Fix a LitterMaid Mega for under $5

We bought two of the litter boxs from a garage sale for $25 a year ago. Both came with everything but the power adapeter. One box went to my brother and we kept the other. My brother was able to find the power adapter and bought one for both boxes.

If you are not sure what a LitterMaid is.

LitterMaid website

What we have

After awile our box stopped working but my brother's keep working.

I thouht about gutting the electronics and motor, but I poked around the crcuit board with multimeter and found out that part of the board still worked.

To let you know

If you do this you do it at your own risk. If you break it you get to keep all the pieces. If it melts you get to keep one lumpy piece that smells like cat crap.

Step 1 See what you have to work with.

The cover can be removed by taking out four screws. Two on each side of the cover. There are also two screws inside the battery compartment and one on the bottom of the cover. This screw keeps the board in place.

Sadly I clipped every wire off the board. This was before I even thought about just trying to fix it.

After attaching the motor wires back.

I found out that shorting the two pads on the two transistor made the screen move back and forth. I knew I could use them for fixing it, But I could only use a push button to fix the screen. Once the screen reached either end the motor would buzz and once it had stopped.

Comments

[user18]

Good job! Check for another repair instructions here:
http://mcs.uwsuper.edu/sb/Electronics/LitterMaid/

[tinkerer5]

I'm looking to buy a used, early model littermaid from someone. Has to be more than 4 years old for a demonstration to the advances in technology. I'll pay well for it, including any shipping costs. This is important, so please send me a message if you want to upgrade to a new model and are willing to be paid handsomely for your old one. michael_leach at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

[katerlyn]

I have a couple in my garage, one i shorted out and the other i just stopped using as i bought the dishwasher type ones (that went bankrupt) and now i use litterless with strangers and dump in toilet ( i guess that's illegal; but why do they sell attachments for toilet then?)) just happened along and saw your note.....

[Rob K]

This one is gutted sorry.

• The under $15 Better Version

[Rob K]

Update

Everything is still working.

[Very Keri]

man, those things are expensive and notorious for breaking in 10 seconds! good thing you're handy!

[Rob K]

Why buy a new one. New ones are around $100 or higher. I'm off at college now and the litter box is still working at home.

[Very Keri]

oh, i hear you. I looked at them and then checked the consumer reviews and opted to keep the non-scooping one i've got. i've never stumbled across them at yard sales, plus i'm not handy with electronics, and didn't get the soldering iron i had on my christmas list, so i guess i'm out of luck. :)

[GorillazMiko]

Nice job! Only under $5, that's awesome. Very detailed Instructable.