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Petnet, the smart pet feeder backed by investors including Petco, recently experienced a week-long system outage affecting its second-generation SmartFeeders. While the startup's customer service tweeted over the weekend that its SmartFeeders and app's functionality have been restored, Petnet's lack of responsiveness continues to leave many customers frustrated and confused.
Petnet first announced on Feb. 14 that it was investigating a system outage affecting its second-generation SmartFeeders that made the feeders appear to be offline. The company said in a tweet that the SmartFeeders were still able to dispense on schedule, but several customers replied that their devices had also stopped dispensing food or weren't dispensing it on schedule.
But all is not lost. A system update announcement reports:
System Update: SmartFeeders are returning online. There will be a system reset to help stabilize your SmartFeeder's app functionality. We will promptly update you once this has been completed. Scheduled automatic feeds should still dispense on time.
Those darn customers, so impatient, unwilling to wait for their next fix to download. Please check back in one quarter of a galactic rotation. Thank you.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday February 28 2020, @07:46PM (18 children)
This is just fucking stupidity by design. Why on Earth does an automated pet feeder require any kind of confirmation, processing, signalling, .etc. from a remote network?
Lemme guess.... a marketer or c-suite scum got the idea they could shut the device off for non-payment on your subscription feeder service?
Anything like this shouldn't be designed to require anything out of network. Hell, I wouldn't require it to need anything from the local network either. No reason to check into a pet feeding daemon running on my own local OpenBSD server. Why design like that in the first place?
Only reason why I would hook up networking at all, is for something like SNMP for monitoring purposes. The actual feeding mechanisms would be redundant, and all decision making by the processes fully local. Maybe SNMPv2 to change some setting remotely, but right now, I can't think of a single use case for remote changes.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Friday February 28 2020, @08:02PM (11 children)
That's all still too complicated. A simple motor on a timer that dispenses one unit of food per activation is all you need 99% of the time. Turn it off when it's not needed. Done.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @08:40PM (6 children)
If you are in an area with frequent/extended power failures, run the feeder on a spring motor. Wind it up and it's good for X days. Or have an electric motor keep the spring wound up, so it will keep working during X days of power failure.
Springs (used below the fatigue limit) are damn reliable.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 28 2020, @09:01PM (5 children)
Or design the feeder with a backup battery. How much can it take to run a small motor for several seconds, a few times a day?
I've got a motorized kitchen trash can lid that takes 2 AA batteries which haven't been replaced in years. You can imagine that a kitchen trash can has items put into it multiple times per day.
I would estimate the effort to dish out a serving of pet food to be comparable to opening, then shortly later, closing, a trash can lid. Remember the leverage issue here. The can lid is open-closed from the hinge, so it has to work against the weight of the lid.
Oh, and this trash can lid thing IS NOT connected to the clod. I don't need to remotely open/close my kitchen trash can lid.
The entire thing is a large enclosure which contains an ordinary kitchen trash can with plastic liner, within the larger outer enclosure. When the lid is closed, it also has something in it (not battery operated) which slightly deodorizes. Don't ask me, I didn't buy it, but I enjoy having it.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 29 2020, @02:04AM (4 children)
After all, if you bought one of these feeders it's debatable that your mind isn't gone already.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Saturday February 29 2020, @10:58AM
My cat is OK if I put the weekly amount of dry food and a pot of water and leave for a week. When I am home, no automation is needed - the cat meows at exact times to remind me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @05:41PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday March 01 2020, @06:13PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 02 2020, @03:19PM
I would agree that people should take care of pets. If you have to travel for a short time, have someone who will house sit, or at least take care of pets a few times each day. If longer absence, then find a good kennel that will board them.
That said, some people are going to use automation and leave their pets on their own connected to the cloud. In that case, at least a battery backup and non-cloud device, please.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday February 28 2020, @09:23PM (1 child)
I totally agree. That's why I said the only reason was monitoring, which is most effectively done these days across a network. That would be kinda cool for somebody I guess, that's paranoid about their pets, but I didn't say it was a necessary requirement for a pet feeder.
Best option is probably just a security camera monitoring it, if you did need monitoring at all.
I would still add some redundancy to the system though. If I'm a few states away, it's rather difficult to get back before the pet starves.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DannyB on Friday February 28 2020, @09:35PM
Having a security camera, at least one of them, covering the pet feed area should be fairly obvious, if you are depending on an automatic pet feeder.
Another idea, if practical, is to have a friend, who permanently has a key to your house, who you could call if there is a problem. This is the one item that gives me peace of mind.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @11:04PM
All you need is a measuring cup. Dog stares at you, you use cup to measure food, dog thanks you. No motor needed.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 29 2020, @02:05AM
just feed your fucking cat or don't get one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @08:07PM (3 children)
PetnotSmart
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Friday February 28 2020, @08:56PM
It's not the pet that isn't smart.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 28 2020, @10:25PM (1 child)
Dead. Pets.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday February 29 2020, @09:32AM
Little Pets starved to death,
Internets down and the feeder died,
Pet parents weren't 't there to save them,
Too lazy to feed them themselves.
Dead doggies can't take care of themselves.
Dead kitties can't knock things off the shelf.
Well, we didn't want you anyway
Lalala-lalalalalala-la
Daddy is an agrophile in Texas
Mommy's on the bar most every night
Little doggies's sleeping in the graveyard,
Little kitties buried in the backyard,
Dead doggies can't take care of themselves
Dead kitties can't knock things off the shelf
Well, we didn't love you anyway
Lalala-lalalalalala-la…
With apologies to Alice Cooper....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 28 2020, @09:04PM
That one link with the picture of the cat looking up from the empty dish is a bit sad.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 01 2020, @09:34AM
Mine never missed a beat.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/pet-lodge-chow-hound-dog-feeder-50-lb-capacity?cm_vc=-10005 [tractorsupply.com]