Plexidor's RFID-activated sliding doggie door: it's about time
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 28th 2008 9:14AM
posted Jul 28th 2008 9:14AM
Frankly, we're disappointed. It's 2008, the veritable future, and you still don't have an RFID-based automatic sliding doggie door? For shame! The Plexidor Electronic Doggie Door allows for all that nice canine coming and going with none of the less-nice house robbing a regular flap door enables. Your dog gets to wear an RFID chip on his collar, which lets the door know to automatically slide up when he shows up -- hopefully with a sort of squeegee sound to complete the sci-fi effect. Prices range from $700 to $800 depending on configuration.
LOOOL !
@ Handy
Sort of like a Star Trek door opening sound?
Wait.....
Laughing Out Out Out Loud?
so what happens when a battery fails mid egress, does the door come slamming down and guillotine the dog? that would be awesome!
Lost collar? No problem. Our patented design ensures that the doorknob is close enough to the doggy door, coupled with a "lost dog" address tag ... ensuring that some good samaritan will return your collar to you in no time.
Let's place a bet on how many days it will take for someone to train their dog to rely on the sliding door and then to switch it off just to do a Cpt.Kirk-homage YouTube video.
And if they were smart enough to include cool sound effects they might expand their market to geek wo don't even have pets ;)
Wow, a terrible looking product that takes up a whole door. Nice job you guys
Why is this installed on a hotel door?!?
Slight design flaw...just remove the animal's collar and use it to gain entry to the house. Or just pick up the whole dog and wave it near the door. I could fit through this hole. All this protects against are other animals and weather.
Which is exactly why it is better than a normal doggie door. At the very least you would need the pet or its collar nearby to get in.
Raccoons and skunks won't be able to hold your dog hostage to get in.
Or maybe raccoons can - they're smart little devils...
Well, I'm just guessing here, but I think that most people avoid doggie doors for discriminatory purposes. Sure, the some people may call it doggie racism when I let my white dog through, but not the wide-eyed brown raccoon with its rabies. RFID lets us keep the homestead pure on an automated basis.
Plus a modder could set it up guillotine style for the unwelcome animals/dinner, though admittedly a malfunction could prove disastrous one day....
People that have doggie doors typically have an indoor dog that needs to be let out to use the bathroom (in the yard).
Someone with an "outdoor" dog wouldn't need this product.
How about a burglar makes a noise at the door so that the inside dog comes barking to the door. If he gets close enough, the thief's in.
I'd like to see you try to get a collar off my dog... or "pick up the whole dog and wave it near the door" for that matter.
"How about a burglar makes a noise at the door so that the inside dog comes barking to the door. If he gets close enough, the thief's in."
Or the thief's balls are in the owners Rottweiller's jaws.
Or you could use the money to rent a mexican valet to open the door for the dog.
Or just pet the dog whilst its out and about whizzing on the local lampposts, look at the address on the collar, copy the RFID tag, burn off your own identical one and enter without breaking. Not difficult.
Or do I just need my tinfoil hat?
To Brad:
A dead dog isn't that threatening.
Also...seriously, that is a design flaw, just like with the basic door...so I have an idea...train the dog to not piss+more in your house, and also bark when it has to go out.
I did that with my dog...works like a charm. No accidents in the house, and no people trying to come through a square hole in the door.
Problem solved.
Personally I never really understood "doggie doors" in general, but when you live somewhere that is freezing cold more than half of the year you usually want your door to be as thick and tightly sealed as possible.
To Marques:
If someone really wanted to get into the house bad enough to go through with killing a large and intimidating dog, I'm sure they would find their way in doggie door or not...
Easily RFID-hacked to become a doggy guillotine.
Using special dog collars to unlock doggie doors is nothing new. They have versions that use a simple magnet and are much cheaper than this ugly door.
The idea is not to prevent intruders, but rather other animals / small children from entering (or leaving).
Soon people will be using these to enter their own homes.
