Vacation Pet Feeder from Recycled Materials

If you are a pet owner, going on vacation can be stressful. Usually, you need a friend or neighbor to come over every day and feed your pets. However, by enslaving robots you can keep your pet happy and enjoy a stress-free holiday. To save money and learn something new, I decided to make my pet feeder out of recycled materials like cardboard and glue sticks. Cardboard is great for rapid prototyping.

I have entered the pet feeder into the Make It Real Challenge because it relies on 3D modelling software for a rapid prototype design. I made this instructable especially for the contest after writing the original article for wonderhowto.com. As much as I love cardboard, I could prototype more precise designs with a 3D printer and build up my design skills for rocketry and robotics mechanisms. Please rate, vote and comment to help make my cardboard dreams a plastic reality!

Materials

Glue stick
Cardboard
Scissors
Hot glue
Continuous rotation servo
Arduino board

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Step 1:

We will be using the glue stick case as a linear actuator. To attach it to our servo, we must first get rid of the glue. Remove the glue from the tube and pry it off of the inner plastic slide. This can get messy so be careful! Remove the circular cap at the base of the glue and set it aside.