Automatic Litterbox Central

Wow vermithrax. That's a great solution (I'm not handy or skilled enough to make Jen's husband's version). I'm going out of town for a few weeks & I'm going to try to make that modification so the catsitter doesn't have to scoop so much.

What kind of bags or liner do you use in the drawer?

I use extra-large garbage bags (green ones) with as large a top opening as I can find... I think they're 32" wide... I still have to stretch them a bit to make them fit, but it works well!

I just cut a hole in my laundryroom floor, and now all the cat crap just falls into a 55-gallon drum directly below in the basement.

I'm not sure how I'll get it outside when it's full, but I figure I've got about a year and 1/2 to figure it out.

I made a similar modification to my 3 yo LR as suggested by vermithrax. After about two weeks all is largely well. Instead of needing to empty the LR every other day for my three cats, the new system requires emptying about once every two weeks.

The cutting of the LR was challenging, but I believe the problem was a defective battery in my Dremel tool. (I'm not that handy and don't use the tool that much. It might not have fully recharged.)

The only difficulty thus far is that the sensitivity on the step is not quite right, and I am attempting to make some adjustments to increase the sensitivity.

I have been wanting to do this for quite awhile but finally took the plunge and am enjoying it!

First of all, I would just like to join others in saying that the Robot is amazing - a triumphant marriage of mathematics and ingenuity. Its main limitation, though, is the small (6”) drawer, which fills up very quickly, especially when you have four cats with very active, very angry colons.

And as we all know, if the drawer overflows before we get around to emptying it, the Robot spins and smears fabulous amounts of crap around the dome, creating what I like to call ...

An Equator of Feces.

This results in much punching of cats.

So, inspired by this thread and others like it, I decided to build.

And build I did.

And so we have ...

The Litter Robot Advanced Receptacle, Model 4X-CAVE1000.

It begins with this box, which I birthed with my bare hands after much measuring, sawing, sanding, staining, and shellacking. As with the other mods, this box has a hole for obvious reasons. Notice also there is a cat tail coming from this hole. This does not belong here, and it will be dealt with off camera.



And the box opens from the side, and the lid recedes into the box, thus creating a smaller footprint for what is already a monstrous box ...



Opening the box occasionally reveals a creature that does not belong. Death to the creature. Death. to. the. creature.



But this box needs love, love in the shape of a 12" bin, lined with plastic and hope ...



... and it moves closer to the box ...



NOW BEHOLD THE LITTER ROBOT 8000!!!

It is Glorious. Elegant. Bulbous.



To make this process work, to deliver my sweet genius into the callous hands of reality, I had to transform the Robot into a shape of my choosing. And like all good transformations, this required power tools.

Like others have done, I cut a 10" hole through the bottom of the 6" drawer, and then through the bottom of the Litter Robot itself. Ah, the sweet smell of burning plastic as my jig saw swipes through the crustacean beast! Layers and layers of holy plastic, destroyed in an instant. The blood is unholy! It gushes from its eyes!

"I DEFEAT YOU!," I screamed. "I. DEFEAT YOU!!!"



So now when I peer down from above, there is nothing but an abyss beneath the dome, a deep abyss which disappears into the box, into the 12 inch deep bosom of the Litter Robot Advanced Receptacle, Model 4X-CAVE1000.



And here is the final setup, sitting peacefully, awaiting cat goodness and their disturbing colons ...



We've had it set up for just a day now, and so far all seems well. I suspect I'll need to empty it maybe once a week, which is better than every 2-3 days. And if it overflows, there is enough clearance between the top of the bin and the box to not create a mountain of mess.

Happiness reigns ... the villagers are happy ...

Kurt wrote:And as we all know, if the drawer overflows before we get around to emptying it, the Robot spins and smears fabulous amounts of crap around the dome, creating what I like to call ...

An Equator of Feces.

I don't get an Equator of Feces. I first get the Tropic of Capricorn of Feces. I then get a Tropic of Cancer of Feces if I've really neglected to empty it!

pgitta wrote:I just cut a hole in my laundryroom floor, and now all the cat crap just falls into a 55-gallon drum directly below in the basement.

I'm not sure how I'll get it outside when it's full, but I figure I've got about a year and 1/2 to figure it out.

You can't be serious! And if you are: GAH! That should start smelling good in no time! Why would you want a 55 gallon drum of cat crap in your basement? That makes me shudder just thinking about it. eww It will be tons of fun to empty!

eatyourbeets wrote:Jen, is your husband back home? (Fingers crossed...)

He is gone until February 2008 this time (I guess I could read back in the thread to see what I wrote, LOL). That said, we have added LR#2 to our house, and that one was modified as well. This one doesn't have carpet because it was too hard to keep clean...and this one has a door that lifts instead of a drawer that pulls. We are also down to two cats now (instead of 4) so I only have to empty it maybe once a month or so.

Hi,

My modification of my LR1 is generally working well, but I have not been able to reverse the lack of sensitivity that ensued. The step rarely engages the robot to start its cycle. I often have to push very hard on the step or launch the cycle manually.

When I cut into the drawer something changed. The mass obviously diminished but I'm not sure why that should be a major issue. I have cranked the sensitivity to its maximum but that has not resolved the issue.

Any ideas out there?

Thanks,

HG

That is totally cool! You and your husband deserve the Golden Scooper, which is much like the Oscar but more appropriate for the subject! Congrats!

