Mailbox monday! Kinda :) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Mikey
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 07:52:07 pm
content: I ordered a bunch of wires, resistors, led's and other stuff last week, all needed for my new internet controlled cat food dispenser, and today it all arrived!!!AAAAAAAAAHIn the box to the left there are10x 2 pin connectors + wires10x 3 pin connectors + wires10x 4 pin connectors + wires10x 8 pin sockets for my ATTiny85's10x 1 row 40pin female pinheaders10x 1 row 40pin male pinheadersNext to the box there is a bag with restistors for my optocoupers needed for my cat food dispenser.To the right of the resistors there is a ps2 cable I am going to cut one end off, and then use it to connect a ultrasonic sensor to measure food level in the hopper.Next to the cable there is the female ps2 connector which will be mounted on the food dispenser base, and right above that there is a "figure 8" mains connector, so I easily can connect and remove power from the dispenser.Last to the far right in the picture there are some led's that are only going to be used for on-board debugging.

author: TriodeTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 09:58:31 pm
content: Love opening packages and seeing all that plastic, don't we? Hope your cat will be used to the automation, mine scared away mine, until hunger became more important (knowing cats, seconds later, of course)

author: Mikey
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 10:07:21 pm
content: Quote from: MmCoffee on August 27, 2012, 09:58:31 pmMy cat is like me, so she loves new gadgets!Was a bit fun, she had food in her normal bowl, I then powered up the new feeder while she was eating to test it in peace (she was just as interested in it as I was), and then the entire thing started vibrating from the build in vibrator that helps the food fall down into the feeder mechanism. And she came running right away again, and then noticed food falling out, and have not been interested in her old bowl since...and FFS, I luckily forgot about that big ass ethernet connector arduino decided to put on their ethernet version...I should consider ordering one of these toohttp://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-ethernet-p-1231.htmlGoing to take the protoboard with me to work tomorrow, can put it in the manual mill and make a nice clean cut for the connector to go through then.

author: Mikey
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2012, 08:52:15 pm
content: Ooh, what do we have here?My arduino ethernet with the protoboard milled out for the connector!The internet controlled cat food dispenser is slowly coming along!Got the arduino sketch ready, the two yellow led's indicate when the opto's are on, to simulate button press on the SET and VOL buttons on the dispenser. The red and green show if it is blocking for input. Right now it is set to around 5 seconds but it will be set higher when I get the dispenser timed. The block function will be so it is not possible to command it to run while it is already running.If it is told to run it will returnIf not blocking: GO|{0-100}If blocking: NO|{0-100}|{sec}{0-100} = food level in percentage{sec} = seconds left until it is possible to start the dispenser againMore functions might get added later... Maybe so it is possible to turn some led's or something on... Don't know yet...