Auto pet feeder project

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Hi there :slight_smile: I’m very new to electronics, but have a background in programming and a spare Raspberry Pi 3 B… so I thought this could be a fun project to learn with! I’d like some advice on the parts list I’ve put together just to make sure it’s possible with the components I’ve chosen :slight_smile:

The design is simple, a hopper that sits over an auger, which pushes dry food pellets out into a bowl. The hopper/auger unit will sit on a load cell so the feeding can be automatically stopped when enough food has left the hopper.

I’m sure a pi is probably overkill but given I already have one and can write python I think it’s the simplest way for me to get started.

Here’s my parts list:

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Daniel

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Hey Daniel,

That should all go quite nicely. Have you had any ideas for a power supply yet? I checked out the ratings for your motor and it’s about 3.4V at ~1.7A phase, should be able to get away with just powering this off a regulated battery supply if that’s suitable for you. Also, why go with a load cell rather than using a spring and microswitch, or an ultrasonic sensor to determine whether the bowl was full? It should be a suitable option, I’m just curious why that’s the option you’ve chosen to go with :smile:

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, enjoy your afternoon mate!

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Hey Bryce,

The reason for going with the load cell is that my cats are on a diet :sweat_smile: so I need a way to accurately tell how much food is being dispense, not just an indicator of if it did/didn’t dispense. If there’s another kind of weight/pressure sensor that would be better suited then I’m not married to the load cell. It was just the first component I found that seemed like it would do the trick haha

Thanks for the recommendation on the power supply. Do you have a link to one in particular?

Cheers,
Daniel

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Also I was keen to run the motor and pi off the same power supply, but I feel like the pi would burn through a battery pack pretty quick yeah?

I’m happy to have the project powered by a wired power supply, or do you think its going to be a lot simpler to power the motor separately?