second 60 cycle cartridge
>
> why didn't your CatGenie recognize it? Strange.
That's exactly what I was wondering. What worries me is that you box doesn't have a problem with it.
>> I am curious to hear what level your box indicates when you present it a full 60-cycle cartridge. Could you please check that for me? You can get the box indication by briefly pressing both setup- and start-button simultaneously.
>
> I will insert the Opt-Orange cartridge and note what percentage level
> it reports it at. I'm curious as well, since the 120 CatGenie's can't
> use the 60 cartridges.
The 60 cartridge are not cartridges for the Model 60 boxes. They are cartridges for the Model 120 boxes, but there is something strange to them:
The tags contain besides counters also some other information. By comparing tag contents I figured out the meaning of some of those values. One of those values I got to believe is the maximum value of the counters, in other words the number of cycles in the cartridge when it was full. I figured it was necessary to make the level indicator a relative indicator (eg. 50% left) instead of an absolute one (eg. 20 cycles) left. It would also help the box to figure out how much fluid it should use for one washing cycle.
For regular cartridges this value is 120 and for the maintenance cartridge it is 4. However, for the cartridges in the starter pack of my first box, this value was 60. Before I was able to read these values, I noticed that those cartridges still had the old CG60-cartridge label on them. I though they didn't have new labels for this new product yet.
Unfortunately I don't have any of those cartridges in virgin state anymore, so I don't know what the counter value is before they are used. Perhaps I'm wrong about the meaning of this value, or perhaps it was just copied to the cartridge mistakenly as it was copied from the CG60 cartridges. But I do recall that my first catbox - now overwritten by CatGenius - indicated a full level (5 LEDs) for these cartridges. I think it also did that for the maintenance cartridge. But now my stock boxes are indicating fewer LEDs for those cartridges. So it could be a difference in firmware too. Perhaps not just for the indication, but also for how the cartridge is handled. That's why I would like you guys to check it on your boxes.
If the 60 cycle cartridge behaves equally to the 120 cycle cartridge, it's not a very useful feature. But if it actually empties a cartridge is 60 cycles, it is very useful because that means more cleaning fluid per cycle and that would be a nice thing to have influence on.
>> That's really weird. Perhaps the postage wasn't sufficient, but the lady at the post office convinced me that it was right that way. Perhaps the blizzard is slowing things down?
>
> That's a good assumption for the east coast, but I don't know about
> Richard W in Salem, Oregon. I don't know about our postal system
> sometimes.. **Sigh**
Let's give it another week and I'll start making phone calls after that.
Robert Deliën
> understanding you, it would technically use more solution per run?
Exactly. Just like the maintenance cartridge, the cartridge capacity is the same, but the number of washes is fewer. Hence the amount of fluid used per cycle should be different. I still need to verify that, but that takes a lot of time.
Vesper
running on just water to see if it does the job as you say it does.
I'm so sick of smelling that fresh flower scent all over my apartment.
I think my cats don't like that smell either.
Can I be added on a list or something so as soon as you get the
commercial units ready I can get in on one?
I'd also be willing to beta-test for you and am willing to purchase
the necessary programmer if you can provide me with a link of what
exactly I need to buy. I'm in Canada fyi.
Thanks and keep up the good work! You're going to be famous once this
comes out! =D
Robert Deliën
> running on just water to see if it does the job as you say it does.
> I'm so sick of smelling that fresh flower scent all over my apartment.
> I think my cats don't like that smell either.
Haha, I get what you mean; It's like a barrel of honey with a teaspoon of sh*t.
I've been running CatGenius on one of my boxes for about a year now. I'm using no cleaning liquid at all and I don't see any difference. I didn't do any bacterial test to prove that, but I really doubt it matters.
Every 2...3 months, I poor in a bucket of hot water, just at the moment the box starts filling up for the second time. I add a squirt of bleach, or one of those oxygen cleaners, or what I think isn't too harmful at that time, and let the program finish. After it's finished I start a second cycle to make sure all is rinsed out, and that's it.
