IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

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HoolyHoo
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IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by HoolyHoo » Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:20 pm

So I wanted to make something fun but practical for my entry. Procrastinated a while until one day while sitting on the couch I looked over and saw this.
IOTCatFeeder - 4.jpg
IOTCatFeeder - 4.jpg (1.25 MiB) Viewed 10665 times
That's our cat Nala trying to camouflage herself into that chair. She gave me the perfect inspiration. Lazy cat deserves a lazy owner. So I decided to go with an IOT automatic cat feeder. Here is a short video of what the final version looks like.



I'm quite pleased with its simplicity and its practical nature. I used a small servo with the ESP32. Inside there is also a RTC to set up an automatic feeding schedule with portion sizes. The red push button overrides the schedule and does a manual feeding. The active buzzer sounds when feeding, sure to induce Pavlovian conditioning. And since the ESP32 has wifi built in and we are going with the lazy approach, I added a web server with a push button and some info to be able to control it from any smart phone or internet browser.

Some more photos of the internals and a screenshot of the web page from my phone.
SpoilerShow
IOTCatFeeder - 1.jpg
IOTCatFeeder - 1.jpg (2.01 MiB) Viewed 10665 times
IOTCatFeeder - 6.png
IOTCatFeeder - 6.png (244.95 KiB) Viewed 10665 times
IOTCatFeeder - 7.png
IOTCatFeeder - 7.png (249.84 KiB) Viewed 10665 times
IOTCatFeeder - 2.jpg
IOTCatFeeder - 2.jpg (244.63 KiB) Viewed 10665 times
A few thing left to do:

* Paint the Pringles can
* Possibly add a proximity sensor to sense if the bowl overflows
* Tweak the code to be able to change the feeding times from the browser rather than being hardcoded
* Teach Nala how to push the button so she can feed herself, haha :lol:

Here is the BOM:
SpoilerShow
CatFeederBOM.zip
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All for under $15, minus the cat food :D
Comments are always welcome Hope you enjoy my build and thank you for reading :D

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YaYa
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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by YaYa » Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:46 pm

Awesome project ! Well done.

May i suggest a tactile touch button so you can teach your cat to auto feed himslef. And THEN, you’ll be a really lazy owner :lol:
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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by HoolyHoo » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:05 pm

YaYa wrote:
Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:46 pm
Awesome project ! Well done.

May i suggest a tactile touch button so you can teach your cat to auto feed himslef. And THEN, you’ll be a really lazy owner :lol:
Lol, yeah see my last comment on the list of things to do. Only problem is she may get even fatter 😀

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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by YaYa » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:43 pm

Yeah i saw the comment, but to help her, replace the tact switch with a touch sensitive one :lol:

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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by dryja123 » Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:26 pm

I love it! My only observation is that the Pringles can would be too small for my fat cat.

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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by YaYa » Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:40 pm

dryja123 wrote:
Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:26 pm
I love it! My only observation is that the Pringles can would be too small for my fat cat.
:lol:
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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by HoolyHoo » Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:31 am

dryja123 wrote:
Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:26 pm
I love it! My only observation is that the Pringles can would be too small for my fat cat.
:lol: it allows for portion control. Next up... Esp32 kitty treadmill, lol!

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Re: IOT 3D Printed Automatic Cat Feeder

Post by littleferris » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:20 am

Trying to figure out how to apply this to feeding my kids...hmmmmmmm

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