Build your own hackable automated cat feeder for $20
nachonachoman.svbtle.com
nachonachoman.svbtle.com
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/D1-mini-Mini-NodeMcu-4M-byte...
It's actually the ESP8266 chip inside that you're after. It runs Arduino code, although you must tell your IDE you're targeting an ESP8266 (it has special libraries for wifi use, etc...).
ESP8266's come on many boards, including the bare-boned ESP-01 [1], which is even cheaper at $1.53 per each.
The only problem with ESP8266's, is they are very power hungry, requiring 500mA-1A for doing wifi related things. Although, when not using WiFi, you can shut down the antenna and save on power consumption.
[1] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ESP8266-Serial-Esp-01-WIFI-W...
Most documentation I've seen seems to state a typical max draw of <250mA (for instance, http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?t=133) -- I guess there will be some spikes, but I was never aware of anything approaching 1A.
Anecdotally, I've experienced reliability issues when running off 500mA, but that could just be my setup + accessories.
It's funny how it works - last time I went down the rabbit hole on the tail end of a late night session, everything pointed at 1A being considered "safe", and anything lower was "iffy".
If you put the chip into any of the Deep Sleep modes, power consumption goes way down to just a few mA's, making battery operation much easier.
There are several spikes approaching 500mA - and you might see even higher current consumption if you're further from your wifi AP, or if you have extra components, a different voltage regulator, or different capacitors.
Many beginners only have a basic multimeter (if that) so they might have a hard time diagnosing problems caused by spikes in current consumption. So I think it's good for beginners to get at least a 500mA power supply, even though the average on state current consumption only hovers around 70mA.
No, it isn't, just like most arduino users aren't actually "after" the Atmega328p.
Every one of the boards we're discussing has an ESP8266... the specific board itself doesn't matter really. You found the chip you need, now you just find the board that has the features you want.
In the case of the arduino, there's a plethora of microcontrollers they can have, ATmega328p being only one of them.
The microcontroller on the arduino dictates it's maximum capabilities - for example, ATmega328p only has one set of hardware serial TX/RX pins, whereas the ATmega2560 has two sets.
In the case of boards/modules built using the ESP8266, the board/module dictates the maximum capabilities. It either exposes GPIO ports or it does not, some boards build in power regulators or battery connectors, or other nice-to-have-features that do not exist in the ESP8266 chip itself. It's the same chip under the hood.
So, yes, in this case, it is indeed the ESP8266 chip you're after.
No, it isn't. You're after a chip with wifi, that you can program using the arduino IDE, that has a programmer on it, and that has the pins broken out.
The thing people want here is the Atmos D1, which uses a ESP8266 to cover some of those wants, and itself to cover more of them.
When I am buying, for instance, a bean (basically an arduino variant with a BLE radio on it), I am not buying an AVR.
Bluntly: I spend about 100% of my time working from a hackerspace, and a good chunk of that time is spent teaching people to program microcontrollers. The D1 is by far the best ESP8266-based board I have seen so far. THAT is the thing that people have been wanting, the ESP part of it is irrelevant to people. They want something that does the things I outlined. The ESP just happens to do half of them. If tomorrow, wemos swapped that chip out for an identical one, people would STILL want the D1, and wouldn't be missing the ESP at all.
> You're after a chip with wifi, that you can program using the arduino IDE, that has a programmer on it, and that has the pins broken out.
That would be an ESP8266... no? The ESP8266 is everything you just listed as a requirement - it literally checks every box you laid out. Now you just pick a board in the form factor you need for your project, and has any additional features you need/want.
> The D1 is by far the best ESP8266-based board I have seen so far.
You just said it again right there. The D1 just happens to be the packaging the ESP8266 is wrapped in.
> When I am buying, for instance, a bean (basically an arduino variant with a BLE radio on it), I am not buying an AVR
Except that you are! The bean is powered by an ATMega! The 328p to be exact!
> If tomorrow, wemos swapped that chip out for an identical one, people would STILL want the D1
Probably not, since any other chip is unlikely to have as much community support and integrate so seamlessly into existing arduino IDE's.
People don't want a wemos or D1, most people don't even know they exist! People want an arduino with wifi that doesn't cost $99 and isn't in a clunky shield form factor. They get that with an ESP8266 wrapped up in one of the hundred different board options, of which, the D1 is but one.
Heck, you can even get an ESP-01 (ESP8266 chip with only basic functionality exposed) for less than $2, and add wifi to an Arduino Uno, or any other device with serial capability.
> Bluntly: I spend about 100% of my time working from a hackerspace, and a good chunk of that time is spent teaching people to program microcontrollers
Perhaps you should spend some time teaching people about what they are really working with. They don't need an arduino to build their project, they need a microcontroller, and the ATmega328p happens to be very cheap, easy, and accessible for even complete beginners. You're kind of doing people a disservice by leaving the arduino as a magic black box.
Oh FFS.
Look, if you give the overwhelming majority of people this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-lot-ESP8266-Wifi-Chip-w...
They aren't going to make anything.
If you give them this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-ESP-12F-ESP-12E-upgrade...
They are going to have a bad day because it doesn't have a programmer built onto it.
If you give somebody this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/WEMOS-D1-mini-Pro-16M-bytes-...
They are going to install the arduino IDE, hook it to a USB cable, and make something.
Are you technically pedantically and absolutely pointlessly correct that the ESP8266 chip is the important part of this to SOME people? Yes. But the people who are taking a bare chip in a freaking QFN package and building something around it, who have the equipment to mount it to a board, are not reading "$20 DIY cat feeder" articles, nor would they be in any way confused by somebody telling somebody to buy a prototyping board in an arduino-form-factor.