"Prices range from $129 to $800, depending on the size and model." Not $700-$800 (Check the read link)
My dog wanted to comment on this so I am going to put his paws on the keyboard and let him comment:
lkasjdfjio aiosjdaks dkjfl;sadoiefd.
@dog
Woof Woof. Bark Woof.
Translated:
Rub my belly. I'm hungry. Throw me a ball; I'm really hungry.
Would it not be cooler to have it register the RFID chip already inside your cat/dog instead of using the collar?
Now THAT's thinking like the future!
I think the range needed is too big for that maybe, those implants (that have been proven to cause tumors, but let's not get into that now) are very short range.
Dogs don't wear collars in the house. Fail.
Um... wha? Great, so as soon as the slip by you answering the front door, they have no tags or identification... GREAT idea. We always wondered how we adopted our well-trained, well-cared-for dog from a rescue - now we know it was because of someone like you.
Yah because collars are like shoes. We take them off pets when they come in the house....That may be how it works in your little world but out here in the real world pets wear collars in and out of the house so they have an ID.
Something failed alright and it wasn't the product.
I know exactly what you mean. I keep trying to make my dog wear one, but just last night, Spot came home, drunk, reeking of cheap bitches and cigarettes and ripped his collar off. I tried to put it back on, but he just yanked off again, because "It just feels better like this. You want me to feel good, right? Come on, owner, loosen up. Nobody has to know...I love you" Why can't I stop sobbing?
Marco FTW!!!
@ Marco...
Greatest comment ever. Lol.
$800 and no Star Trek door sound? What a rip-off.
This technology has been available for years, see www.petporte.com!
1. Such a waste of space on the door.
2. Makes it look ugly
3. I won't be surprised that it scares your dog rather than letting them in/out, especially smaller dogs.
My dog is scared to walk through normal doggy doors due to the flaps.
Loos more like a guillotine than a dog door to me... I wonder how long it takes until the company will get sued for broken animal necks or something like that.
Not going to happen. For one thing the door closes by gravity and isn't that heavy or sharp. Furthermore there's no reason it can't wait until the RFID tag is out of range before closing.
We had a similar door for our house that used a magnet instead of an RFID tag. The guillotine action and the locking mechanism made it raccoon-proof. Traditional swinging doors, even with little tab locks, not so much. Raccoons are smart little bastards. Anyway, the door worked quite well.
I know everyone is saying this is a "fail" because you can remove the collar, however, many dogs today are "microchiped" for identification reasons. These are simply an RFID chip which vets and other services use to identify dogs. Why not use that to open the door?
Awesome, people have already started demanding to be chipped...zeitgeistmovie anyone?
That'd probably be because the implanted ID microchips are not designed for reading more than a few centimeters away.
The RFID chip that would go on your dog's collar is likely much larger so that it can capture enough energy to transmit up to a few meters
I am insulted! Where is my people automatic door and collar? I smell a lawsuit!
Mr Tommy
There will never be an equivalent for humans for fear those fat feminists will sue for being unable to fit.
`Better hope doggy doesn't like to sleep near the door.
It's cool, but too expensive and unsecure.
Why is it enormous?
It has to be twice as high as the door opening itself because the door has to rise up. The drive mechanism must either be above the risen door or alongside it, which means it either has to be taller or thicker. In the product I bought, they chose the "thicker" option, but that can cause problems if you want to open and close the full door often. These guys chose to put the mechanism above, and I think that's the better choice.
The door I bought was sold in different sizes, and ours was quite a bit smaller (we used it for a cat, not a dog). The one pictured here seems to be the only size they sell.
The door looks large from the inside of the house because the panel has to slide up and down the surface of the house door. That means the height of the interior frame must be twice the size of the opening. The actual inside frame dimensions are 17 1/2"w x 54 5/8"h. However, the actual hole through the house door or wall is only 12 3/4"w x 20"h. When you view the pet door from outside you only see an opening of 12 3/4"w x 20"h.
I hope that answers your question.
