#AUTO CAT FEEDER INSTALL#

This level is used for holding the servo while it rotates the part on the next level. It is connected with the base using 2 neodymium magnets. This plastic part is used for placing a metal food bowl (of course, it was printed with gold filaments, for my cat’s fame and glory). Additionally, on the front, there is a small hole for easy access to Raspberry Pi’s SD card.

#AUTO CAT FEEDER INSTALL#

It has special places for screws to help install Raspberry Pi.

Then, when the designs were ready, all elements were printed using the Creality Ender-3 and PLAĪfter ensuring that everything worked, I proceeded to designing and printing the rest of the parts: Base for RaspberryPi (Level 0) I started whole process from designing basic elements for food partitioning.

have a small camera to watch how cat reacted and what the animal was doing.

the top container would sometimes detach from the servo handle and spill the whole food (I called it 'the Jackpot Effect'),Īs with most MVPs, it was used for only 2 years until it broke.

Of course, this generation encountered some problems:

It allowed me to easily control the cat’s feeding time and change it when necessary. Each feeding was defined as a special event in the Google Calendar. Thanks to that, I was able to use the HomeAssistant automation system to schedule feeding and dispensing food through Google Home commands. It used servo to rotate the top container by 180 degrees to dispense the food.Ī microcontroller was connected to my local Wi-Fi and communicated with the Smart Home server running HomeAssistant over the MQTT protocol. The first generation of the cat feeder was a simple MVP made of some cardboard, simple servo and ESP WeMos.

This scenario inspired me to build an automatic cat feeder, which would remove the troubles of morning cat feeding and keep the cat happy. And, of course, it became a new standard time for getting food. Do you know what it really needs? I know – your cat wants food now! Right now! How do I know that? Because at some point I started feeding my cat at that time. Suddenly, you hear your cat scratching on the door, its loud meows become unbearable and your cat has all the time in the world to let you know what its needs. Imagine such a situation: it is 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning, you are laying comfortably in your bed, still sleeping soundly.

Auto cat feeder