Computers & Electronics

Pets 'go hungry' after smart feeder goes offline.

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 2nd, 2020 10:51 am
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LOL@ Your Angry Inch…

Pets 'go hungry' after smart feeder goes offline.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51628795


Owners of a device designed to release food for pets say their animals were left hungry during a week-long system failure.

Petnet allows owners to schedule and control feeding via a smartphone app.

When the BBC contacted Petnet on its advertised email address, the email bounced back with a delivery failure notice.

One pet owner tweeted: "My cat starved for over a week", while others complained about other hardware issues.

"My three Gen2 feeders constantly jam and won't dispense food," wrote another.

Some expressed relief that the feeders were now back online.

Image copyrightPETNET
Petnet has two Twitter accounts. The official one has not tweeted since 30 August 2019 but the support account issued four tweets between 14 and 21 February about the problems experienced.

In its first tweet it said a "system outage" was affecting second generation devices and asked customers not to switch off their feeder even if it appeared to be offline.

Skip Twitter post by @petnetiosupport

Petnet Support
@petnetiosupport
System Update: We are investigating a system outage that may affect customers using the SmartFeeder (2nd Gen). Scheduled automatic feeds will still dispense on at the desired time although SmartFeeders will appear offline. It said automatic feeds would "still dispense".

Four days later, it tweeted again to say it hoped to "release more information" soon.

On 21 February it said smartfeeders were "returning online" and a "system reset" was in progress.

Some customers tweeting to the support account complained of not having received a response.

The firm had faced similar problems in 2016.

'Things will fall over'
According to Crunchbase, US-based firm Petnet has received $14.9m (£11.5m) in funding since it was founded in December 2012.

The device is sold for £222 on the Amazon marketplace in the UK.

Nearly 60% of the 554 customer reviews left on the US site have given the device a rating of either one or two stars.

"As we go towards a more automated home you have to acknowledge that, somewhere along the line, things will fall over," said Stuart Miles, founder of the tech site Pocket-Lint.

"Robots and automated systems have hiccups along the way, it's something we need to get used to.

https://mobile.twitter.com/petnetiosupport

Image
Last edited by HalfTrack on Feb 26th, 2020 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jan 13, 2014
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"One pet owner tweeted: "My cat starved for over a week", while others complained about other hardware issues."

Somebody please take that cat away from this irresponsible owner. Sorry, but if you actually didn't notice for a WEEK that the cat wasn't being fed, you don't deserve a pet!

Sheesh!
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Devhux wrote: "One pet owner tweeted: "My cat starved for over a week", while others complained about other hardware issues."

Somebody please take that cat away from this irresponsible owner. Sorry, but if you actually didn't notice for a WEEK that the cat wasn't being fed, you don't deserve a pet!

Sheesh!
I suspect that they were away for the week and that that's why they didn't notice.
Personally, I would never trust an auto-feeder if I was away for any significant length of time.
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Hey Elon, I found you Test dummies for the Autopilot.
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Hmm that link takes me to a completely different article. However I agree cat didn't starve because auto-feeder problem, cat starved because of brain cell problem of dumbass owner.
Last edited by ES_Revenge on Feb 26th, 2020 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ConsoleWatcher wrote: I suspect that they were away for the week and that that's why they didn't notice.
Personally, I would never trust an auto-feeder if I was away for any significant length of time.
And even then, leaving your cat for a week without anyone checking in on them is dumb.....
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hymm yet another prime example of the more you invest in "Smart"...the more you show the world the true "cheap lazy idiot" you really are!

The Title of the article should have been!

"Smart devices. Is Their true purpose is to help the "Dumb" fake it in the world as "non stupid"?
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ConsoleWatcher wrote: I suspect that they were away for the week and that that's why they didn't notice.
Personally, I would never trust an auto-feeder if I was away for any significant length of time.
100%. I'm as techy as it gets and I refuse to get any of the autofeeders. I either ask my friends who are neighbors, pay someone to do daily visits, or drop them off at my parents place.

A lot of other questions too. Like was the water bowl stagnant water that whole time (even those fountain bowls get stagnant)? Did the litter box ever get changed?
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I don't own any pets. Pets are like your own family members. They need to be fed, talked, loved. What is next? Smart devices to talk to your children, your elders? Anyone has children, elders, pets; he/she should be shot for using that smart device. SAD.
...
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teoconca wrote: he/she should be shot for using that smart device.
That sounds a lil insane tbh
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Given the reliability of smart home devices in general, this is not a suitable application for them. I can't keep my cameras, smart lights and switches running for a full day when I'm away from home. I'd never chance a pet feeder.
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teoconca wrote: I don't own any pets. Pets are like your own family members. They need to be fed, talked, loved. What is next? Smart devices to talk to your children, your elders? Anyone has children, elders, pets; he/she should be shot for using that smart device. SAD.
What do you think tablets are for? POS systems, and parenting/babysitting children.
Scote64 wrote: Given the reliability of smart home devices in general, this is not a suitable application for them. I can't keep my cameras, smart lights and switches running for a full day when I'm away from home. I'd never chance a pet feeder.
I believe it IS a suitable application, assuming you have a redundancy (family member that can go by if you need it). This device, however, is garbage obviously. What needs to happen is that you get a confirmation from the device that it succeeded. If no success command arrives, the app itself should know the schedule, and report to you that it failed, so you can have someone go there to check it out.

A device that relies on the Internet is foolish (many IoT devices), a device that operates on it's own and reports its status via the Internet is less so. A device that transmits heartbeats or something to confirm it is still operating is the best.
Last edited by ChubChub on Mar 2nd, 2020 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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joeyjoejoe wrote: A lot of other questions too. Like was the water bowl stagnant water that whole time (even those fountain bowls get stagnant)?
I always wondered about those they look like bottled water dispensers. Plus the simple water dish gets biofilm after a couple days if I don't clean it. I add 2 liters man thats gonna get slimy in a few days and thats a lot of nooks and crannies to try clean it out.

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