Automatic Dog Feeder
I almost didn’t post this project because it’s more utilitarian than artistic, but it’s done and it works so here it is… I wanted to have something that would allow my family to take weekend camping trips without having to bother our usual dog sitter. Our dog stays outside but will eat every bit of food available, so just leaving extra food wasn’t an option.
This contraption has a food hopper, an auger mechanism that is rotated by a windshield wiper motor to transfer the food from the hopper to the shoot and it is controlled by an Arduino. It has a real time clock module that keeps track of the time and dispenses one potion of food twice daily at specific times. The motor is driven by an IBT-2 H-Bridge (which is an overkill, but I had one laying around). Because the auger speed can vary depending on the amount of food in the hopper, I added a KY-040 rotary encoder so I can turn the auger a set number of turns – accurate to 1/60th of a revolution, keeping the dispensed portion very consistent.
The auger was 3D printed on Bubba and then machined to a tight tolerance, which worked great. The auger fits inside of two 3" PVC sanitary tees which are nice because they have the sweeping tee that helps the food ingress and egress. The end blocks were 3D printed and designed to fit into the PVC tees and supported press-fit bearings so the auger turns easily and has no end-to-end movement. The coupler between the motor and the auger shaft was machined from aluminum and the coupler to the rotary encoder was 3D printed with a tapped set screw. The feed mechanism went into a basic wooden enclosure built out of what I had and the electronics went into a water-tight electrical enclosure.
Nearly Finished Feeder (Still inside to verify operation)
Under the lid - View of Auger Mechanism:
Electronics (before fully mounted and closed up)
Feed Auger (after machining)
If you’re concerned about water for the dog, don’t panic, the dog Watering Station is under construction.
Phil
