I never understood the point of automatic feeders for cats - you lose out on that association your cat makes with you feeding them so your cat doesn't necessarily like you as much.
Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
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Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#52I built something similar for my girlfriend recently. When she's at work, she misses our dog so I built her a device that, when activated, dispenses a few treats, takes a video of Pickles enjoying the treats and sends it back to the sender. She can activate it by either sending an email or, better, picking up a picture frame that I customized. Inside the frame is a sensor that detects her touching the photo and that triggers the process, with the video ending up on her phone.
The main components are a Raspberry Pi to listen and control things plus an Amazon Dash button that I reconfigured as an on/off switch located next to my front door.
Overall, the software itself was relatively easy. The tricky part was building a machine that dispenses a few treats consistently, not 3 treats then 15 then 0.
I've been thinking of writing this up in more detail. If there is interest, that may provide the motivation.
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wet food is almost certainly healthier for cats. Less carbs, more moisture, fewer urinary tract issues, etc. Kibble is great for when you need to get away for the weekend, however.
How do your cats maintain clean teeth when on solely wet food? I had thought the kibble helped with that, but that may have been more because of my prior cat's allergies than the food itself.
Surprisingly, kibble is supposed to be worse for teeth because it gets stuck on teeth more easily. Same argument has been made for humans and cereal grains.
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#54I built something similar for my girlfriend recently. When she's at work, she misses our dog so I built her a device that, when activated, dispenses a few treats, takes a video of Pickles enjoying the treats and sends it back to the sender. She can activate it by either sending an email or, better, picking up a picture frame that I customized. Inside the frame is a sensor that detects her touching the photo and that…
I definitely hope to incorporate a camera as one of the future releases. :D I want to be able to spy on my kitties while I'm away.
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#55I built one of these a couple of months ago using a rPI and a simple relay to control the 12v feed to one of these: http://www.super-feeder.com/csfmodel.html Literally the code to feed them is a crontab: 0 5,11,17 * * * /home/pi/bin/feed - > /dev/null 2>&1 Using this script in /home/pi/bin/feed: #!/bin/bash export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH ( source gpio echo "Using pin 12" gpio mode 12 out gpio mode 12 out gpio write 12 0…
I'm looking to build something similar. What did you use as a hopper?
they linked to a feeder! they're pretty cool, really heavy duty.
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does it need a mobile phone to work at all?!
It probably doesn't -- there's likely an API that the app calls, and that one could, with time, mimic it. That would also require the intersection of people with the tools, cats, and inclination.
It does. You have to set the schedule from the app. :/
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#57I built a dog ball launcher and treat dispenser similar to this using Arduino. Feel free to ping me if you want the source code and electronic diagrams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jMdRXeMfA
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#58I built something similar for my girlfriend recently. When she's at work, she misses our dog so I built her a device that, when activated, dispenses a few treats, takes a video of Pickles enjoying the treats and sends it back to the sender. She can activate it by either sending an email or, better, picking up a picture frame that I customized. Inside the frame is a sensor that detects her touching the photo and that…
I definitely hope to incorporate a camera as one of the future releases. :D I want to be able to spy on my kitties while I'm away.
I tried an Arduino based one and the Raspberry PiCam. PiCam was far better quality. The challenge is getting it to stream real time which typically requires a hardcoded IP address. Easy if you have a router, hard if you live in an apartment complex.
The s/w for both can be largely cut/paste from the templates.
Of course you could also just buy a dropcam or similar device, which streams video to a site and then the mobile app watchest that stream, with a ~3 second delay. But that's not really fun
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I definitely hope to incorporate a camera as one of the future releases. :D I want to be able to spy on my kitties while I'm away.
I tried an Arduino based one and the Raspberry PiCam. PiCam was far better quality. The challenge is getting it to stream real time which typically requires a hardcoded IP address. Easy if you have a router, hard if you live in an apartment complex. The s/w for both can be largely cut/paste from the templates. Of course you could also just buy a dropcam or similar device, which streams video to a site and then the mo…
Have you tried one of those Dynamic DNS services ?
Re: Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tried an Arduino based one and the Raspberry PiCam. PiCam was far better quality. The challenge is getting it to stream real time which typically requires a hardcoded IP address. Easy if you have a router, hard if you live in an apartment complex. The s/w for both can be largely cut/paste from the templates. Of course you could also just buy a dropcam or similar device, which streams video to a site and then the mo…
Have you tried one of those Dynamic DNS services ?
not yet. I did some basic research but haven't gotten to it yet. I"m wondering if that is how the commercial IoT devices do it.