Somehow our cats learned to drink from the faucet. We'd turn the water on for them, but they 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. As a kit, I would rate this medium complexity. The electronics are simple and straight-forward
but you also need to do some mechanical work and some plumbing to complete the project, which raises the complexity.
Similar to the sinks that automatically turn on when you waive your hands under them, but for a different purpose.
Here's the externally visible parts. A small IR 'cat detector' sensor which senses when a cat is near and a bit of 1/4" plastic tubing providing
the water for the cats to drink. There's also an optional 'people detector' which you can use to stop the cat faucet
from turning on when a person puts their hands into the sink.
The key is positioning the sensor and tubing so that the sensor is engaged when the cat is drinking the water. There's about a 6"-11"
range on the sensor. It probably goes without saying but you also need somewhere for the extra water to drain!! So, all in all, a sink
installation like this works very well.
If you want your own Cat Faucet here's to do. Order a Circuit Board, Full Kit or Fully Assembled unit here and
then build and install. Note that even the assembled unit still requires some interesting design work since you will need to determine how
best to install the Cat Faucet in your particular sink. Each sink will be different. Also consider, do you want to make additional holes
in the sink? Where can you get to a water source and how do you have to attach to it? All these things you will have to figure out even
with the assembled unit.
Fully Assembled Unit
Here's what you get with the fully Assembled Cat Faucet. (viewed with the valve cover removed)
Full Kit
Here's what you can build with the components included in the Cat Faucet Full Kit.
What goes under the sink is the water valve and the microcontroller. Here's a shot of the water valve. The valve
is a quarter turn ball-valve with a 3/8" O.D. compression fitting on each end. You can also see in this picture the 3/8" to 1/4" compression
adapters used
to attach the valve to smaller diameter plastic tubing. The left hand side is high-pressure tubing that connects to the house water.
The right hand side is low pressure tubing that runs up and out to the sink where the cats drink. Make sure you use high pressure tubing on the
inlet side!
This is the completed microcontroller that runs the Cat Faucet. The microcontroller limits the maximum 'On' time in case
something falls in front of the sensor. It also applies some hysteresis to the sensor so that as the cat moves around,
the valve isn't constantly turning on and off. The two pots on the left side of the board are used to adjust the R/C servo travel to
match the valve configuration.
A saddle valve with a 1/4" O.D. compression outlet is used to connect the Cat Faucet to the house water supply.
The saddle valve has a built-in needle valve which is used to adjust the maximum water flow. This configuration helps to reduce the
flow of water in the event the tubing ruptures or something else goes wrong.
Assembly
Controller Board
If you're purchased a board or full kit, the first thing to do is assemble the board. Otherwise, jump down to the installation
section below.
Putting the board together is a relatively easy soldering job. Just solder all the components onto the board (see upper pic on the right)
with the following exceptions (lower pic on the right):
The People Sensor is optional. If you're NOT using the People Sensor, either solder in the header and
place a shorting block between pins 1 and 3 or just solder in a jumper wire between those pins. If you later install a People Sensor, just clip the jumper.
On v1.0 of the board, the pad holes are too small for the power jack. Trim the two
outside tabs and solder those tabs to the top surface of the board. The middle tab still goes thru the
board and is soldered on the bottom. Add a small jumper wire from the middle tab to the edge tab as shown. Solder in the power
jack before you solder in the 20 pin socket
If you're interested the number of flashes indicates the status of the controller
1 flash = Cat Sensor off
2 flashes = Cat Sensor On
3 flashes = Cat Sensor On, but maximum on time expired
4 flashes = Cat Sensor off, but in delay
5 flashes = People sensor on, overrides Cat Sensor
Start assembling the automatic valve by attaching the inlet and outlet tubing to the ball valve. It's much easier to attach the tubing with
the valve not on the bracket yet. Then mounting the servo and ball valve to the aluminum bracket. if you are using one of the
pre-made brackets (provided with the full kit) you can immedaitely mount the ball valve to the bracket. The center of the valve rests on the
aluminum tab on the bottom of the bracket. We suggest you super-glue the ball valve into position, then add the
two tie-wraps for additional support. If you're building your own bracket, just use the tie-wraps and leave the ball valve unglued until you
have things aligned correctly.
Once you have the valve assembled, but before you attach the push rod wire, connect the servo to the controller board.
Turn the Min pot fully clockwise and the Max pot fully counter clockwise. Manually rotate the servo counter-clockwise to it's full
extent, then remove and re-attach the servo arm so it is almost parallel with the water line (see the closed valve image).
Then on the controller board, short together the pads labeled "Setup" and apply power. At this point the servo should start cycling back
and forth from the closed position to the open position. Adjust the Min and Max pot so the servo moves from almost parallel to almost 90 degrees.
Wait for the servo to return to the 'closed' position and remove power. Now you can install the push wire between the
valve and servo, but don't put the screw in the top of the servo yet. Apply power again and ensure that the servo and valve rotate back and
forth ok and that at the minimum position, the valve is fully closed. It's ok for the servo to slightly overdrive the closed position to ensure
a good 'off' position. You may need to adjust the pots and servo arm position a bit to get things to work smoothly.
