Pet Immune Motion Detectors

tmbrown97

tmbrown97

Senior Member
Hey Guys,

I need a recommendation for better pet-immune motions detectors. Currently I'm using the Rokonet 80lb pet-immune dual technology detectors... I really expected them to handle my two cats just fine. Well - I've had them in for a good year or so and I've had about 10 false alarms - all related to the cats setting off the motion. And it's not the 27lb cat as far as I can tell - it's the fairly nimble 12lb cat - she jumps up on the dresser in the MBR - or through a "window" that goes from my hallway into the family room. These sensors also had a lower mounting height - like no higher than 7ft off the ground I think it was - and we did follow the instructions.

Secondary request... I'd like some sort of sensor for my hallway as well - it's 39" wide and about 25ft long - I'm wondering about some ceiling-mount that could cover the whole hallway - still pet immune, but no worry of cats jumping much in there.

I'll certainly appreciate any ideas!
 
You are always going to have falses with cats as like you said they jump up into the beam of the motion detector. For the most part a "pet immune" sensor just brings the beam higher off the floor so that animals can pass under it. Cats don't tend to stay on the floor so they will set them off. You are probably looking for something that ignores a certain size heat signature and I have not really seen one of those.
 
Todd B said:
Secondary request... I'd like some sort of sensor for my hallway as well - it's 39" wide and about 25ft long - I'm wondering about some ceiling-mount that could cover the whole hallway - still pet immune, but no worry of cats jumping much in there.
Click to expand...
I don't think any ceiling mount sensor will be pet immune, but depending on what you are trying to accomplish...

Depending on ceiling height, which will determine coverage distance, which will determine how many you need, you can look at the DSC BV-500 as a nice ceiling mount PIR. Another option may be 2 curtain sensors, one at each end of the hallway. You could mount them so the beam is off the ground which would make them pet immune. That would cover entrance/exit into the hallway but not the hallway itself, so it depends what you are looking to do.
 
Maybe try a pet alley configuration and mount above the height of the cat's jumping ability/places -- but hopefully low enough to where it would be set off.
 
There's really no way a traditional PIR motion detector can be made "cat immune" by itself, and as far as I know, no "off the shelf" solutions to the problem. As someone with two cats, I've given the matter plenty of thought (and, in fact, have two PIR motion sensors that my Elk is programmed to log, but ignore, for that precise reason... they get logged at least 2-3 times per week.

One possible solution I came up with (I also do embedded electronic design) would be to blanket the area with multiple sensors -- PIR motion detector, infrared distance-ranging, and maybe a few IrDA sensors (more in a moment). The idea is to monitor them as a group, and apply fuzzy logic to differentiate the trigger pattern of a cat from the trigger pattern of a non-cat. For example, if you had 3 sensors, each monitoring a fairly narrow slice roughly 1/3 of the room's width, and all 3 were triggered within a few milliseconds, it's almost certainly a cat bolting past them. Increase the matrix from 1x3 to 2x3, with 3 monitoring the lower half of the room, and 3 monitoring the upper half of the room, and only the low sensors were triggered, it's almost certainly a cat -- the faster two or three were triggered, the more likely it's a cat (humans can crawl, but can't bolt across a room in a half second on their hands and knees).

The problem THERE is that you'd basically have to buy a bunch of fairly expensive sensors, then play "MakeFest" with them and hack them to only monitor narrow, short slices... which goes against nearly everything they were designed and optimized for.

Another idea to augment them: make collar tags for your cats that consist of a microcontroller with infrared LED blinking in a consistent, deliberate pattern... and put other sensors in the room to watch for it. If the motion sensors get triggered while the CatBeacon sensors are registering the presence of a cat (or at least his/her collar), you'd know to discount the report from the PIR motion sensors. You could also blanket the room with Sharp's infrared distance-sensing sensors (popular with robot builders), and apply similar logic to weed out cat triggering.

As an alternative to buying two dozen PIR sensors and blanketing the room with them, you could try something a little more efficient: a CMUcam (Google for it, and you'll see what I mean).

It's kind of like the idea I came up with for eliminating false alarms from the shock sensor on my living room window caused by cars with loud bass driving by on the road, or thunder, or motorcycles -- put a second sensor on the front door (which is neither glass nor breakable), and monitor BOTH sensors. If there's loud thunder, a loud motorcycle, or diarrhetic bass emitted by a 10,000W (peak) Wal-Mart amp at 25% THD, BOTH sensors will trigger within 500ms of each other. On the other hand, if someone smashes the window with a crowbar, only THAT sensor is going to register a shock. Likewise, if someone knocks on the front door, only THAT sensor triggers. Eventually, when I get around to actually MAKING the circuit to do that, I might make a few extras & sell 'em here if anyone's interested ;-)
 
miamicanes said:
Another idea to augment them: make collar tags for your cats that consist of a microcontroller with infrared LED blinking in a consistent, deliberate pattern... and put other sensors in the room to watch for it. If the motion sensors get triggered while the CatBeacon sensors are registering the presence of a cat (or at least his/her collar), you'd know to discount the report from the PIR motion sensors. You could also blanket the room with Sharp's infrared distance-sensing sensors (popular with robot builders), and apply similar logic to weed out cat triggering.
Click to expand...

Considering my cat is 20lbs and hates/hisses and claws anybody besides my wife and I (us she rolls over on her back and lets us pet her belly) i don't see the burglar picking the cat up and carrying it around the house either..lol...that is if the burglar could even conceive that such a crazy plan woudl prevent the alarm from tripping...
 
My 2 large, senior cats live in an unfinished basement (my little girl is allergic to cats), and the basement is covered with 5 Bosch Blue Line pet immune motion detectors. You literally can't walk in the basement with out being seen by at least 2 motion sensors at any given time. The cats have yet to trip the alarm.
 
FWIW - I have a standard Pet Immune PIR from Ademco installed in the corner of my living room, and have a ~12-lb dog who jumps onto the backs of our couch and love seat just like many cats do and she is not detected at all. This could however be due to the weight difference 12lbs vs 20lbs, but I have no idea ... I havent exactly tried to engineer the situation since mine works fine as is :)

NOTE: I dont know of the exact impact, but my PIR is installed at ~9ft rather than the recommended height of 7-ft. This may have to do with the lack of detection of the dog, but I still get detections of myself walking in any area of the interest for the PIR - foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen (open floor plan)

** EDIT: Here is a shot of my floor plan which points out the location of my PIR.

floorplan2hv2.jpg
 
Many security panels have a feature that holds alarms unless MULTIPLE sensors in a group are triggered. If you place your sensors carefully so that only a few are in places where a cat can jump up, it is unlikely a cat will trigger more than one within a reasonable time. Avoid placing sensors on stairways and anywhere a cat can jump up(sofa, bed, counter, etc), and instead place them in hallways and areas with flat floors.
 
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