My cat's name is Loaf. We gave her that name because when we adopted her... she was as big as she could possibly get (seriously, the vet said she couldn't get bigger!). To help her lose that weight and help her in to old age, we've come up with some pretty crafty ways to make sure she's not overeating and that she's eating small amounts throughout the day to curb hunger. She gets most of her food from a ball with small holes in it that releases kibbles when she rolls it around the floor, but on days where Mr. Mills and his partner aren't around to fill up the ball every 6 hours, they enlist the help of an automatic feeder that drops a predetermined amount of kibbles all over the floor (so Loaf gets some exercise) every few hours. This was done by mounting an Arduino (and a few other parts) into a custom designed and 3D printed plastic shell. The one regret I have is not making the joinery strong enough to last multiple opening and closings of the case. There's a bit of black duct tape holding together the bottom of the finished piece (seen in the bottom right photo)
Submission Date: January 18th 2022
Associated Files:
Auto Feeder - Mr. Mills.stl
Auto Feeder - Mr. Mills.gcode