My cat, Jumper, loves milk. Somehow he managed to get milk on his forehead. 
Got milk?
February 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
AutoBlender Tree Protector
December 4, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
My AutoBlender Cat Repeller works so well on the counter top it only makes sense to use it to keep the cats out of the Christmas tree.
Yesterday I took it off the counter top and placed it under the tree. Didn’t take very long before that cats decided to press their luck and headed to play with the tree. Needless to say, they didn’t stick around that long once the blender went off!
This project worked so well to train the cats to not go places they are not allowed that I am tempted to build a single standalone box that can play back a loud noise (like the blender noise) to see if it works as effective as the real thing. That way I can build more than one and go back to using my blender for its original purpose, to blend food.
On the left you see the blender in the background and the black box in front of the blender which houses the circuit board and all associated electronics (relay, picaxe-08m, various resistors, capacitors, etc). The opaque dome you see is the motion sensor, endlessly watching over the surrounding area.
AutoBlender Cat Repeller
November 30, 2010 by · 10 Comments
My project is moving along nicely. Got a picture of the finished board and a video showing a test run.
There’s a terminal strip on the bottom to wire in the power supply and the wires that head off to the blender. The relay is directly across from it on the top. That’s what simulates a button press. The chip on the right is the PICAXE-08M micro-controller. Plus a few other parts to make it all happen. The part you see there hanging out is a serial port that I use to program the chip with. Whats not pictured is the motion sensor. Just to the right of the relay you can see a 3 pins on a small strip. That’s where I plug it into the board.
Tonight I plugged it all in and gave it a test run. Worked like a charm! I enticed the cat in the video below with a light so I could catch it in action. While typing up this post both my cats decided to try their luck on the counter only to promptly evacuate the area the instant the blender came on. Works just as I’d hoped. All that’s left now is to slightly modify the program (blender is on a tad too long) and to get it installed into a plastic project box.
Please be sure to turn up your speakers to hear it.
UPDATE: This works just as well to keep the cats from getting under or in the christmas tree!
What is he thinking?
September 23, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
So we get a new kitten in the house and named him Jumper. Talk about a hyper kitty. He gets into everything and anything.
So it doesn’t surprise me that he somehow managed to get his head in the handle part of a grocery back. Maybe he thinks he’s a sea animal that got caught in a six-pack plastic holder thing like we see on TV? So we are all supposed to do our parts and cut the six-pack plastic thing with scissors so it doesn’t happen. Maybe we should do it with plastic grocery bags too?
Chief, the lazy cat.
March 31, 2009 by ·
I was looking through my phone at some pictures that I have taken in the past. I found a good one of my cat doing what he does best, laying down and sleeping, lol. He always manages to sleep in some real awkward positions. I have no idea how it can be comfortable. He’s normally much worse than in this picture.
