--- title: Hacking A Cat Litter Box | daily.dev description: A developer reverse engineered his Litter Robot 4 automatic cat litter box to avoid relying on the manufacturer's cloud service. Since the device uses an ESP32... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-cat-litter-box-hd8ha5gmi twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hacking A Cat Litter Box | daily.dev og:description: A developer reverse engineered his Litter Robot 4 automatic cat litter box to avoid relying on the manufacturer's cloud service. Since the device uses an ESP32... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-cat-litter-box-hd8ha5gmi og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hd8Ha5gMi.png og:image:alt: Hacking A Cat Litter Box og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hacking A Cat Litter Box **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer reverse engineered his Litter Robot 4 automatic cat litter box to avoid relying on the manufacturer's cloud service. Since the device uses an ESP32 for connectivity and a separate PIC microcontroller for hardware control, he built a custom ESPHome firmware that emulates the ESP32-to-PIC communication protocol, allowing full integration with Home Assistant without touching the safety-critical mechanical functions. He used data capture and an LLM to help decode the communication protocol, and has published the firmware files on Codeberg. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I connect my Litter Robot 4 to Home Assistant without using the manufacturer's cloud service? A custom ESPHome firmware can replace the stock ESP32 firmware on a Litter Robot 4 to integrate it directly with Home Assistant. The device uses a PIC microcontroller for hardware control and an ESP32 for cloud connectivity, so reverse engineering the ESP32-to-PIC communication protocol allows local control while preserving mechanical function and safety features. The firmware files are published on Codeberg. _Explore more smarthome reverse-engineering projects like this one on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [vindar/SARCASM: S.A.R.C.A.S.M : Slightly Annoying Automatic Rubik's Cube Solving Machine](https://daily.dev/posts/vindar-sarcasm-s-a-r-c-a-s-m-slightly-annoying-automatic-rubik-s-cube-solving-machine-jxgbjghjq) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The ESP32 turned out to be the least intimidating way into a hobby that scared me for years](https://daily.dev/posts/the-esp32-turned-out-to-be-the-least-intimidating-way-into-a-hobby-that-scared-me-for-years-0clcoshb0) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Assistant Uses ESP32](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-assistant-uses-esp32-45w73jl72) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Whisker’s latest Litter-Robot uses AI to recognize your cat’s face and poop](https://daily.dev/posts/whisker-s-latest-litter-robot-uses-ai-to-recognize-your-cat-s-face-and-poop-kqw72n83t) · The Verge · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#reverse-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/reverse-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-cat-litter-box-hd8ha5gmi) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Hacking A Cat Litter Box","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-cat-litter-box-hd8ha5gmi","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-cat-litter-box-hd8ha5gmi"},"datePublished":"2026-08-22T05:25:39.300Z","dateModified":"2026-08-22T05:25:56.823Z","description":"A developer reverse engineered his Litter Robot 4 automatic cat litter box to avoid relying on the manufacturer's cloud service. 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The device uses a PIC microcontroller for hardware control and an ESP32 for cloud connectivity, so reverse engineering the ESP32-to-PIC communication protocol allows local control while preserving mechanical function and safety features. The firmware files are published on Codeberg. Explore more smarthome reverse-engineering projects like this one on daily.dev."}}]} ```