> Can I be added on a list or something so as soon as you get the
> commercial units ready I can get in on one?
You are on the list.
> I'd also be willing to beta-test for you and am willing to purchase
> the necessary programmer if you can provide me with a link of what
> exactly I need to buy. I'm in Canada fyi.
I've sent out 6 beta unit, unfortunately only one has arrived yet. Real bummer. But even though the test base is pretty small, the stability looks good.
Unfortunately I cannot publish binary updates, as that would make CartridgeGenius it very easy to copy. What I have tried so far, to update program memory only didn't work. So I'm afraid I cannot make field updates.
But I'm spending a lot of time of this project and I'm getting confident it has achieve product stability. I'm now adding bells and whistles, like for example per-cartridge level memory. In the current firmware, selecting a different type of cartridge automatically resets the level to 100%. If you're actually swapping two physical cartridges, let's say a regular one with a maintenance cartridge, you want it to remember those levels or they would get out-of-sync.
> Thanks and keep up the good work! You're going to be famous once this
> comes out! =D
I expect very little of it. I'd be happy if I could sell the hand assembled batch batch already. That would bring me close to break even and looking at my list, that should be feasible. But if there's a real demand, who am I not to supply? ;-)
Robert Deliën
> report on both sides (CartridgeGeniuis/CatGenie). They pair very well
> together. It is a very solid unit.
That's good news!
> If anyone is worried about getting their CartridgeGenie 'wet', one
> could wrap it up in a plastic baggie to protect it. I personally use
> a hand towel to cover the top of the CatGenie and LED's of both
> (Located in the master bathroom).
I don't expect moist to harm the device. I have considered putting it in a small housing, but that would be very time consuming to build. Instead I could spray it with plastic coating, before the switches are mounted. I will try it with my own sample, to see if it works. But I don't really think it is necessary.
Robert Deliën
> use just water only, but I do like to have some sort of cleaning agent/
> deodorizer. If you have cleaned your CG after 6 months of use, you
> know what I mean! Under the bowl is NASTY!! That's when I tear
> everything down and clean it up in the shower with hot, soapy water.
I'm washing with just water and I've got residue under bowl, but it looks just like lime to me. I clean that out every 6 months and it's not a fun job, but I had similar results when I was using original cartridges. You mean you don't have this problem when using 50% bleach solution? That would be a nice discovering!
Robert Deliën
> to high heaven when I remove the pump/grinder from the bowl. That's
> what I clean out very well.
I've always wanted to ask the helpdek if that part and the bowl are dishwasher safe and see what kind of reaction I'd get ;-)
Richard W.
Richard
Sent from my iPhone
Robert Deliën
I once read on the Internet about a guy who converted an old dishwasher to a self washing catbox. He had to scoop manually and he used the old LitterFree's granules, but it was a pretty good idea, if you've got the space for it.
(Sent from a mobile device; Please excuse grammar, typos and brevity)
On 13 feb. 2011, at 02:30, "Fraggboy" <frag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've always wanted to ask the helpdek if that part and the bowl are dishwasher safe and see what kind of reaction I'd get ;-)
>
> You know what? That sounds like a great idea!! I would have never
> thought of that. Kinda creepy putting those parts in the dishwasher.
> One would have to run the CatGenie parts separately, plus run a cycle
> afterward to clean the dishwasher. Now, I WILL be cleaning the parts
> in the bath first, so I know some of you are like cringing and saying
> "EWWWWWWwwwww". It HAS to be done. The maintenance cartridge isn't
> enough, sorry to say. If you want your CG to last a long time, this
> is a crucial step. Not using the dishwasher part, but stripping it
> down and cleaning it, ROFL!!!
>
> I am going to do just that!! I think I have time tomorrow. I will
> report back on how it goes. I don't think there will be any warping
> (I will put the smaller parts on the top rack, while the bowl and
> other items in the bottom. Too bad the base is too big to fit in
> there. Gonna have to clean that good in the tub.
