Automated feeder that dispenses fluid, with an LED indicator light

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi Arduino community!

I am a M.Sc. student at a Canadian University and I am working on type of bird that requires nectar dispensed from a syringe. In my experimental set up I want to set up a very simple feeding system that will dispense 0.5 - 1 mL of nectar while simultaneously activating and LED light that will serve as an indicator for the bird to start feeding. I want this process automated so I can eliminate myself from the room and prevent any experimental anthropic errors from arising. I guess I have three questions:

  1. What type of Arduino board should I buy to perform this simple task?

  2. How difficult will the programming be?

  3. Is there a dispensing machine that you know of that will dispense 0.5 - 1mL of fluid?

If all goes well with this setup, I'm also considering hooking this Arduino board up to a system that will turn on cameras. Activating the cameras is done by a simple click of a button, so I don't think this would be that hard of a task. The button is found on the GUI of a custom made software, so if I program the board properly I think I can get the Arduino board to do the following tasks simultaneously:

  1. Activate a machine that will dispense 0.5-1mL of fluid
  2. Turn on a red LED diode
  3. Turn on cameras by using the GUI of the custom software.

ANY help is appreciated. I am completely new to programming, so please use basic terminology in your explanation. I'm here to learn!

All the best!

EVH

2

  1. Any. An Uno is fine.

  2. I don't know. Did you find this hard?

int led = 13;
void setup() 
{                
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);    
}

void loop() 
{
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}

If that wasn't hard, it shouldn't be too difficult.

  1. http://www.nordson.com/en-us/divisions/efd/products/industrial-dispensing-robots/pages/default.aspx
    First result on Google for "automatic fluid dispenser".