Advantages: I've had no problem with intruding cats. Disadvantages: Overall expense and lack of reliability.
drinking bowls or during very wet weather) and this stops them from functioning. I have had my latest model about 6 months and the sensor is starting to play up and does not always recognise the collars. I do not feel happy about leaving my cats all day in case they are unable to get in the house. I am changing to a Pet Porte Microchip cat flap. It is more expensive initially but I am sure that the overall cost will be less when you add up the cost of collar keys and replacement batteries. This must have cost me twice as much as the actual flap since I installed it 6 months ago. ...
Advantages: Prevents access to stray cats, including any with magnetic-type keys Disadvantages: Intermittent operation of locking mechanism
, this kept the strays out, but a few months later, I realised that Black Tom was still getting in somehow. One day, I discovered how-he was actually hooking the bottom of the flap with his claw, and pulling it open from the outside!
I then splashed out on a Staywell 500 Infra Red model (£49.99), to see if this would solve the problem, and indeed, it did keep the strays out completely! Fluffy didn't mind the large yellow infra-red key, and it seemed to work fine initially. But later on, she started having problems with it. She likes to sit outside the door for a while before finally deciding to come in. This causes the latch to open and close repeatedly while she's thinking about it, and often it will have locked itself again by the time she decides to come in. To add insult to injury, the the mechanism sometimes doesn't work at all ...
Advantages: A relatively cheap spare sensor bar. Good for a second TV or a quick replacement. Disadvantages: The cable is still flimsy. Other sensor bars are even cheaper.
The Wii might have been the best thing to happen to console gaming since, well, at least the Xbox 360, but the need to install the sensor bar rather ties you to a particular television.
It works via two infra-red LEDs which send out signals that are picked up by the Wii-mote which calculates its position via triangulation; accelerometers in the Wii-mote allow it to recalculate its position when out of sight. Since all the complicated electronics are in the Wii-mote and the console, the sensor bar is a relatively simple bit of kit; it is, however, crucial to the operation of the console as a whole. Wii-motes will just about work without it for a while, but will regularly cut-out and drift off-target.
If you're the sort of person with multiple TVs in the household and want to move your Wii around you've got to remove and re ...
