A physicist rigged his pet hamster’s wheel to upload to Strava

Post by SyzygyRhythm » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

cure_42 wrote: post #8

SyzygyRhythm wrote: post #3

Neat! Not to toot my own horn too much, but I put together a similar project for my cat's exercise wheel. Hackaday featured it a while back: https://hackaday.com/2023/04/02/spy-on-your-cat-to-make-sure... His exercise routine is somewhat variable but he usually goes for a short jog a few dozen times a day. Most often at 5 am, for whatever reason. Since the article I also built and hooked up a treat dispenser for extr…

Have you seen evidence he understands that running causes treats to be dispensed and is running more as a result?

Always hard to be sure, but I think so, yes. The dispenser is only triggered when he runs either fast enough or long enough (I forget the thresholds, but it's something like 10 mph or 10 seconds). Sometimes he'll run and not quite trigger the threshold, but wait next to the dispenser for the treat to come out. When it doesn't, he'll go back to the wheel and run/walk for a much longer period.

Re: A physicist rigged his pet hamster’s wheel to upload to Strava

Re: A physicist rigged his pet hamster’s wheel to upload to Strava