Automatic Litterbox Central

Scrubbythecat wrote:That is a boring definition-study more and please before you call someone or a company a Nazi realize you are saying they are as bad as systematically killing over 15 million people that you do not like.

Oh please. It's just an expression. "Grammar Nazi," "Soup Nazi," etc.

Sorry Pelvis, No "oh please". The day it becomes colloquial and can be applied to anything people do not like especially to a company that I see as actually great, and is always there to help and they did with the Turbo hopper and other free upgrades shows me people really do not know who the Nazi's were and what they did.

Have your whole family history wiped out by Nazi's and see people reduce that to just an expression is how it will happen again... See Darfur.

From BFB: "They (Petnovations) need to step up to the plate and deal with it right now, such as offering refill kits, instead of raping their customers and screwing the environment"

All this complaining about the cost of cartridges.
Do you think the free technical/customer service you get is really free?
How about parts you pay NOTHING for including the SHIPPING to you.
Is that free?
It is paid for by sales.
Want cheaper cartridges?
Will you be satisfied with poorer customer service?
Pay for the part?
Pay for the shipping?
No FREE upgrades?
You can't have it both ways.

I have a handheld cartridge reset device and tools and instructions how to refill your cartridges over and over. See it here:

http://resetdevice.com

gameparts wrote:I have a handheld cartridge reset device and tools and instructions how to refill your cartridges over and over. See it here:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/geniereset

If you want to continue selling those on ebay, I suggest you change the title of your auction. Cat Genie will have it removed. Ebay calls it brand slamming or something like that. Not allowed. Cat Genie has already been successful in removing other auctions. If your auction is removed, you dont get back any of the fees. Better to change the wording and leave CG's name out of it.

Also, it isnt nice to hijack someone elses thread. Please start your own thread for your product or take it to the classified section.

I had trouble with eBay and their policy is very seller unfriendly. You are guilty until proven innocent by the person accusing you! What a crock! I think I'm done with eBay, they just don't want to get involved. I will stick to my web site sales, thank you very much...
www.SmartCartridgeReset.com

And thanks to all of you that have supported me and my business!!!

abbeytoo wrote:

gameparts wrote:I have a handheld cartridge reset device and tools and instructions how to refill your cartridges over and over. See it here:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/geniereset

Please start your own thread for your product or take it to the classified section.

No commercial posts or links are allowed in the classified section. They are permitted elsewhere at my discretion. If you have something to sell and you want to post about it here, you need to register with the forum as a vendor first.

Regarding the Nazi stuff - enough. No more. See Godwin's Law.

Yes, I had to change my ebay title to not include Genie. Apparently any title that had both "genie" and "cat" in the title they removed the listing. Kind of unfair since you cannot trademark either "genie" or "cat" as single words, only when they are together as "cat genie" should it fall under the trademark.

And sorry about the "post hijacking". I did not know a separate post was required. I tried to delete it but cannot figure out how to do that. I'm new to message boards, so I live and learn!

Meh, just change the name of your product to "Feline Mystic" or "Kitty Magician" cartridge reprogrammer. People who are looking for that stuff will put two and two together.

I have stood on the shoulders of CatGiants.

Here is a way to run TOTALLY unattended for months and months, with your choice of economical cleaning solutions (I'm using PetZyme right now, $12/gal at Pet Smart). You will not have to alter your genie, or mess around with refilling cartridges. This has very similar concepts to many other posts I have seen in this thread, but just takes it a step further.

1. Follow the instructions of others in this thread, and of ScottSEA at http://www.instructables.com/id/CatGenie_Resetting_a_SaniSolution_Cartridge/ in order to set up the smartcard hack. Purchase the arduino kit at http://www.hacktronics.com/Arduino/Arduino-Starter-Kit/flypage.tpl.html. To make it extra clean, add some 6.3" wire jumpers. I've seen even cheaper hacks around here (~$10 from Bulgaria?), but I got this cause I have a Mac, and it was super easy to set up.

2. Use Scott's program, but substitute "240" for "60"

3. Cut out the nozzle from a used cartridge (cartridge is pretty easy to open with a sharp flat-head screwdriver). Attach 3 feet of 1/4" clear tubing found at Home Depot for fridge waterlines ($3). Tear out one of the squeeze tabs at the top of the cartridge to allow the tubing to exit. Remove the little rubber insert on the nozzle and make sure you prime the tubing with your cleaning solution. Priming can can be done at the sink, by forcing water through the tubing and then using the water-primed tubing to draw the cleaning solution out. Snap it all back together.



4. The breadboard has a handy adhesive backing, perfect for slapping on top of a cartridge. Solder wires to contacts 1,4,7,10 from chip jumper positions 11,12,5,2, respectively. As far as I can tell, the only important thing with the soldering is to make it even. My wiring job overall is a bit sloppy, you could do a better job with those 6.3" extra jumper wires. Ignore the wires in the pic on the far left, as well as the battery on the right. The battery is unnecessary, as the Catgenie will power up the unit! I just used it for testing.



