Hi guys,
I want a suggestion on how to build a kong dispenser.
A kong is a dog toy that looks like this
You can put food in the kong and the dog has to work to get it out. This is great when you leave the dog at home for an extended period of time.
What I want to do
I want a kong dispenser. I put 4/5 kongs in it and it dispenses them one per hour to keep my dog busy.
Requirements:
The kong dispenser and its circuit need to be at a height and they drop down on the floor (otherwise my dog will rip through the circuit)
The mechanical parts need to be simple to make or buy (It is better if most are of-the-shelf parts as I am not that good with anything other than programming)
Any ideas on how I could construct such a dispenser?
raschemmel:
Just to be clear, you are posting on an arduino uC forum to ask a mechanical engineering design question ?
Just wanted to know if somebody had done some kind of dispenser and would post on how they controlled that with the Arduino. Not expecting a complete mechanical design here - just previous experience with a similar kind of project.
That may be but do you have any idea of how a kong dispenser is designed ? ( I mean what does "work" mean as far as the dog is concerned ? How does a dog "work" ? (in this scenario)
Ah - my bad that the definition was not simple enough. A kong is a rubber toy shaped like a bottle.
So we can imagine that I just want a bottle dispenser. The dispenser will be on the edge of a table (high enough so that the dog cannot reach and tamper it). Every hour, one bottle should fall from the dispenser to the ground. That is all the requirements.
dannable:
I was thinking in broad terms of something like a snack vending machine, use a helix?
I was also thinking of a vending machine. Will look up what a helix is. If you have any good links, please do post them,
You can put food in the kong and the dog has to work to get it out.
So the dog has bite the kong open to get the food ?
Is the Kong edible ?
The dispenser will be on the edge of a table (high enough so that the dog cannot reach and tamper it). Every hour, one bottle should fall from the dispenser to the ground. That is all the requirements.
If your Kongs will roll nicely
... like those cans.. then you can use it. Maybe a rail needs to be raised on one side to compensate for the uneven shape of the Kong..?
You just need something to boot the Kong off the edge.... some sort of lever controlled by a servo.... That's it.
Yep , the Kong time would have been a life saver ! Alas they stopped production.
ODwyerPW:
Look here
... like those cans.. then you can use it. Maybe a rail needs to be raised on one side to compensate for the uneven shape of the Kong..?
You just need something to boot the Kong off the edge.... some sort of lever controlled by a servo.... That's it.
This is exactly the kind of stuff that I came here for !! Thank you. That might be worth a shot. Will get one and give it a try
Every time I see this thread in the forum I think it says "Toy dog dispenser" and I'm imagining a chihuahua being shot out of a chute into a rottweiler's mouth.
(Which, by the way, is an idea I would fully support......)
Hi, if you are only looking at 5 of 6 kongs, why not have them in a line on the edge of a shelf.
The arduino controls a servo to push or tip the kong of the shelf, one servo for each kong.
I would say the drink dispenser would work with a servo motor at the end stopping the kong's from dropping. Every hour or so the servo would move dispensing the Kong?
If you are not interested by the subject, why do you take the time to come and bully the guy? Does it make you feel good and all strong?
You don't like the subject pass along, go look smart else where. This is the project guidance section, the guy talk about is project and ask for guidance, it is you guys who are out of line.
I was thinking if you only needed to drop 5 or 6 Kongs... it might be easier to handle the fact they the Kongs are lopsided, if you take out that u section that joins the top and bottom levels (of that can dispenser I linked to).