>
> I can already picture my Fiance giving me a horrid look when running
> them, ROFL!!! Gotta keep them on their toes!! I mean, it's not like
> it's going to stain the dishwasher. And running a cycle by itself
> afterward is good enough. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Robert Deliën
(Sent from a mobile device; Please excuse grammar, typos and brevity)
Patrick O'Neal
Robert Deliën
I still haven't received my board, but I did find that the United States
Postal Service site does provide some tracking.
My tracking number, from the form Robert sent me, is CC002295XXXNL
I typed that in at www.usps.com, and it shows that it left the Netherlands, and then nothing else. I'm sure it will get here eventually. Maybe some of you will get some more useful information.
Patrick O'Neal
Robert Deliën
>
> I've ordered lots of things from Hong Kong and China, and typically it takes a little over two weeks to get here. It wouldn't surprise me if the board shows up Monday or Tuesday.
I'm still hoping for that.
> Perhaps customs is holding up the shipment. I'll be sure to post back as soon as it's in my hands.
They may, but I have included a disclaimer stating that you are receiving this item free of charge, so if they open it up it'll be hard for them to put taxes on it.
Thanks, please do!
Robert Deliën
> We can rule out adequate postage, since I did receive mine.
Yours was of the batch of five, of which four are missing. Cassio's is the 6th.
> Whatever happened, is very bad. :( I'm sad that no one else has
> received their package.
Yeah, that's are real bummer. But at least I have your feedback.
> At least your friend over here in the US will receive a bulk shipment
> from you, so delays won't happen in the shipping.
Lesson learned: Use UPS of FedEx next time.
Catman
information from their website is always one day behind. They do not
usually give progress or package location info at all until after it’s
delivered. Occasionally, they will show that it's out for delivery on
the day it's to be delivered, but nothing before that on the
"progress". That's intra USA shipping. Anything I've shipped outside
the USA, there has been no tracking at all.
For other shipping companies, outside USA, I've had great success with
DHL to and from China.
Robert Deliën
> have nothing else to report. It's working great!!
That's good news! Albeit a bit confusing: You said the maintenance cartridge didn't work earlier. Is that still true? Because that's not the kind of error I'd expect. Even though I didn't have any myself, I would expect errors like LEDs not responding as expected, a cartridge error on the box, etc. The way the box behaves when it is present a certain type of cartridge is not really something CartridgeGenius can change.
Robert Deliën
> Your right, that the maintenance virtual cartridge doesn't work for
> me. Why would I want to repeat that?
You're right.
> But, you had the Orange virtual
> cartridge not work for you, but my CG recognizes it perfectly. That;s
> confusing!
And that will be the first thing I will try when I get back home! Because that shouldn't be different between boxes.
Robert Deliën
> haven't done anything to my 120. We purchased our CG November 2009.
> What time did you purchase yours?
That must have been June 2009. It was one of the first CG120 boxes sold. But two of them were switched for 'refurbished' boxes when the water sensor LED was fixed, so there is really no way of telling. Perhaps we could compare serial numbers, as soon as we have found a box to work with it.
Perhaps the maintenance cartridge isn't implemented on early boxes. It was announced somewhere around October 2009, half a year after the CG120 introduction. And it was actually introduced in spring 2010, if I recall correctly. Or perhaps it is just buggy in early boxes. In that case, PN must be figuring that many people won't be using that cartridge anyway. And if they do during their warranty period, the PU just gets replaced and the problem is fixed. No need to replace PUs to fix a feature that isn't used anyway, I guess.
weddlerr
had given up on it. The package is pretty banged up but the board
looks fine.
I will get it hooked up as soon as I can.
Cheers,
Richard
Robert Deliën
Cheers,
Robert.
Richard W.
Sent from my iPhone
Richard W.
> Glad that you finally received your CartrigeGenius!! Let us know how
> your CG acts running the Maintenance virtual cartridge.
