How to let the dog out

[oldchachie]

does anyone have any elequent way to disarm a single door contact to allow the dog to go out at some point during the night? I'm installing a normally closed contact, but would like to do something easy like a single pushbutton to allow me or one of my kids to allow the dog to go out in the middle of the night. seems a pushbuttone with a 20 minute timer and a whenever rule (this is an ELK M1 btw) is active, but it'd be nicer to figure out a way that we don't need to press the button (I'm sure I'll forget to one night and wake up the whole household).
Some Ideas I had were to install a door knob of some kind that knew the difference between an inside knob turn and an ouside knob turn. Also, I thought about putting a spring bolt lock on the inside of the door that one had to open in order to open the door (if you don't open the bolt, you physically can't open the door) and have that attached to a switch of some sort.... that seems klunky though. Any other thoughts?
I guess I should say that I don't want to have to disarm/arm the system from a control panel for this operation either...

 

[gatchel]

You could use a REX (Request to Exit) motion to bypass the door contact directly or through rules. You might not like the look of a REX though...

If there is a Keypad near the door your could use a function key to bypass/unbypass the zone and have it flash when it is in bypass mode (I think)

There are commercial Lever Sets that have a REX micro switch built in but you pay dearly for them.

A light switch (low voltage circuit with a light switch) that you turn on that shunts the door contact while on, directly or indirectly, by using an input on the M1 and rules so if you forget it and leave it on it doesn't shunt the door contact forever...

 

[drvnbysound]

My first instinct was to suggest an electronic dog door, so you (or the kids) don't have to get up at all. The ones that will only open to the dog wearing the collar that's associated with the door, such as:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=100659870&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=100659870&ci_kw={keyword}&kwd={keyword}&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googleads-_-pla-_-100659870&ci_gpa=pla#.UMx4b3fCa9w

... but it sounds like you want to wake up, perform a disarm function, physically open the door, wait for the dog to return, close the door, and rearm. This is not something that I've been interested in doing myself, sorry I couldn't be of more help

 

[dgage]

I agree drvnbysound but when we first got our dog, we lived in an apartment and had to take him out. We've been in houses the last 10 years and he still has us trained to take him out so gumbudah is at least doing better than us.

 

[oldchachie]

Thanks for the suggestions. Looked into the REX, and looks like a good option, buut I decided to just go with a little hidden and a whenever rule. Thanks!

 

[Del91574]

Not to over simplify, but have you used the "quick exit" function of the keypad?

With the system armed, if you hit "exit" it'll start a timer to allow you to open the door without disarming. I believe it'll give you 2 shots at it, so you do it once to let the dog out, close the door and a "exit" press a second time to let in. No programming or additional hardware.

 

[drvnbysound]

Not to over simplify, but have you used the "quick exit" function of the keypad?

With the system armed, if you hit "exit" it'll start a timer to allow you to open the door without disarming. I believe it'll give you 2 shots at it, so you do it once to let the dog out, close the door and a "exit" press a second time to let in. No programming or additional hardware.

Good to know...

However, I suppose the issue for me would be with the timer... once that timer starts, I assume it would be just like the standard exit timer... and it's going to 'beep' and count down, right? If so, that's probably reason enough for me not to do this... If one of us got up and used this function, the beeping timer would probably end up waking the other.

 

[Del91574]

I use it on my keypad by the entry door all the time, and no beeps, but I'm not sure if this is default or a function of everything I have programmed (doubtful). I do have voice messages suppressed by time.

I would suggest you try it on your system to see if it reacts the same.

 

[tmbrown97]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't do the beeping if it's already armed - easy enough to test though. Come to think of it, I don't think it ever beeps during the countdown for stay mode - only for exit as a reminder to get out.

 

[drvnbysound]

So, I just tried to use the 'quick exit' function by pressing the exit button while already in STAY mode. The button was already not lit, and I got three short beeps which sounded to indicate that this function was not available. I suppose I'll have to look through RP2 some and enable the function.