Description
Somehow our cats learned to drink from the faucet. We'd turn the water on for them, but they'd never turn it off when they were done! I'm sure there are other cat owners out there with a similar problem. So, I built the Cat Faucet so the cats could turn the water on and off for themselves.
Similar to the sinks that automatically turn on when you wave your hands under them, a small Infra Red 'Cat Sensor' detects when a cat is near and turns the water. The water comes from a piece of 1/4" plastic tubing providing a stream of water for the cats to drink.
Here you can see one our cats testing out an early version of the Cat Faucet. She learned quite quickly that if she steps into the sink, the water will turn on. We find that she drinks from the Cat Faucet many times a day and best of all, it's always fresh water!
You might be wondering how difficult it is to install a Cat Faucet. If you can install an ice maker, then you probably can install a Cat Faucet. The Cat Faucet connects to your house water supply with a Saddle Valve and high-pressure tubing, just like many ice makers do. The hardest part of the installation is determining where exactly to run the wires and tubing so that you can connect to the water supply under the sink and still place the Cat Sensor and outlet tubing on the top side of the sink. You may have to make a hole in the counter top to route the wiring and tubing. Each sink will be different. In one case it was possible to remove the drain control and have an 'instant hole'. So, examine your specific sink and counter top and most of all, be creative! We suggest you read the installation instructions here before you order.
The Cat Faucet is available in several forms. Assembled and tested units that you just need to install, full kits where you have to solder the controller boards and assembled the components, and finally a simple circuit board and processor set where you supply the rest of the components yourself.
Order kits and assembled units here.
Here's what you get with the fully Assembled Cat Faucet MKII. (viewed with the valve cover removed) Everything is ready for you to route your wires and tubing and install. order the Fully Assembled unit here and follow the installation instructions here. Remember, even the assembled unit requires some plumbing and wire/tube routing!
Here's what comes in the full kit for the Cat Faucet MKII. Note that in order to reduce costs on the kits, the full kit does NOT come with a enclosure (where as the assembled unit does).
As a kit, I would rate this medium complexity. The electronics are simple and straight-forward to assemble, but you also need to do some plumbing to assemble the solenoid valve, adapters, and tubing, in addition to the water supply connection and wire/tube routing. Order a Circuit Board or Full Kit here and then build and install your very own Cat Faucet!
Love the idea of your cat waterer. I want to take it one step further with a separate “sink” on the floor. Water activated when cat arrives, plumb into supply and drain lines. Any suggestions?
Yeah, I actually looked at something like that initially. the problem is how to get the water to move from the drain on the floor up into the drain lines. Basically you have to figure out how to pump the drained water up-hill. Need to make up a bowl with a fitting in the bottom, then have a pump of some sort to move the water uphill into the drain, hard to tell when to shut off the pump, so you end up pumping it dry, likely limiting the lifetime of the pump itself. Also never sure you’re pumping out faster than you are filling, so you also need some kind of level / overflow sensor.
Complexity got just to high trying to figure out how to do an automatic drain too…
Because I am concerned about my cat linking up soap residue from the bathroom sink (he licks the bowl not the stream of water go figure?) I also like the idea of a separate bowl, I considered the problems and complexity that brought up also and one solution came to mind: cats can climb and jump so just place the bowl higher and let gravity drain it to a tub, sink or washer drain. Now i just have to figure out how to make this look nice (or hide it) (so as not to upset my wife)
I installed my kit last week and I must say it works perfectly! Tiger Lily loves it… We had a major problem at first with what to do about vinyl water feeds under the sink… Yup I replaced the copper feeds about ten years ago. SO… I decided not to change them back to copper (we’re moving soon). I purchased a fountain pump on Amazon for $20 and a BIG glass jar at Target for $15 and the whole thing runs great… Problem solved and Tiger Lily is happy… me too… I don’t have to get up and turn on (then off) the faucet ten – twenty times a day.
I also had someone work up just a gravity feed system. As long as you can find a place to stick the water reservoir high enough above the sink to give a decent water flow (doesn’t need much) that can work too where you don’t have access to house plumbing. Just need to remember to fill up the reservoir now and then.
