Homemade Automatic Dog Feeder Lego Mindstorms RCX 1.0

This is my homemade automatic dog feeder that I built using Lego Mindstorms. The brain of this machine is the RCX 1.0 that you can program using the Lego Mindstorms software. Then the code can be sent from the computer to the RCX with an IR transmitter. This is programmed to feed our 4 month old Maltese puppy Snowball twice a day, at 8am and 7pm. The program will run a motor which will turn a drum filled with food. The drum has a hole in it which allows the food to spill out into a funnel and then down a pipe into her bowl. Everything is zip-tied to a wooden board. The board also has a zip ties on it to hold the board to our stair railing to keep the board from being accidentally knocked over.

This RCX can be plugged into the wall which will allow it to run continuously. The program runs forever in a loop. The loop always recycles at midnight. I programmed it to wait 8hrs, beep twice, run the motor for 4 seconds, wait 11hrs, beep twice, run the motor for 4 seconds and then wait 5 hrs. For the wait periods I used a series of repeating loops with the wait command. Each waiting period I used the "My Commands" feature. For a screen shot or a copy of the program, please email me.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• homemade dog feeder
• automatic dog feeder
• lego mindstorms
• RCX 1.0
• RCX
• diy dog feeder
• dog feeder
• maltese puppy
• robotics invention system
• RIS

[theGreenday0209]

Is there any other recent videos having her in them at all?

[hutchtransfer]

@theGreenday0209 Sorry, but no recent videos of her. I can say that she has grown a little longer than when this video was shot. Now she is around 6 months old and weighs close to 5 pounds.

[theGreenday0209]

Snowball is so small and cute!

[hutchtransfer]

@theGreenday0209 She's a little bigger now, but not much! Thanks for your comment.

[eth6706]

Good idea but not practical. The whole point of having an automatic dog feeder is so you rarely have to do anything to feed your dog. With that small dispenser you'll prolly have to refill it twice a week at least.

[hutchtransfer]

@eth6706 For our needs, this is practical since Snowball doesn't eat that much. Obviously this would not be practical for a larger dog. For "potty control" we would like Snowball to feed at the same time each day. Therefore if none of us happened to be around during these times or if we forget to feed her at the right time, this machine will take care of it. We would never leave her home alone for more than a day, so that's why I built this with a small dispenser.

[nwutecute12]

U r genius! XD I love the idea..

[bosky772]

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[beepster100]

excellent