Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js (opens in new tab)

I built something similar for my girlfriend recently. When she's at work, she misses our dog so I built her a device that, when activated, dispenses a few treats, takes a video of Pickles enjoying the treats and sends it back to the sender. She can activate it by either sending an email or, better, picking up a picture frame that I customized. Inside the frame is a sensor that detects her touching the photo and that triggers the process, with the video ending up on her phone.

The main components are a Raspberry Pi to listen and control things plus an Amazon Dash button that I reconfigured as an on/off switch located next to my front door.

Overall, the software itself was relatively easy. The tricky part was building a machine that dispenses a few treats consistently, not 3 treats then 15 then 0.

I've been thinking of writing this up in more detail. If there is interest, that may provide the motivation.

this is a great project! i'm working on a go rewrite right now (i wish the author had chosen a less broken language in the first place lol).

question: how hard would it be to make this work for a nutrient suspension? i'm asking because i have switched to soylent (for obvious reasons that i will not belabor here) but am frustrated that i still have to remember to prepare and consume it at the correct interval.

it would be truly liberating to simply insert a tube into my mouth that would dispense an appropriate amount of fuel into my system at the optimal moment - perhaps triggered by my blood glucose dropping below a particular threshold[1].

[1]: http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2015/may-jun/glucose-monitor...

I built one of these a couple of months ago using a rPI and a simple relay to control the 12v feed to one of these:

    http://www.super-feeder.com/csfmodel.html

Literally the code to feed them is a crontab:

    0 5,11,17 * * * /home/pi/bin/feed - > /dev/null 2>&1

Using this script in /home/pi/bin/feed:

    #!/bin/bash

    export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH

    (
        source gpio
        echo "Using pin 12"
        gpio mode 12 out
        gpio mode 12 out
        gpio write 12 0
        sleep 1
        echo "Turn On"
        gpio write 12 1
        sleep 20
        echo "Turn Off"
        gpio write 12 0
    ) 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info -s -t feed

    gpio write 12 0

    exit 0

    /home/pi/bin/gpio is from here: https://github.com/lasandell/RaspberryPi.git

I re-wrote it this weekend as a Openresty powered API (nginx+luajit) and put a web page on with a feed from the picam so my wife could look at the bowl and hit a button to dispense more if the cats needed it.

Sorry to be boring but a simple timer seems more sensible. Dispense the preset amount everyday at the same time. And kitty needs water.

I've envisioned something similar, but for wet food (dry food is better for our convenience than it is for cat health in my experience). You'd fill a (washable and refrigerated) cylinder with wet food, which would be forced out a heated tip by a piston (sort of like squeezing a toothpaste tube).

The refrigeration and heated tip are the complicating factors. The heated tip is used because cats don't tend to like cold food, and if you're going to go to the trouble of hacking something like this together, you might as well go all the way.

Very cool! I've had a Petnet (www.petnet.io) feeder for a few months now and I never want to go back. Dispensing small quantities multiple times a day has made my cats inhale-until-instant-vomit issues go completely away.

Cool project, I'm a major fan of automated cat feeders but never attempted the DIY approach. On a related note, I got a laugh out of this insanely complex "review" about hacking a cat feeder: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3V5LAWRW84JF7/

I backed a kickstarter for something like this, plus a wifi camera and laser pointer. It hasn't shipped yet, but does look like it might actually deliver (which is something for hardward KS).

http://kittyo.com/

I never understood the point of automatic feeders for cats - you lose out on that association your cat makes with you feeding them so your cat doesn't necessarily like you as much.

I built a dog ball launcher and treat dispenser similar to this using Arduino. Feel free to ping me if you want the source code and electronic diagrams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jMdRXeMfA

This is definitely a product category that needs shaken up.

My parents recently had to buy four or five of these things just to find one that worked kind-of sort-of reliably.

cool. but I won't subject my cat to "kibble".

A simple (gravity-powered) cat feeder works perfectly well. Unlike dogs, cats are smart enough to eat only what they need. I have to refill the feeder for our 3 cats maybe once or twice a month.