This Tweeting Cat Door Project uses the new Electric Imp controller. If you haven’t heard about the Electric Imp before watch the video that Engadget recorded at Maker Fair at their booth. The Electric Imp is a neat idea, the form factor is an SD card but that was just chosen since there are lots of cheap SD card connectors available. The Imp has been designed so that if it is accidentally plugged into something like a camera the camera won’t be damaged. Inside the device is a Cortex-M3 processor with WiFi, there are also some internal status LEDs that are visible through the plastic case so you can see the status at a glance. One of the coolest things is how you program the WiFi settings so that it can connect to your network. A Smart Phone is used to blast the information to it using flashes on the screen which is monitored using a light sensor. I can see lots of cool projects (and products) using this system in the near future.

“The physical I/O for the project is pretty straight forward.  All that is needed is a magnetic reed switch to sense if the cat door flap has opened.  A blue LED is used as a visual clue for ON/OFF and switch detection.”