Des Westcott
Well-Known Member
This is a copy of the post on my build thread. Ranjib suggested I post it as a separate thread, so here it is.
BEAR IN MIND - different autofeeders work differently and models other than this one may require different fabri-cobbling to get it to work.
I wanted to have an auto-feeder controlled by reef-pi and was given two of these by a mate. After familiarising myself with their workings, I realised it wasn't going to be easy. When turned on, you have two options -
What I did discover though is that for the "once every 24 hours" mode to work, what the unit does is run a cycle immedaitely after turning on, and then every 24 hours after that. So I figured what I would do is turn the unit on, let it run it's first cycle, then turn it off. Tested manually and it achieved what I wanted.
So, I pulled the unit apart and got to work. First thing I did was get rid of the batteries. It runs on 2 x AA batteries (3V). I've decided to take a chance and run the unit on 5V from the same power supply that I use to power the Pi. So far it seems to run it fine. Time will tell if it holds up. If it does die, I have another one as spare and it will get connected to 3V.
Next was to bypass the momentary switch that turns the unit off and on. I did this by connecting the suitable terminals on the board to a spare relay I had on the reef-pi. I called this AF Switch and connected it Normally Open.
So now under normal conditions, the feeder site there getting 5V power just as if it had batteries in.
To get the unit to dispense a feed, I have a Macro that looks like this :
Works perfectly!!! I now have a timer that triggers this macro for my morning feed. And I can trigger the Macro manually any time I want to feed pellets.
BEAR IN MIND - different autofeeders work differently and models other than this one may require different fabri-cobbling to get it to work.
I wanted to have an auto-feeder controlled by reef-pi and was given two of these by a mate. After familiarising myself with their workings, I realised it wasn't going to be easy. When turned on, you have two options -
- Feed once every 24 hours after original turn-on time, or
- Feed Every 24 hours after turn-on AND 6 hours after that - so two feedings 6 hours apart repeating every 24 hours.
What I did discover though is that for the "once every 24 hours" mode to work, what the unit does is run a cycle immedaitely after turning on, and then every 24 hours after that. So I figured what I would do is turn the unit on, let it run it's first cycle, then turn it off. Tested manually and it achieved what I wanted.
So, I pulled the unit apart and got to work. First thing I did was get rid of the batteries. It runs on 2 x AA batteries (3V). I've decided to take a chance and run the unit on 5V from the same power supply that I use to power the Pi. So far it seems to run it fine. Time will tell if it holds up. If it does die, I have another one as spare and it will get connected to 3V.
Next was to bypass the momentary switch that turns the unit off and on. I did this by connecting the suitable terminals on the board to a spare relay I had on the reef-pi. I called this AF Switch and connected it Normally Open.
So now under normal conditions, the feeder site there getting 5V power just as if it had batteries in.
To get the unit to dispense a feed, I have a Macro that looks like this :
- Turn AF Switch ON
- Wait 2 seconds
- Turn AF Switch OFF
- Wait 10 seconds
- Turn AF Swithc ON
- Wait 2 seconds
- Turn AF Switch OFF
Works perfectly!!! I now have a timer that triggers this macro for my morning feed. And I can trigger the Macro manually any time I want to feed pellets.
