Make a Raspberry Pi powered cat feeder. via drstrangelove
Back in February 2013 I started teaching my Raspberry Pi 101 class. After the first class I think I had Pi on the brain, I was scheduled for a quick weekend trip out of town with my girlfriend, and she was due to leave her two cats behind. She said that she was going to leave a large bowl of cat food out, and with that I suggested that I build an automated cat feeder for them.
Ya know, so the cats don’t over eat, and maybe have a mixture of food, and it’s super cool! (Did I mention that it’s cool!?) So… five days before leaving town, I purchased the food hopper, and very quickly ran out of time to complete the project before leaving on vacation. So plan B it was, a large bowl of cat food, and water.
However, I did stick with my original plan, and saw the build to completion well before my next trip out of town. In this blog post, I’ll list out the step-by-step (for the most part) process to building your very own Wifi Enabled Raspberry Pi Powered Cat/Human Feeder.
I’ve published a Google spreadsheet here, that lists the specific parts and components that you need to acquire for this project. It’s really simple, and can be easily assymbled in about 4-6 hours once you have all the parts.
Tools required:
• Soldering Iron
• Drill
• 1/2″ drill bit
• 1″ drill bit (for push button switch, optional)
• Hot glue gun + glue
• Wire cutter
• Pliers
Prerequisites for the build:
• Have all the parts on-hand, check out the Google spread sheet.
• Have a working and installed OS on the Pi. Adafruit Occidentalis or Raspbian work well.
• Have the Wifi Adaptor setup and ready to go: Occidentalis or Raspbian
• Play around with the GPIO in and out on the Pi by downloading the code from my GitHub Repo
• Install the Python GPIO.PWM module: RPIO install docs
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!