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I'm contemplating making a change from the cat genie but was not going to consider a litter robot because the drawer is too restrictive and my boys would fill it up really fast.

Seeing your set up made me think of various ways I could make changes that would let it go longer than a day without changing and when you did need ot change it it would be much easier.

I'll build something bigger then slide something like a rubbermaid garbage can with a liner in it. Hehehe, much to think about here now...thanks

I wanted to post another example of expanding the waste container for the Litter Robot II.

I had done an earlier modification (see litter-robot/topic450-45.html#p9811), but this approach improves on it a bit.

Step 1. Cut a 10" hole in the drawer and the base of the unit.



(Ignore the plastic rivets you see along the interior rim. In a previous mod, I moved them from the drawer to the rim in a failed attempt to create a holder for a bag that would go there, but the bag would always slip out.)

Step 2: Remove the anti-pinch safety device. (You'll see why in Step 5.) Do this at your own risk, of course. But it was never clear to me what kind of pinching this prevented: a curious cat sticking his paw in the crack where the dome meets the base? Seems unlikely to ever happen.



Step 3. Build a box (I used MDF from Home Depot). This one is 24 " x 24 " and 14.2 " tall. Cut a 10" diameter hole in the top.



For the back, I just cut a square piece of thin paneling (Home Depot) to fit and nailed it on.



Step 4. Attach brackets to underside of box to hold bag/liner.

In the first box picture above, you can see some wood brackets under the top of the box, where the hole is. This is a wooden bracket which holds a cardbox box of contiuous liner that expands on demand to hold the litter clumps. It's part of the LW410-DIY Kit ($49.99) from Litterworks, which you can buy here: http://www.litterworks.com/product_info ... ucts_id=48 (It looks like they changed the bracket system; instead of a wooden unit like I got it looks it now ships with 2 separate metal/plastic brackets. Should still work fine, though.

This is what it looks like from under. I used just 2 screws to affix the wooden bracket to the underside of the top of the box:



And from above:



Step 5. Purchase a plastic tapered planter pot that fits snugly in the base. The diameter of the opening should be 10", the height 9", and the diameter of the base (not including a removable water catcher if there is one) should be anywhere between 9" and 4" (the one I got was 6.5" wide at the base). If it's taller than 9", I'm sure you can cut it down. I got mine from a Taylor's Do It Center.



Using the pot is why you have to disable the anti-pinch device. If you don't, the pot will continually press against it.



Step 6. I removed the removable water catcher from the base of the pot, and cut a rectangle hole in the bottom, the same width as the opening in the wooden bracket system. Like so:

From above:



From below:



Step 7. Insert the pot into the base. The top rim should be at about the same level as the interior rim of the base. If you get a pot with a little lip like I did, it will rest perfectly on the rim and help form a seal. If the pot sticks out too high, the dome won't sit evenly on the base. My 9" pot was the perfect height. Tape the rim of the pot to the base to prevent litter from slipping into the space.



Step 8. Insert into the bracket system one of the liner boxes that came with the Litterworks kit. Then put a sturdy 21" lazy susan in there.



When the bag fills up, it'll be resting on the lazy susan. Twirl the lazy suzan about 3-4 times (so the bag of poo twists), tie off the twist with one of the ties that came with the kit, and cut above the tie. You know have a bag of poo! Pull out the lazy susan and bag and, using the lazy susan as a holding tray, carry it out to the trash. (No more risking a giant bag of stink breaking open as you lug it across the living room: a durable lazy susan will be sturdy enough to handle the weight.)

Back to the litter robot: Tie a knot in the open liner that's hanging down (where you cut it earlier). This has the effect of starting a new bag that will fill up on demand.

Step 9. I added a folding door and a tiny shelf so the cats could jump up and get to the step.



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PROS:

1. The bag/liner dispenser is *great*. Makes it so much easier to empty and replenish bags. I have 3 cats which use the Bot and I need to empty the bags about once a month (if that).
2. The lazy susan makes it very easy to twist the bag as many times as needed, and then serves a perfect tray to help carry the heavy bag out to the trash.

CONS:

1. The planter pot is okay, but not ideal. Since the bottom isn't completely open (it has some flat areas/ledges), poo can fall and get trapped on the ledges. I've since added some long, wide stripes of masking tape from the top of the pot to the bottom hole to create more of a chute. Some sort of funnel would be better than a pot but I couldn't find one with the right dimensions.

2. Any litter that gets kicked onto the step falls through the holes and just piles up in the drawer, unable to fall into the bag. But isn't this a problem with the unmodifed version? Seems like they could improve on this part - maybe add a pull out, self-contained tray to the underside of the step.

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I wish the Litter Robot folks would sell this kind of modification so it works perfectly for the Bot, kind of like what the Litter Works people have done for the Litter Maid (for example: http://www.litterworks.com/index.php?cPath=30). I bet most owners would jump at the chance of expanding the Litter Robot's storage capacity and easily spend an extra hundred + dollars.

Great mod! I love to see the ideas continue!!

BTW--I see now you can get a replacement LR drawer. I don't know how long they've been available, but I've shied away from trying any modifications 'cause I was afraid (scaredy cat) that I'd goof it up. Now, I can try, secure in the knowledge that I can get a replacement drawer if I need one!

The Litter Robot Advanced Receptacle, Model 4X-CAVE1000.

That is amazing and super cool and elegant! I love it!

And I loved the "knock-out" picture too!

Super Great and Awesome Job!