Feederpi -The Automatic Aquarium Feeder

thingiverse

Automatic fish feeder utilizing an auger drive for transporting food from the built in storage tank to the mouth of the unit. Works with both pellets and flakes. Powered by a USB cable providing 5V and 2A to the Pi. Due to the design of the auger system, the feeder will vary the feed amount (one pinch of food to three pinches of food) depending on the augers position at the start of the program. A Raspberry PI Zero is used inside the unit to run the feed program. Simply print one of each part (PLA), purchase the required add-ons/ hardware and assemble. SECTION VIEW PDF IN THING FILES TAB FOR ASSEMBLY DETAILS *Highlights: Large capacity All controlled and powered from Pi Single power source; 5V/2A Single servo Varying feed amount *BOM: 1X Pi Zero (Or Pi Zero W for an easier build) 4X Shielded Ball Bearings 5mm x 8mm x 2.5mm -Ebay purchase 1X 9g Servo 360 Degrees Continuous Rotation Variable Speed Bi-directional -Ebay Purchase -Use provided servo hardware to mount and install printed drive pulley. 1X GT2 20T 6mm Width 5mm Bore Pulley Toothed -Ebay Purchase 1X GT2 150 Tooth Belt, 6mm wide -Ebay Purchase 1X GT2 Idler Pulley Toothed 3mm Bore 2X M3x0.5 Bolt, 35mm length 6X M3x0.5 Bolt, 8mm length 4X M3x0.5 Bolt, 12mm length 1X Micro B USB Cable-Length varies based on application *How to program: 1.) Flash Jessie lite to your PI. -Boot up, SSH into pi, enable VNC, connect to the internet, install desktop environment. -Download VNC to your computer of choice to interface with pi, login to Feederpi desktop. 2.) Open your terminal and create a script. 3.) Add the following text to your freshly created script: import RPi.GPIO as GPIO import time GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) GPIO.setup(2, GPIO.OUT) #I use GPIO pin 2; Refer to Pi GPIO pin chart for your pin num GPIO.setwarnings(False) p = GPIO.PWM(2, 100) p.start(5) print "start" p.ChangeDutyCycle(2.5) time.sleep(.2) GPIO.cleanup() 4.) Install Cron on your pi. 5.) Add the new script to your Cron and set the Cronjob schedule to your liking. Mine is set to run twice a day, 10 A.M. and 9 P.M. 6.) Done! *How to mount to tank: Provided is a fixed mounting base made for a cutout (1.18" Hole) in your aquariums cover. I will also be adding a variety of different mounting options as I continue to support this project from the feedback of others.