Automatic Litterbox Central

ChrisQXR wrote:The thing as I see it is CatGenius said the problem was assembly time, assembling each unit takes about an hour which is time he doesn't have. I suspect microsoldering the surface mount chip on the back takes up a good chunk of that. He's probably hesitant to sell kits because a lot of people would screw that soldering up and destroy their chip.

If I would start selling kits, I would probably spend the same time on supporting people assembling their own. The number of people skilled enough to actually do a good job on these is far smaller than the number of people over-optimistically ordering one. Besides that, I have no socket to program and test these TQFP packaged chips.

ChrisQXR wrote:With access to the plans, or at least the software or documentation, someone in between my skill and CatGenius' skill could design another, easier to assemble unit... There's definitely demand for a catgenie cartridge free system, I hope someone at some point comes up with something...

I have no problem publishing these, but I don't want people to go into mass production with these and I just cannot avoid that.

ChrisQXR wrote:That thread really needed to be locked, but it's still too bad, I suspect those angry comments probably turn away some people who might have eventually been customers (if CatGenie ever decides to sell his product again).

That has made me truly sad; Richard and I have done everything to keep a perfect track record, shipping same or next day, responding to email immediately, helping people out. At first I felt the need to defend myself, but there's just no point in trying to convince people who don't want to be convinced: It would only run out of hand even more.

And yes, it will turn potential customers away, but there is nothing I can do; The damage has been done, defending myself would only make things worse. Dropping the project would make none of these things matter anymore.

The whole affair has severely crippled the use of my email address, the email address I have been using since the dawn of the internet which has costed me dearly to obtain at that time: firstname[at]familyname[dot]country. It is spammed with literally hundreds of duplicate gambling invitations PER HOUR. Fortunately my spam filter blocks the most of it, but retains only the last 300 of them. So any blocked legitimate mail will be pushed out in under an hour. Where before I checked my spam filter for legitimate mail once a month, now there's no point in doing that anymore because I'd need to go through 300 mails per HOUR for that. And yes, I'm missing important email. I still think the person causing this was not punished severely enough: A permanent ban is the most suitable - and on most forum standard - punishment for posting somebody else's email address, aside from a good hit with a shovel.

Truly sorry for the problems you've had.

I purchased a unit a while back and CatGeniusit always responded to my emails and his product worked perfectly.

I would order another without hesitation; if I needed one.

HI,
I'm new here, and am specifically posting because I really want a cartridgeGenious. I'm more than willing to open up my Cat Genie, I've had to twice to clear clogs. I'd be willing to help with construction, I was trained by the US Navy as an electronics tech. Certainly no engineer, but I'm handy with a soldering Iron.

rowahall wrote:HI,
I'm new here, and am specifically posting because I really want a cartridgeGenious. I'm more than willing to open up my Cat Genie, I've had to twice to clear clogs. I'd be willing to help with construction, I was trained by the US Navy as an electronics tech. Certainly no engineer, but I'm handy with a soldering Iron.

Did you read the post 2 above yours?

CatGenius very clearly stated that at this time, he is not
a) making these and
b) not putting the how to information out to the world.

He explains his reasons, which are very valid. They simply are not available, even to Navy techs. Sorry.
ab