Once adjusted, remove power, insert the screw into the servo arm and you're automatic valve is complete.
Here's two images of the servo and valve attached to the aluminum bracket. One
image is with valve open (top), the other is valve closed (bottom) so you can get an idea of the
range of motion you should be shooting for when you adjust the servo and valve
placement. If you look closely at the open position picture you can see
the long tail on the Z-bend going thru the valve handle. Without this tail, when the valve
closes, the wire will tend to hang up on the bottom of the valve handle. That will jamb
the mechanism and cause all kinds of problems!
Valve Open
Valve Closed
Cat Sensor
The IR sensor in the Cat Sensor kit comes with an odd (and hard to find) JST connector. Suggestion is to either remove the existing connector or
simply solder the cable wires to the connector pins on the underside of the board. Removing the existing connector is relatively straight-forward.
Start by removing the white plastic bit on the top. A pair of wire clippers slipped between the connector and the black plastic of the IR sensor
can fairly easily clip the 3 pins from the top side of the board and the connector will fall off. Then with a soldering iron and needle nose
you can remove the remains of the pins from the board leaving 3 holes where the new cable can be attached. You may need to use a bit of solder-wick
to clean up the holes.
On the other end of the cable, you may want to leave the connector off until the wire is run through any necessary holes in the wall/sink. Depends
on the size of the connector vs the size of the holes you want to make!
If you have a kit with the 6 pin IDC connector, some of the wire has come with a pretty tough insulation and it has been necessary to pre-score
the insulation where
the IDC pins pierce the insulation in order to get a good electrical connection. Just lightly score the insulation, then bend the wire back to
open the cut until you can just see copper wire inside. Then when you insert the wire into the connector, make sure the scoring lines up with
the V-grooves in the pins. Remember to skip ever other pin with the IDC connector!
Remember on the controller side of the cable, Pin 1 = Green, Pin 2 = Red, Pin 3 = Black
and on the Sensor side, it should be Pin 1 = Green, Pin 2 = Black, and Pin 3 = Red. Double check your wiring
before you apply power as incorrect wiring can damage your sensor! You can check the pinout on the sensor spec
here if you have any questions.
First and foremost determine how you are going to run the water tubing and the wiring
for the sensor(s). You need to place the valve so that the input tubing (the frosted, stuff tube) can be easily
connected to the water supply and the output tubing (the clear, flexible tube) can be run into the sink. The cat
detector needs to be positioned such that a cat, when drinking is within 6"-10" of the
front face of the sensor. If you're using the optional 'people detector' this needs to be
positioned so that a person using the sink will be within the same 6"-10" range of the people sensor. Don't forget
you also need to place the valve/controller unit within reach of power!
When placing the Cat Sensor, make sure the faucet and/or the water stream are not in direct line with the Cat Sensor otherwise the reflection
off the faucet or water may fool the Cat Sensor. Also try not to aim the sensor directly at light sources as this may also cause false triggering.
Once you have everything located, drill any necessary holes for routing tubing,
wiring and power. Then run the tubing, run the wires and Sensors. If you need to disconnect the sensor
cables to run the wiring, do so, but remember the correct connection order. Pin 1 = Green, Pin 2 = Red, Pin 3 = Black.
The assembled sensors include a soldered on, two-piece connector. Being split, this makes it a bit easier to run the
connector though small holes. The wiring for the both sensors is the same. The S1 connector on the controller
for the Cat Sensor and S2 is for the People Sensor. Pin 1 is the control signal. Pin 2 is +DC power and is the red wire.
Pin 3 is ground and is the black wire. Note if you're not using the optional People Sensor, make sure
pin 1 and pin 3 on S2 (the People Sensor) are shorted together.
In the kit version of the sensors, the connector comes unattached, so we suggest you run the wires first and then attach the connector.
Connecting to the house water supply you must make sure that you attach the frosted, stiffer, input water line to the house
water supply. The clear, flexiable output tubing is not pressure rated and would burst if directly connected to the house water supply.
After installion the saddle valve can be used to adjust
the water flow out of the cat faucet. You must have some kind of valve between the water supply
and the cat faucet valve to control the water flow. The cat faucet valve is not meant to control
the amount of water, only to turn the water on and off. The saddle valve accomplishes this nicely.
After you have connected the water, but before you apply power, please turn the water on and make sure there are no leaks. If you have an
assembled unit with a box, please remove the top of the box and ensure there are no leaks inside the controller box as well. We check the
assembled units before we ship, but you never know what happens in shipping or during installation. So no matter what, make sure you do a
leak test before you leave the cat faucet unattended.
At this point, connect the power, the LED should start flashing. On startup, the controller
ensures the valve is closed and then it's ready to go. Wave your hand in front of the
Cat Sensor, the valve should open and say open for bit after your remove
your hand. If you have a People Sensor, block it and no amount of waving in front of the Cat Sensor
should turn on the water.
V1.0 board notes
