automatic fish feeder

[George L.]

Hello,

I am going away soon and need to make a device to feed my fish once a day while I am away.

I have experimented and tested...I am close to finishing but now I am stuck. The image attached is what I have on my breadboard, my own design. This is how it works.

The 555 pulses to the 4040 binary counter. On the 4040 IC, there are four outputs that all light up together at a certain time interval, when all the outputs are high, it triggers the AND gate to give a high output and the gate trigger a relay, which will turn a geared motor. The motor is what will feed the fish. (There has got to be an easier way!)

When I change the value of the 555 cap to a high value, the time it takes to turn on the relay is longer (can be calculated).

This is the problem, the circuit will trigger every 24 hours, but then the relay will stay on for a very long time also. I need the relay to have a short 1 sec. pulse evry 24 hours, I need a time delay! I have tried some things and just can't get it to work.

An option would be to pull the reset high after the relay is on for one second, this would reset the timing and it would start over.

Could someone please guide me or help me out with letting the motor only stay on for 1 second, then reseting the circuit, I think this is the easiest way.

I really don't want my fish to die from starvation :cry:

Would really appreciate some help,

thanks

George L.

 

[jbeng]

I would probably use another 555 timer set up in a one-shot (monostable) configuration with a time constant of 1 second to drive the motor. At that point, the 4-input AND gate (4082) would be changed to a 4-input NAND gate (4012). (or just invert the 4028's output). The output of the NAND gate will go low and trigger the one-shot when your specific count is reached, turning on the motor for one second. Don't forget to add a diode across the relay coil (anode to ground) to protect to the 555's output circuits.
JB

 

[Russlk]

You want to divide down to 1 pulse every 24 hours, that is 86,400 seconds. The 4040 only divides by 4096 maximum, so there is no point in using a gate to decode a lower number. The 24 hour period is 11.5x10^-6 Hz; multiplying that by 4096 gives .04714 Hz for the clock frequency. That is a period of 21 seconds which is just barely doable using a 555. In the circuit below you should use tantalum caps because they are lower leakage than aluminium.

 

[George L.]

WOW, thank you so much!

I am almost finished breadboarding your circuit, my fish will live after all!

Your way is much easier, I really appreciate your help.

What program did you use to draw that up, it looks good.

Thanks,

George L.

 

[Russlk]

I use Autosketch, make my own symbols.

 

[akg]

I really don't want my fish to die from starvation :cry:

if they are small and has lot of vegitation and aeration, they can survive a week without food.

 

[jbeng]

Don't forget to connect pin 1 to ground on the second 555 IC (to the right). The drawing doesn't show it ...

... they can survive a week without food.

What if he's gone a month?

JB

 

[GST_Nem]

i know my dad once found a pond in a house he was working on which hadnt been looked after for over a year. it has some of the largest fish he has ever seen! this is because in such a large pond (it was very big) there is lots of algae and creatures that the fish can eat to survive.

 

[akg]

What if he's gone a month?
JB

nature will take care :lol:

 

[Sadot]

So a 5V relay and motor is strong enough? and what type of motor did you use? also I am just a beginner so do you have to program the counter and if so how?

 

[Boncuk]

OK, electronics have been discussed thoroughly.

How about the mechanical part?

Activating the motor for a limited time won't probably suffice. If it runs too fast fish are fed too richly resulting in rotten food leftovers which increases the number of bacteria in the water, attacking the fishes health.

Activating it too short will probably result in food every second day, which won't harm at all and the fish survive in a healthy state.

If you can get a sprocket with teeth shaped like a shark back fin you might use a solenoid pushing that wheel to advance one tooth every day, ensuring proper function.

Those wheels are used in big clocks called "regulator" in German language. The same kind of wheels is also used for hand operated winches to prevent reverse movement.

BTW, as already posted, if the aquarium has a reasonable size 1,000l and is not heavily populated fish don't starve of hunger left alone without food for one month. Keep some guppies. They take care of regular fresh food for the others.

Boncuk

 

[superfrog]

I for one would use a RC servo for that, as I have plenty laying around.

I would then use a turned around water bottle, and a small slider that fills when under the bottle and when slid out, drops food into the tank. You can make one with a platic ruler that you drill, or any thickish band of plastic(or wood)

That said, my design might not be great for pellet food, as you have a chance of it jamming. Tappeting the top of the hole might help.

 

[Sadot]

Ok so would the RC servo be able to open and close the device used to feed the fish? and Is 5v enough? and i really have questions on how to program the circuit to feed the fish once a day

 

[Boncuk]

That said, my design might not be great for pellet food, as you have a chance of it jamming. Tappeting the top of the hole might help.

as long as the pellets are not bigger than the bottle neck it will work perfectly.

If you are in doubt about jamming use a second servo to shake the bottle gently.

Jamming might of course happen when closing the sliding door. This problem can be solved by shaping the door accordingly.

I imagined a kind of caroussel with chambers for the daily ration of food to be turned at intervals.

 

[JimB]

Another thread nearly four years old is revitalised!

JimB

 

[superfrog]

Nah, missed that detail . My bad.
At least I did not start it.

 

[shijiro06]

what are the value you used in relay and inductor in this circuit?!! what type of IC will i used if i want have to a 2 to 3 pulse in 24hrs..

 

[MikeMl]

You obviously have more time than $. I'm old, so I will not invest man-months of effort into **broken link removed**.

 

[Boncuk]

Hi,

I wouldn't use a motor at all, but a 24 teeth sprocket (with shark fin like teeth) and have a solenoid push the food container to advance for feeding at any desired time period.

If your aquarium is densely populated (one liter per fish) you need to feed every two days.

At 5 liters per fish you might feed every 10 days, etc.

My 5,000l aquarium didn't require any care for food since I kept enough guppies to serve for (fresh) food - even for a three months period.

Boncuk

 

[vidhya93]

Hello,

I'm an enginnering student. Just thought of taking up your idea as my class project.

As I'm a beginner and don't have the exact idea about how this works, I request you to send me the detailed explanation of this circuit.

Also as I'm planning to exhibit this the time interval of 24 hours would be too large.. What changes do I have to make to lower time interval say for example of every 5/10 minutes.

I would be really glad if you could do this for me. I would learn a lot..

Thank you,

Vidhya