Patent ID: 8074602
Filing Date: 2011-12-13
Classification: A01K

Abstract:
1. A food dispenser for dispensing dry food, said food dispenser comprising: a food receiving module for receiving said food; a metering module for metering a quantity of said food to dispense, said metering module defining a metering module upper wall, a substantially opposed metering module lower wall and a metering module peripheral wall extending therebetween, said metering module upper wall defining two substantially opposed input ports operatively coupled to said food receiving module for receiving said food therefrom, and said metering module lower wall defining two substantially opposed output ports for releasing said food, said output ports being substantially offset from said input ports when said food dispenser is in an operative configuration for preventing a direct flow of said food between said input and output ports, said metering module including an impeller having at least one arm defining a vane, said impeller being rotatably mounted between said metering module upper and lower walls for rotation in a plane substantially parallel to said metering module lower wall, said metering module also including a power drive unit operatively coupled to said impeller for selectively rotating said impeller; a discharge module operatively coupled to said output port for receiving said food from said output port and dispensing said food; a directing structure mounted in said food receiving module, said directing structure defining a pair of directing planes diverging from each other, each of said directing plane being inclined toward a respective one of said input ports; and an impeller rotation detector operatively coupled to said impeller for detecting a rotation of said impeller when said power drive unit is used to rotate said impeller, said impeller rotation detector including a magnet mounted to said impeller for joint rotation therewith and a magnetic field sensor fixed with respect to said metering module upper and lower walls, said magnetic field sensor being positioned to be substantially in register with said magnet when said impeller reaches a predetermined rotation angle; wherein said metering module is configured and sized to discharge a predetermined quantity of said food when said impeller rotates over a predetermined rotation angle; whereby said impeller rotation detector detects that said impeller has rotated over said predetermined rotation angle after said power drive unit has been energized to detect dispensing of said predetermined quantity of said food.