Used Cat Faucet for a couple of years now. Jezabel would finally drink… Recently noticed that sensor seems slow to detect objects (i.e my hand), but it does eventually (maybe 15 sec). And its also slow to recognize that the object is gone. Cleaned the front elements of sensor, no change. A quick check of the wall adapter w/o load measured at 9.5 vdc. Thoughts or suggestions?
What generation is the Cat Faucet? Is it MkI (the servo and valve) model or a MkII (the solenoid valve). I’m guessing it’s the MkI (Servo and Valve in the control box).
First troubleshooting step. Is it the sensor or the water control causing the delay. Do this: Open the control box (the box the power supply plugs in to) and observe the flashing LED. Should be normally a slow steady single blink.
Try to activate the sensor. Does the LED flash change almost right away and then 15 seconds later the water turns on or does it take 15 seconds for the LED flash to change and then the water turns on? ie is the long delay in the LED flash change or in the water turning on/off.
Tom
I belive my unit is a MkII.
LED flash rate suggests that sensor is slow to react. Must place hand 3~4 inches away before LED begins more rapid flash. When hand is removed the the LED doesn’t slow back down until about 15 sec later.
Normal behavior is about a 1 sec delay between sticking hand in front of sensor and water turning on and about an 8-10 second delay after removing your hand before the water turns off. (the off-delay keeps the water from constantly turning on and off as the cat’s head moves around)
Certainly the 3-4″ distance isn’t right. I can think of several things that might cause this problem. First, check the control box for water or past evidence of water. Corrosion on the circuit board(s) in the control box (especially on the bottom of the circuit board) could be a cause of this behavior. Second, check the connector where the sensor connects to the circuit board. If the cable to the sensor got accidentally stressed, I’ve seen it break some of the wires inside the cable right at the connection point which can also cause the short distance issue. Third, it is possible that water got inside the sensor itself, You might take the two screws off the back there and check for any water/corrosion damage.
This should help narrow down what needs to be replaced, ie either the sensor or the control board.
BTW, with a multi-meter you may be able to narrow down the problem a bit.
The ~9VDC coming in is regulated down to 5VDC on the controller board. The sensor sends back an analog signal proportional to the supply voltage at the sensor. The higher the analog signal voltage, the closer the object.
The fact that your Cat Faucet works, but only measures 3-4″ says to me the sensor is still working, but… either the supply voltage it is seeing is low, or analog distance signal is having problems getting back to the controller board.
So, at the controller board, the sensor should connect with a Green (signal), a Red (5Vdc), and a Black (Ground) wire. Do you have 5Vdc between the Red/Black at the controller board?
If you do, then make sure that 5Vdc is making it out to the sensor. Take the cover off the back on the sensor, the circuit board is a T shape. With the cover off, looking at the back of the circuit board, with the leg of the T facing ‘up’, the pins from left to right are: Signal, Ground, and then Power. (http://www.jenrathbun.com/Electronics/images/SensorSpec.jpg) So you should have 5Vdc there between Ground and Power.
If you’ve got 5Vdc at the sensor, then for some reason, the signal isn’t making it back to the controller. Unplug the green wire from the connector on the controller board. Place something 3-4″ from the sensor face and read the signal level at the sensor. Then measure the signal level again at the controller end (where you unplugged the green wire). It should be the same voltage level. Then finally plug in the green wire to the controller board and measure the signal again. it should stay about the same voltage level. (read the signal level on pin 20 of the AVR processor when the green wire is connected to the controller board).
I can’t control the water pressure without affecting the pressure coming out of the faucet. I installed it in the bathroom. Plumbing is 1/2″ galvanized.
the purpose of the saddle valve is two fold. First, to connect the Cat Faucet to the house water supply. Second, to control the flow rate to the cat faucet. Screw in the “T” valve on the top of the saddle valve until the water flow out of the cat faucet is slow enough.
If you didn’t use the saddle valve to connect to the house water, then you’ll need to insert another valve in the tubing between the house and the solenoid intake port. Do not put a valve on the outlet side of the saddle valve. You must control the flow from the inlet side of the solenoid. Say a valve like this.