WEEK 17 (24 May 2017)
[Applications and Implications]
The assignment for this week is to propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered.
What will it do?
Automated Cat Feeder based on recycled materials.
It's a smart food device "C.A.T'S", which will dispense an amount of dry food at a chosen time of the day, it's perfect for when I must leave my two cats by themselves, and would rather that they don't starve.
Who's done what beforehand?
There are many more Cat Feeder's, but this cat feeder was built based on recycling materials, like an electric cable coil.
I turned the electric cable coil into a cat feeder for my cats, (Using Valchromat and water pipes) and other important requirement it is to have easy maintenance.
To work on the structure, mechanical devices, software adaptation, electronics and wiring, casing and logos, etc. I will use and develop a lot of skills, most of them adquired within the Fab Academy course as well on the awesome fab network.
What materials and components will be required and where will they come from?
The project will require:
Materials:
- Electric cable coil (recycled); - Came from a construction in Fundão
- 3D Printed a drill bit (Screw Mechanism) (In PLA)
- Water pipes (recycled) (40mm Diameter x A little over a 0.25 Metre long) - Came from a construction in Fundão
- sheet of clear Acrylic (3mm) - Local supplier
- Hinge (We used one 110mm Long) - Local supplier
- White Wood MDF; - Local supplier
- Orange Valchromat; - Came from Valchromat Portugal
- Wood Glue; - Local supplier
- Rope; - Local supplier
- Electric tube (recycled);- Came from a construction in Fundão
- Cheese package (recycled);- Came from my house
Electronics:
- Arduino (I need an Arduino UNO) - DigiKey
- Continuous Servo - Local supplier
- 16x2 LCD Screen - Mauser Porto
- Potentiometer - Mauser Porto
- Power Supply - Local supplier
- RTC - Real Time clock : - DigiKey
How much will it cost?
1 x Arduino (We're using an Arduino UNO R3). Price - $24.95
1 x Continuous Servo (Can be bought or an ordinary Servo can be modified - Search Google). Price - $ 14.54
1 x 16x2 LCD Screen ic2. Price - $8.75
1 x Potentiometer. Price - $1.42
1 x Power Supply (Anything above 500mA should have enough juice for the Servo and LCD). Price - $1.24
1 x RTC. Price -$6.39
Total spending: $57.29
What parts and systems will be made and what processes will be used?
I think I will make the major parts needed for this project.
- One of the first things to do should be the main mechanism , it's by far the easiest part, because we have many 3D Printers in the Fab Lab. In the week 5 (the 3D scanning and printing assignment) I had already drawn the drill with Rhino, I just had to make some adjustments to improve the drill bit;
- PLA parts I use 3D printing;
- I drew the pieces that will be cut on the CNC Router in Ilustrator;
- I drew the pieces that will be cut on the Laser Cut in Ilustrator;
- The Covers (acrylic and vinyl) will be cut on the Laser Cut machine;
- Mechanical devices I use Artcam to post processing the 3D CAD models, and then, CNC machining the Valchromat;
- Electronics, wiring, software, etc. I used tutorials from fab academy and available all over the web;
- I use the Arduino, the former is to setup the RTC with the correct date and time, the latter is the code that will gather this feedback and use it to activate the motor at a set time.
The line to set the "Motor Alarm" is in the Void Loop, for example to food C.A.T'S at 6:00pm everyday change the line to "if (hour == 18 && minute <=0) {"
This will run the motor for one minute at precisely 6:00pm, which is plenty of time to dispense a cat bowl full to the brim. The motor will turn itself off after this minute.
- I use the vinyl cutter to made my logo "C.A.T,S.
- I use the Modela MDX 40 to milling the boards.
What tasks need to be completed?
All the electronics, finish the Design of the boards, produce the boards and test them independently.
Mount the devices on the structure ( electric cable coil );
Assemble parts for movements and join them with the continuous Servo;
Test all the possible motions by hand and align everything needed for motion;
Assemble main controller with the Continuous Servo and the LCD Screen;
What questions need to be answered?
There are some questions that I have from the beginning:
What materials and arrangements make the best devices to work in this specific task? How to achieve good results of performance with recicled materials and available fabrication processes? How complicated is the software to work with it at daily time 3D printing?
What is the schedule?
1 week : 5 Days
- Disassemble all parts of the object (Done)
- Required materials (Done)
- Build a pipe (Done)
- 3D Print drill bit (Screw Mechanism) (Done)
- Cut the valchromat in the CNC
- Build the inner funnel
- Build the container for food in acrylic
- Document
2 week : 7 Days
- Mill Board
- Solder Boards
- Program boards
- Start building Machine
- Join all the electronics and programming
- Processing / Arduino Interface
- Solve Problems
- Document
3 Week : 11 Days
- Finishing touches
- Prepare presentation document
- Help in other Final Projects
Total 23 days
How will it be evaluated?
One part will be the correct interaction between the mechanical, electronics, electrical and coding subsystems of the project. Finally, the most important is to achieve the main goal:
Get a strong, durable, reliable with easy maintenance requirements Cat Feeder to work intensively. So, it must work during a lot of hours per year (we must have in mind that de cats will randomly interact with the device)
I love to recycle materials, initially it wasn't to be a recyclable cat feeder, but in the week 7 (Computer - Controlled Machining) in which I built two houses for my cats. Then I decided to turn one more electric cable coil, but this time in an automated cat feeder(C.A.T'S Feeder)