I've had something similar installed in the back wall of my house for the past 8 years, though the technology is not RFID. (Google Solo Pet Doors). It's not 100% secure, as other commenters have noted, but it does the trick, and keeps me from having to worry about the dog on very cold (below 20F) or very hot (above 95F) midwestern days. My motion detection security cams pick up the slack in terms of security.
If they could manage to squeeze some kind of timer functionality onto this I would buy it in a second.
The Mrs. and I both leave for work around 5:30 am... our dogs like to piss the neighbors off by going outside (via analog doggie door) and barking their fool heads off after we leave.
Noise curfew ends @ 8 am... I would love to have the door only accessible after that time.
Put it on a timer.
It is possible to link this to an automatic timer. Just like people add the timer feature to lighting systems.
Guillotine!
Alert! Alert! .....mALfuNCtiOn.......
"I gotta pee!!!" *scratch*scratch*whine*whine*
"I'm afraid I can't do that spot"...
AWESOME Movie Reference!!! Very Nice!
What happens if the door fails and crushes your dog?
You get to go with the men in white coats for having a pet made of marshmallows.
The door is a lot lighter than a dog. No crushing will happen.
You wouldn't be able to sleep with "little rascal" playing all night with the door, the barks and the "swooshes" *star trek sound* would last all night.
Regarding the use of RFID, here's an article about using crowds data mining: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=156444&f_src=flffour . It's basically attaching a sensor and a transmitter to a person, animal, car and measure a particular thing (from temperature to UV rays to traffic).
When is some bright company going to build one that doesnt req
When is some bright company going to build one that doesn't require the silly collar since most dogs nowadays are chipped by the vet?
[sorry for double post erroneous first post]
Requiring the user to configure their door to work on the Vet-installed ID tag would be a major barrier to many possible purchasers. Most likely, if you know how to do that, you could do it with this system right now, but the company is not providing a neat little software interface for it.
For $800 though... they should have the installation service offer to use your dog's ID tag so you didn't have to configure it yourself.
My doggy door responds to my dogs' secret handshake.
1. Steal Dog Collar
2. Steal Underpants
4. Profit
Ur plan is flawed fool. No #3.
srsly. too lazy to type: ????????
Hate to break it, but this has been available for a long time: Power Pet http://www.hitecpet.com/powerpetdoors.html
I have one installed at my house. It's so-so, though over priced if you ask me.
The power pet is not rfid and is not as reliable as rfid.
Is it free "Highest Ranked" day on this thread or what? I thought I would get flamed for the 2001 ref...
They should make a RFID activated door for people. We can get in with our RFID passports.
It'd be cool if it made the Star Trek door slider sound.
Faslane
Too expensive. The electronics and programming of this thing might cost $100. You could even go further than this design goes with some adjustable timer.
This is all fine and dandy until your chiuauah goes to the back door to inverstigate the sound of someone trying to break in and then inadvertantly triggers the doggy door open, providing a more that adequate portal into your home for the bad guy.
My dog would plunk down next to the door and let the air conditioning out all day.
if you guys think its so ugly then make your own!
its not very hard actually. you can put a DIY design together using some parts from Parallax.
All RISE!! Doggie Captian John Luc McWoof on the Bridge!!
1. Locate the doggie and steal RFID collar
3. Put it on yourself
4. Approach the doggie door
5. Door opens
6. ??????
7. Profit!!
the raccoon hackers have already finished the jailbreak for this.
Design fail: it's missing the dog head catching basket.
Sometimes I am amazed at the creativity of inventive geniuses.
Sometimes I am not.
I don't know anyone in their right mind who would pay >$700 for this ugly doggie guillotine. It takes up the whole door, motivates criminals to kill your dog in the process to gain access and can potentially ruin your day when the battery dies. Doggie doors are usually installed on the back or side door of the house yes? Anyone have one of those doors without a window?
I just hope someone's dog doesn't get hurt or killed because one of these things decides to close early
I will never use the door again, just squeeze through this thing