5. Get a 2-liter tupperware container. 2-liters is a good size; it's about 4 cartridges-worth, thus 240 instead of 60. In the lid, drill a 1/4" hole for the tubing AND a small (1/16") hole for suction relief (get your mind out of the gutter). Jam that cartridge back in, maybe with a piece of cardboard inside opposite the contacts. This is the LAST time you will be touching a cartridge. Put it together as pictured, and you are ready to go!



Now every few months, it might beep at you. There might be some evaporation through the... err... relief hole. So far, after a few weeks, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, except to provide a subtle nice scent. Refill the tupperware, and push the little red button on the arduino, executing a power off/on and causing the arduino to reset the cartridge.

panhandledan wrote: Use Scott's program, but substitute "240" for "60"

Very interesting panhandledan. I experimented with programming larger numbers than 60 into a cartridge and all attempts made the cartridge unrecognizable by the CG. What age is your CG? Mine are both 10 months and newer. I wonder if CG changed their programming somewhere alone the line to check for numbers larger than 60?

CatMan wrote:

panhandledan wrote: Use Scott's program, but substitute "240" for "60"

Very interesting panhandledan. I experimented with programming larger numbers than 60 into a cartridge and all attempts made the cartridge unrecognizable by the CG. What age is your CG? Mine are both 10 months and newer. I wonder if CG changed their programming somewhere alone the line to check for numbers larger than 60?

Hi CatMan. My CatGenie was ordered on 4/11/08 - 9 months ago - and delivered soon thereafter. I can't be entirely sure about the date of the cartridge I used, but it has to be fairly recent since I threw out the first bunch after they were used.

In the name of science, I just repeated the experiment. I removed my hackcartridge, catgenie beeped and complained. I uploaded the "240" program, quoted below. Put the hackcartridge back in. It seems to have accepted it just fine. I am using the program "Arduino - 0012 alpha" for Mac, with the arduino duemilanove from hacktronics.

Can you repeat your experiment?

Just some speculation here.... I'm not sure why CatGenie would bother to change their limit number. It's not like that would have inconvenienced this hacker much; I would just press the reset button every 10-14 days or so instead of every 6-8 weeks. Or I could put the whole mess on a vacation timer, allowing it to turn off and on for a brief interlude every day, causing the program to upload from the arduino to the smartchip every day. Plus maybe they want to preserve the ability to sell a "mega" cartridge at some point If they wanted to mess with their scheme at all, I would think they'd add some encryption or something else devious. Sure, older cartridges would no longer be compatible, but this is common for companies to do.

Here's the program:

#include <Wire.h>

#define CG (B1010000)
boolean resetSuccess = false;
int isReset = 13;

int byteArray []= {01, 01, 01, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 8, 8, 8, 33, 33, 33, 240};

void setup()
{
pinMode(isReset, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(isReset, LOW);

Wire.begin(); // join i2c bus (address optional for master)
}

void loop()
{
if (resetSuccess)
{
delay (2000); // our work is done - pause for a while
resetSuccess = false;
} else {
resetCartridge();
resetSuccess = verifyCartridge();
digitalWrite(isReset, resetSuccess);
}
}

void resetCartridge()
{
for (int i=3; i < sizeof(byteArray)/2; i++)
{
Wire.beginTransmission(CG);
Wire.send(i);
Wire.send(byteArray[i]);
Wire.endTransmission();
delay(4);
}
}

void movePointerTo(int deviceAddr, int memoryAddr)
{
Wire.beginTransmission(deviceAddr);
Wire.send(memoryAddr);
Wire.endTransmission();
}

boolean verifyCartridge()
{
boolean success = true;
movePointerTo(CG, 3);
Wire.requestFrom(CG, 3);
while (Wire.available())
{
if (Wire.receive() == 240 && success == true)
{
// looking good so far
} else {
success = false;
}
}
return success;
}

p.s. Did you change the line, e.g.

if (Wire.receive() == 240 && success == true)

as well as


int byteArray []= {01, 01, 01, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 8, 8, 8, 33, 33, 33, 240};

?

I'm not using this software or program, I wrote my own software and I'm using a PIC microprocessor. After looking at your code I see the difference, you're also changing the other set of registers that are not part of the cycle counter to the 240 value, and that must be be what the CG is keying in on that's causes the problem I experienced. There are two sets of memory locations, 3 that hold the value 60 and 3 more that hold the value 60 which counts down at each cycle. I didn't try changing the 3 that never change. I'm sure that's it. I will experiment for fun when I get some time, just to validate the theory... Thanks.

I'm curious why you don't just replace the eeprom with a program that behaves like one, and always reads 60..or whatever. Then you never have to reset anything.