Hi all, total noob here, I never did too much with arduino but I really want to do something for the poor cats living on the streets. So I found and 3d printed a nice feeder with auger for dispensing food. I need your help with figuring out what would be the best way to power it, and with what. I…

Have you tested you setup, yet? How are you powering the system to test it in your shop? How will you keep the poor dogs from chasing your cats away and eating their food?

I did test it, I have the nano on breadboard, connected with 2003 and that to 28byj, I uploaded some simple code to check if everything is ok. Which it seems ok, I powered it through usb. By the way, the stepper is not moving in the CCW direction only CW (yes I did checked it in the code) There ar…

Suggest you forget using a stepping motor and go for a gear motor. Lots available on the internet.

Unless you need the auger to fill the reservoir, you only need to turn one way. So, now get a real-time clock module and learn how to program it. Add that to your code and you are all set.

Only one way, yup. And the battery? It will be outside, no other power.

Suggest your mechanics be similar to this. [Automatic pet feeder machine plan]

Four C cells in a battery holder like this. A Buck/Boost converter to the Nano for 5v. [image]

[image] kiwi2banana: And the battery? It will be outside, no other power. You should post pictures of how this food-dispenser looks like. If you can afford to use a car-battery - a car-battery will have enough energy for two weeks of operation maybe even more. If you want to keep the batter…

My girlfriend had one of these . She bought it when she couldn't get a pet-sitter or boarding when we were going on a trip. It turned-out to be good investment! But, programming wasn't "user friendly". I don't know what kind of motor it had, but I think the feeder mechanism was something like …

A drum feeder based similar to this would keep dry food from getting into the mechanism. [Drum Feeder with Piezo Vibratory Linear and Loading Chute] The drum rotation time is controlled by a gear motor controlled by the Arduino.

Simple Pet Feeder for strays

Other Hardware Home Automation

LarryD September 14, 2023, 8:47pm 11

A drum feeder based similar to this would keep dry food from getting into the mechanism.

The drum rotation time is controlled by a gear motor controlled by the Arduino.

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Simple Pet Feeder for strays

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