The basic version of the K9 Sentry prototype was Spark Core based with built-in Wifi, a temperature sensor, a motion sensor, and 4 relays.

The current configuration features a High Heat notification at 85 degrees with relay activation for an auxiliary cooling fan, and an Overheat notification at 95 degrees with relay activation for audio/visual alert and optional fan, window drop/door release, etc.

Paired with a Wifi Hotspot, the K9 Sentry sends configurable notifications via text/email and mobile apps which can alert a mobile phone immediately as well as offer control.

Notification is done through a service called PushingBox and sends an email, a text, and a push-notification to an Android app Newtifry that alerts me immediately with a Text-to Speech (TTS) notification on my phone that calls out: “”ALERT! ALERT! High temperature notification. ALERT! ALERT!”

I’ve just released the second generation firmware from development, that allows setting High heat and Overheat trigger temperatures, turn on and off notifications, manual/override control of the relays, and LED disable for night/stealth use. The 700 lines of code for the firmware is written in C++.

The Spark-Core is limited to 4 function calls, and – in general – I hate limits, and needed more functions to make my system work, so I wrote a function that reads a 5 character command and 2 parameters. This way, with only one function, I can create all the functions I want!! I currently have 14 functions built into the firmware giving me total control!