Automatic Fish Food Feeder Using Arduino Uno

In this Instructables I'm going to show you how to build an Automatic Fish Food Feeder. So you don't have to remember to feed your fish daily because your Arduino will do it for you. You can also set timers at which the fish get fed automatically like ever 6 hours or so.

This is exclusively for those beginners who want to have the knowledge of Servo motors and Arduino. This is very simple to construct and no soldering skills are required.

Here is an intro to What is a servo ?

A Servo motor is completely different from a normal DC motor. It consists mainly four parts:

a) A normal DC motor.

b) A position-sensing device.

c) Gear-reduction unit.

e) A control circuit.

The servo has a 3 wire connection: power, ground, and signal. The power source must be constantly applied; the servo has its own drive electronics that draw current from the power lead to drive the motor.

The function of the servo is to receive a control signal (from Arduino) that represents a desired output position of the servo shaft, and apply power to its DC motor until its shaft turns to that position.

Now it's time to explain about Arduino UNO

As I said in my previous instructables, it is simple programming platform, that takes input from sensors, switches and many devices correspondingly controlling the output device such as motors..etc

So geeks this theory is enough. Let's jump into knowing what are the stuffs required for this instructables.

Step 1: INGREDIENTS REQUIRED :

Here is all the tools and components to get started with the project. The list is quite simple and all you need is -

• Arduino uno
• Fish food case
• 2 x Servo motors
• A small visiting card
• Breadboard
• A plastic case
• Double side tape
• Jumper wires

As we are using a Breadboard no soldering skills required.

Now gearing time geeks!!!!!!!!!

Step 2: BUILDING THE BODY :

The above pictures will only tell you what and all the procedure required to do this project. If you don't understand chill !!! I am here to guide you.

First, I will divide the procedure into two parts ( each Servo motor one part ) :

First part A : The first three pictures represent the construction involved with the first Servo motor, now place a Servo horn in fish food case (fig .1). Next glue the Servo horn to that case(fig . 2) so that the Servo horn has no space to move freely. Glue the case to the Servo motor(fig . 3).

Second part B : The next four pictures represent the construction involved by the second Servo motor. Cut a hole in the plastic case using a scissors or a blade (fig . 4)such that the Servo motor fit in(fig . 5 , fig . 6). Now take a visiting card and fold it as shown in the figure(fig . 9 ). Then place a Servo horn to that card and tape it as we did for the fish food case.

When you did as per the above instruction you are finished in constructing the body (fig . 9). It's time for coding Arduino. If you are beginner in Arduino project ??? chill, don't worry I have attached the program file below attach it to Arduino IDE.

Step 3: CONNECTING THE BODY TO ARDUINO :

If you are confused in connecting an Arduino to the body, then have a look at this instruction :

• First extend the servo motor's wire to the Breadboard (fig . 2) using Servo extension cable ( but i used jumper wire which is an alternate) (fig . 1)
• Connect the wire of Servo motor as follows

Brown wire = negative of Breadboard(fig . 3)

Red wire = positive of Breadboard(fig . 4)

Orange wire = to the digital pin of Arduino ( servo containing pan goes to pin 9 and servo containing fish food case goes to pin 10 )(fig . 4)

• Connect the negative of Breadboard to the ground pin of Arduino and positive of the Breadboard to the 5V pin in Arduino(fig . 5)

Step 4: CODING :

Time to upload the code, the code or program can be found in the attachments download it or copy it and paste it in the Arduino IDE. The Arduino IDE can be found in the downloads section of the Arduino Home Page. You can install it update the UNO drivers and upload the code, if you face any problems feel free to PM me and I will be glad to help you out.

Step 5: Comming Up

If anyone missed my previous instructable,visit this link : "BUILD YOUR FIRST ROBOT USING ARDUINO AND H-BRDGE".

Follow me for more Arduino related projects and if you encounter any problems with this instructable leave a comment below and I will be glad to help.