I will have some time to run through and test it tonight. I will send you the results.
Richard
weddlerr
Genie tonight, but I guess I didn't. I did manage to start a
Maintenance cycle and put a camcorder on it. I figured I would just
watch it in the morning and went to bed. Well, My wife turned off the
bathroom light after about 30 minutes in :-( ... Not all was lost. In
the first 30 minutes, It put about 11 minutes worth of solution in
then filled with water and just spun the bowl for the entire 30 min
with no claw movement. When I awoke in the morning the box was clean
and finished. I don't know how long it took though.
Richard
Robert Deliën
>
> comparison.
Ah, now I get it ;-)
>> At last some good news today! I could use some.
>
> Are you glad your trip has ended and getting back home?
Yeah, I'm very glad to be back home. Unfortunately my freelance assignment got canceled the day I returned. I had hoped for a better return and it would have suited the guys to tell me before asking me to go to Korea for such a long time, but what ok.
> The CartridgeGenius is running great! No (new) issues to report. It's
> running very stable.
I have made my test setup today and the box is washing well. All cartridges are recognized, but I didn't try the maintenance cartridge yet because I have three cats depending on those boxes ;-). I'll try tomorrow.
Cheers,
Robert.
Robert Deliën
> strange. When I selected the Maintenance cartridge and inserted it, I
> noticed that the Cartridge Low/Empty LED was blinking. The
> CartridgeGenius level was set at 100%. When I checked the level, it
> didn't light up any LED's, meaning that cartridge was low. With this
> error, I didn't run the mode. I toggled the virtual cartridge level
> to 100% again, and inserted it. Same issue. Hopefully it's an
> isolated event since Richard said that it ran perfect on his CG..
That's normal behavior. The difference between the level indicator on the CartridgeGenius and the processing unit is that the first is relative (in %) and the latter is absolute (in cycles).
A maintenance cartridge has 4 cycles in it. When full, that's 4 LEDs for 100% on the CartridgeGenius, but no LEDs on the processing unit because the first LED indicates 10+ cycles, and 4 is clearly less than 10 ;-)
Your box may beep periodically, but it always does than when a cartridge hits less than 10 cycles left. This is not an error, just a warning.
Robert Deliën
I'm doing the same thing. But I'm keeping the lights on ;-).
You're right, the maintenance program doesn't do much more than spinning the bowl while emptying the cartridge. After that it adds water, pumps and dries the box. All takes about an hour. I'll put a sped up version on Youtube later. I'm pretty sure we can implement something similar in CatGenius, but I really don't see why we should.
Daniel
I live in Alaska, and I can't get any company to ship me the
cartridges... I basically have to go on the catgenie black market
(ebay) to score any, and they aren't shy about overcharging on
shipping. This device will pay for itself in the first minute.
Daniel
within 5 minutes, and I am thoroughly excited. I just spent $90 for 2
cartridges since this last post, but now I wont have to do that
again. I just need to figure out a good recipe to refill the
cartridges with.
Robert Deliën
Thanks for the feedback! It's good to hear you're enjoying the fruit of my labor ;-)
As said, I'm using plain water. Other people I know use 1:10 diluted Ajax dishwasher detergent, or SimpleGreen. I'f you're planning on claiming warranty, make sure you don't put in something that's easily recognizable from the residue in the tubing. Like something brightly colored, or smelling obviously different.
Cheers,
Robert.
Robert
Robert Deliën
> I would like to buy two of the units please. How can I do that?
We are currently out of stock. Demand was steady, but not very high. Having a batch produced will not be viable, I'm afraid. But besides you, still a couple of people are interested. I still have a small number of A-Sample PCBs. These will have different bi-color LEDs and they will be more difficult for me to program, but I can use them to hand assemble a couple to serve the people currently requesting one.
Now I'm on a holiday in Turkey, but next week I'll be back and I'll look into it.
Cheers,
Robert.