1. Principles and practices

The first week I started thinking about a final project, this was not so difficult because i am allready walkin around with an idea off letting my dogs loose when i am not home. What I started to learn from Fab Academy is documenting is crucial, i started late with logging everything. So now i have to recap a lot of things by head.

Defining the problems:

  • The dogs are on a chain and can not get loose when i am not home.
  • They know at 17:00 PM they get loose and get their diner, so around that time they get anxcious.
  • The alarm off the house goes off, and i get an text message, but the dogs are chained.

Defining the solutions:

  • The dogs can get off the chain automatically, when i am not at home.
  • At a certain programmed time or when it gets dark the dogs get loose.
  • When the house alarm goes off, i can remotely unchain the dogs.

Research

After an research on the internet i could not find a solution for my problem, there where automatic gatedoors and feeders but no chain releasers. So i tought i will follow through with my idea and make a start of my idea.

Potential actors: Here in Suriname lots of people have dogs, some are in a dog house, but most of them are on a chain. At day time the dogs are chained and in the afternoon when the owners get home the dogs get loose. These owners are my target group because what happens is that owners sometimes get late because of work or traffic But first off all it is a solution for MY problem!

I started drawing on a paper some ideas and finaly i had an prototype, i also had an name The project would be called Let the dog out (L.T.D.O) or Eltdoo. But after 2 days of thinking about my idea and sharing it with my wife, we came up with a better name The project will be called RE-LEASH

Prototype

In the draft i came up with several ideas, that can be worked out right away or later depending how the project goes I included an electro magnet or servo motor for the release Also i included an IOT idea like wifi connection for remote access, to keep the project in proportions i will focus now on the programmable or sensor release. When the dogs get released there will be also a sound (beeps) so they will learn that they are released on the sound of the beeps (this idea came from mrs Ravales) )

The Keyplayers

Here are the key players of this all, The brown dog is Scrippy a real Surinamese street dog, saved as a puppy from the street and the grey Bull terrier is Snoopy. Scrippy is showing what the problem is when i am late.