Automatic Dog Feeder
Why I Made This Project
The inspiration behind creating the automatic dog feeder stemmed from a personal need to ensure my dog receives consistent and timely meals, even on hectic or unpredictable days. Recognizing the importance of a regular feeding schedule for my pet's health and well-being, the project aimed to offer a reliable solution that automates the feeding process, providing peace of mind and care for my furry companion.
What the Project Is and What It Does
The automatic dog feeder is a user-friendly device designed to dispense a predetermined amount of dog food at scheduled intervals throughout the day. The feeder's programmable features allow for customization of feeding times and portion sizes, accommodating my dog's specific dietary requirements. These can be adjusted in the code by updating the feed times and updating the amount of time the motor runs.
Meaningfulness of the Project and Experience
This project is personally significant as it directly addresses the practical challenge of maintaining a regular feeding schedule for my dog, especially on the busiest of days. The experience of creating the automatic dog feeder involved a combination of hardware and software skills, from designing the dispenser mechanism to programming the control system. Beyond the technical aspects, the project's meaningfulness lies in the improved well-being of my pet and the ability to ensure timely nourishment even in the midst of a hectic schedule. It has not only simplified my daily routine but also strengthened the bond with my dog through the assurance of reliable and timely feeding.
Above is the very first prototype that I made for this project. It is just made with a 2-inch pvc pipe y that I purchased from Home Depot. It also contained a 3d printed auger and a small stepper motor from my Arduino kit.
These are some pictures that I took in the process of making the prototype box. The box is made out of foamcore, and the other parts are same as mentioned above.
Above is the prototype of the box with all the components of the project inside of it.
In the final iteration of this project, I ran into a few issues, the small stepper motor from the Arduino kit was not powerful enough to rotate the auger. The other issue I had was figuring out how to situate the new stepper motor since it was drastically larger than the previous one. I ended up using a Nema 17 stepper motor and an A4988 driver module to power the auger. With this combination I have not had any issues. The box is made from 1/4-inch-thick plywood bought from Home Depot.
This is the final result of this project; you can see that the food is dispensed at the desired time.
Easy EDA diagram for the wiring of my project
Above is a story board video demonstrating the purpose of my project.
Above is a story board sketch that was used to create my video
