Introduction: Pet Food Dispenser Featuring 4Duino-24

By http://4dmakers.net/
About: 4D Makers is a group of curious engineers and enthusiasts who finds great satisfaction in creating and building anything from electronics.

In this project, we will use a 4Duino and several IR sensors to create a simple pet food dispenser. checks whether a food tray contains enough food or not. It is programmed to read IR values fromeach sensor. These values change depending on the amount of food in the container.The feeding time can be set by the user via the graphical user interface. The device continuously checksthe time from an NTP server and updates the display. Once feeding time is reached, the dispenser willautomatically release food into the tray if it has insufficient food. The dispensing of food can also be donemanually by touching a button from the display.

Step 1: How It Works

Step 2:

Components:

  • 4Duino
  • μSD card
  • 4 or more IR LEDs
  • 4 or more IR Phototransistors
  • LM324 OP-AMP
  • Potentiometer Resistors (220 Ohms and 10 kOhms)
  • Servo motor
  • μUSB cable
  • uSD Card

Build the circuit as shown in the diagram.

Step 3: Program

Workshop 4 – 4Duino Basic Graphics environment is used to program this project. (The same could be implemented in the latest Arduino IDE

This project requires the Arduino IDE to be installed as Workshop calls the Arduino IDE for compiling the Arduino sketches. The Arduino IDE however is not required to be opened or modified to program the 4Duino.

  1. Download the project here.Open this file using 4D Workshop
  2. .Connect the 4Duino to the PC using µUSB cable.
  3. Then navigate to the Comms tab and select the Comms port to which the 4Duino connected.
  4. Finally, go back to “Home” tab and now click on the “Comp’nLoad” button.
  5. The Workshop 4 IDE will prompt you to insert a μSD card to the PC in order to save the widget images.Insert μSD card, select the appropriate drive and press button “OK”.

  6. If the μSD card has the widget images you can click button “No Thanks”.Step 6: Insert μSD card

  7. After uploading the program in to the 4Duino, it will try to mount the μSD card. If the μSD card is not present it will print an error message.

Step 4: DEMO

For more creative stuff visit 4Duino Projects.Enjoy !!!