Unconventional Insteon automation – a smarter litter box

Last year (on April 1, actually), I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about automating your toilet. I got a lot of interesting and funny feedback on the post, but most interesting was an actual, practical application for the post.

Reader Steve Pattison wrote me and said:

Hey Matt – Just wanted to say thanks for the code idea. I had spent some time last week working on the same but not for a toilet seat but my automatic cat litter box (Litter-Robot). There are times when the litter box goes into its cleaning mode and gets stuck. At that point the cats can no longer use the litterbox until I notice the problem. Your code was much cleaner and simpler than what I created so I switched to yours. Now, if the litterbox does not return to its home position after 3 minutes, I get a text message. …. I did see the humor in the toilet seat but you never know how far someone will take an idea.

So by using an Insteon open/close sensor and the code from that post, Steve was able to solve a specific problem with an “unconventional” home device like an automated litter box.


Great work, Steve! Anyone else out there have similar unconventional approaches for Insteon devices? Maybe something like using a hidden door sensor to detect whether a deadbolt is locked? Drop me a line!