DIY individual proximity fobs for cat doors?

Forums: Cats, Electronics, Pets, Feeding Cats, Cat Dietary Concerns
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I have three cats who are each on a different diet. I need to find a way to make sure each cat has access to his and only his food. My thought was to section off a closet and install three cat doors-one to each section. The problem is that I need to find a way to allow only that cat to enter his assigned cat door. I was thinking of attaching proximity key fobs or wafers to each collar, but I'm finding that specialty programmable cat doors are prohibitively expensive. I was hoping that there was an easier (and much cheaper) way to make my own. Any ideas? Are there any simple kits out there that will recognize one (and only one) fob/magnet/whatever and slide a bolt to allow the door to open? I have a feeling that there's a simple solution out there...I just don't know what it is. Any ideas would be appreciated.

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@PetMom,

This sounds too complicated to me. The easier and cheaper way is to train (heh) the cats by their each having their own dishes and that the dishes are not left out for all day munching. On training them to do that, I'm not conversant (we did that for ours, but it just naturally worked out - here are your dishes, eat up) but I remember reading about it and figure that much advice is available online, including probably in past threads here on a2k.

While we wait for others' opinions and advice (I'm interested too, including if advice disagrees with mine), here is a link to 267 a2k cat threads -
http://able2know.org/tag/cats/

Meantime, PetMom, welcome to the forum.

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@ossobuco,

Train cats! Yeah, sure you will.

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How about if you bought just one of the radio controlled (?) collar fob/door combo and switched it off between cats according to whose turn it was to eat?

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@roger,

Ours had no troubles with their different dishes. But.. we only fed them once a day, we were paying attention, and picked up the food bowls.

The electronics question is interesting..

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@PetMom,

There is RFID for robotics

Trossen sells some -
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/

There are other sellers of robotic equipment. I am familiar with some of the phidget equipment but it will require a computer and coding to make it work. You will also need some locking mechanism to turn on and off.

It looks like most cat doors are magnetic catches so it won't allow you to designate specific doors. That means you need something that can be individually read like RFID but then you have to create the action based on that RFID. That means something has to be coded to respond to each individual tag. I don't know of anything already written that would do that. Which means it isn't a "simple" solution. It might be fun if you like to tinker but simple won't be part of it.

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@parados,

Here is a reader that looks like it would do what you want. It can control a magnetic lock and you can enter specific RFID into it so you can set it to work with just one.
It isn't exactly cheap. $150 per door just for the reader.

http://www.nokey.com/avflexstanac.html

You could then buy a magnetic cat door and have the reader control a electric magnet that would cause the correct door to open.

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@parados,

This seems to be the best choice at $100 per door.

http://www.petdoors.com/petsafe_electronic_smart_door.htm

(edit) - even cheaper on Amazon
Just google Petsafe Electronic Smart Door

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DIY individual proximity fobs for cat doors?

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