Arduino + Ethernet project (Pet Feeder)

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,

I am working on a project which idea came from Nat Morris' twitter controlled dog feeder. http://blog.makezine.com/2012/03/08/remote-dog-feeder-with-twitter-and-arduino/. For now I planned to do it without the ethernet shield, it can be controlled trough an application. I had chosen to write it in C# with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. For now I have able to control an LED trough an application, next I will learn to program the servo.

I am totally new to this, if anyone could recommend a tutorial that would help me to learn about ethernet shield (and maybe also twitter). I found some on bldr and other site, but I still failed to follow the tutorial.

So I would really appreciate if any user and experience user would give any type of comment or suggestion regarding my project here, http://project238.blogspot.com/. Pardon my English and thank you in advance.

nsmf

2

if anyone could recommend a tutorial that would help me to learn about ethernet shield

The shield is just a piece of hardware, supported by a library, that allows the Arduino to be a client (like Firefox) or a server (like google.com). Using the shield and library is trivial, if you understand client/server programming. If you don't, no tutorial is going to turn you into an instant expert.

and maybe also twitter

No. Learn to set up your own domain and server, or get a domain and pay someone to host it for you. Learn how to interact with your own server. No one else cares how often your cat or dog eats.

3

Arduino 1.0 comes with sample code for the Ethernet shield.

4

You might need to describe in more detail what you want to accomplish. You probably can add the apache web server to your current setup and not have to use an arduino. There is a good bit of web server/client code available for study. For twitter, you can study the below previous post on the subject.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=twitter&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Farduino.cc%2Fforum&as_occt=any&safe=off&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

5

Thank you PaulS for your reply. Agree, I need to understand the basics and all of that first. I would keep the search going and try again. I dont have a cat or dog on my own, just wish i could help them who do with this.

Thank you florinc for your reply. I had look at the example code. I will learn from them again.

Thank you zoomkat for your reply. Basically I just want to be able to control the feeder through a tweet. I have read something that I may require to use cosm.com for the service. But again, I should learn a step at a time. Like getting the simple ethernet example to work first.

Thank you everyone, I appreciate it. Have a nice day.

6

I just want to be able to control the feeder through a tweet.

Why not just use a simple web page from the arduino web server instead of all the twitter churn?

7

zoomkat:
arduino web server instead of all the twitter churn?

What a great idea. I might do just that. Thank you so much zoomkat