Batteryless fish feeder

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Doesn't take rocket science figure this one out, pretty simple.

Remove leads of motor (red/black), connect to leads on phone charger (red/black), plug phone charger into timer.

I use for feeding dry coral food every 1-2 hrs.

Tip of the week

 

[Thingsibuild]

Great idea.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Great idea.

Thanks, can't feed only 4 times a day. Corals need more feeding.

 

[ScottBrew]

Good idea. I've got the same feeder and am in the process of interfacing it with a reef-pi. I'm waiting on a buck convertor to drop my 24v to 3v now, but a question... how do you time it if you are just hooking up directly to the motor? Do you just have the timer set to roughly the amount of time it takes the drum to rotate or does the home position switch still function? My plan is to power it and then have a relay ground the switch for the manual feed, wondering if there was a simpler solution.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Good idea. I've got the same feeder and am in the process of interfacing it with a reef-pi. I'm waiting on a buck convertor to drop my 24v to 3v now, but a question... how do you time it if you are just hooking up directly to the motor? Do you just have the timer set to roughly the amount of time it takes the drum to rotate or does the home position switch still function? My plan is to power it and then have a relay ground the switch for the manual feed, wondering if there was a simpler solution.

Timer takes care of when drum rotates. If i use a 3v transformer easier to stop. Still works fine as is.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Another idea is wiring feeder into 4 head dosing pump?

Stay tune

 

[ScottBrew]

Timer takes care of when drum stops. If i use a 3v transformer easier to stop. Still works fine as is.

Another idea is wiring feeder into 4 head dosing pump?

Stay tune

Ok, answered the first question, thank you. So, what do you mean by wiring it into a doser?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Ok, answered the first question, thank you. So, what do you mean by wiring it into a doser?

Doser has timer, tie into pump or eliminate dosing pump, would step down voltage 12v to 3v dc. To fish feeder. Easier?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I probably do that, because I can time it as I wish. 3 seconds on, half hour or 2 hours off

 

[ScottBrew]

Doser has timer, tie into pump or eliminate dosing pump, would step down voltage 12v to 3v dc. To fish feeder. Easier?

Gotcha! Already have the reef-pi, been running for almost 2 months now, also have an extra relay on the 4 channel board. Don't have a dosing pump yet. I'm able to control it currently via web interface, the macros shut down all pumps and powerheads already for feeding so I got the Eheim to allow remote feeding control when I'm not home. That is, until the software is updated to allow timers to control macros, then it will be fully automatic.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Easier to service than apex....

Fighter plane electronics goal is, control automation seperately. So if one thing goes south, not all is gone.
I have everything automated like that. If something gies wrong. I know exactly where issue is. Eventually need to monitor from cloud, not from router(s). Nice setup

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Timer im using can ONLY do 1-60 sec, on. 1-60 minutes off. I need 1 to 2 hours off I thought the timer I'm using could do that, but it doesn't

 

[ScottBrew]

https://learn.adafruit.com/users/ranjib build guides here if you want some ideas!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

https://learn.adafruit.com/users/ranjib build guides here if you want some ideas!

Yes, will do. Thx