Your "point" here is one that is completely irrelevant to anybody who would be reading it.
The ESP8266 is in every ESP8266 based board. Your favorite ESP8266 based board just happens to be the D1 that comes with extra bells and whistles, such as a USB port.
The point I originally made, that apparently started your tirade, was that the ESP8266 is the common chip that provides the capability people are looking for.
They don't need to buy a D1 to get that capability, they can buy _ANY_ board with an ESP8266 inside! So long as it has an ESP8266 inside, they get the community support, IDE support, and WiFi support. If they want/need it, they can also get GPIO and directly program the ESP8266 inside, but that is _NOT_ required. You can plug any ESP8266-based board into another microcontroller and get WiFi connectivity through the serial pins.
You've found the chip - now you just find the board. How do you not understand that?
With that said, I feel this could go on forever... so... we're done.
Not once has someone asked me "what are various boards I can use if I want to program the ESP8266?". Literally zero times have I met someone who would know what to pick between all the different options and didn't know the term to search for on eBay.
With the ESP8266 chip, you have a lot of board options!
[1] https://www.losant.com/blog/top-6-esp8266-modules
[2] https://openhomeautomation.net/choose-esp8266-module/
[3] http://www.esp8266.com/wiki/doku.php?id=esp8266-module-famil...
And for those who dont know ESP32 came out erlier this year and has much better specs, power consumption, Bluetooth, etc. You'll want that.
The wemos has a programmer on it, a USB port, etc. It is based on the ESP, but it is a lot more than just an ESP.
I generally find it better to recommend one thing to new people than to inundate them with options that they can't differentiate between and that, ultimately, won't matter to them. If you don't know what you want to get, what service am I doing you by showing you many different options that are more or less the same, and which you don't know enough to choose between?
http://frightanic.com/iot/comparison-of-esp8266-nodemcu-deve...
wemos has a smaller form factor, but lacks breakout, has the ch34 and is headless so maybe not suitable for beginners like i think of the nodemcu.
edit: also I'd like to add that the nodemcu and sparkfun thing already have a esp32 upgrade available where the wemos has not.
But hey, just my opinion.
You'll want one of the boards listed on this webpage: http://esp32.net
$3 or $15 really doesn't matter here.
Wouldn't recommend it is a straight replacement, though, since it uses 3v logic, instead of 5v. A lot of stuff wants to see 5v, so you'd need a logic level shifter to use the wemos stuff as a drop in replacement for the arduino.
Only one analog pin, also.
And the older one on making Monkey the cat hunt for his dinner: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10021268 http://benjaminmillam.com/cat-geek/monkey-the-cat-hunts-for-...
I feed mine Wellness Core and they love it.
We all have limitations on the amount of time we can spend with our loved ones (animals included). Making sure they are fed is very important, but sometimes you can't be around when they need their food.
This seems exactly like the best solution to the individuals problem.
Granted, there's no proof that wet is better, there's just a ton of anecdotal evidence that dry food leads to dehydration and kidney issues. I had to switch entirely to wet due to diabetes. Surprisingly, fancy feast classic is one of the most recommended foods.
Her is the keyword here.
Castrated male cats (cats are almost always castrated here) generally get FLUTD.
We got a special diet for him.
And we CBA with separating them for food. That's just not practical.
So, she'll also eat his diet food.
We occasionally give them some different food like our leftover herring. But that is very salty for them. Its a treat, but not healthy.
Sadly OP solution wouldn't help me because they 'd just kick the food under thr sofa where it can rot...
Sweep left (food starts falling), wait on average 90 sec (food gone?), sweep right, wait 85ms.
Then does it stop, or repeat the loop (until the outlet timer turns it off)?
The random sleep seems unusual, though -- I would have normally done delay(random(1802) 1000) -- is this a particular idiom with a benefit I don't know about?
The initial "close" threw me. Is the door initially open? Or are we just jamming it shut and stressing the servo?
Probably more likely to shut off while opening/closing the door -- in those 2 loops (2 out of 1000?). Assuming an average main loop of ~85 seconds.
Kitty jackpot!
I'm particularly unlucky because I live in an ancient house so studs are never ever close by and all the walls are plaster so that means 1 inch hole with a molly screw (with chips of plaster and dust and follow up vacuum job... god forbid you ever take the thing down because now you have to patch the hole back up).
There has to be better solutions to attach things to the wall (and yeah I have done the whole velcro command strip thing as well).
One type is fairly common (and might be able to be used with plaster - maybe) which has a plastic insert you install into a drilled hole, then when you thread the screw into it, it expands to wedge itself in the hole. IIRC, the largest of these can hold about 30-50 lbs in drywall (probably less in plaster).
The second type uses a large threaded insert; the hole you drill for this is typically larger than the screw which threads into it, but the anchor can hold much more weight (up to 150 lbs per anchor in drywall). I don't think they can be used in plaster, though, as they are meant to thread into the drywall.
I've used both successfully for a number of projects in my house; I have an entire wall (about 12 x 8 feet) of bookshelves (using shelving standards and melamine shelving) held up by the threaded anchors (hundreds of pounds of books). I have used the expanding anchors for heavy items like large pictures and mirrors, among other items.
The major downside with any of these anchors, though, just like molly or toggle bolts they leave larger holes which need to be filled if you move the item. Hence, you typically only use them for items which will rarely, if ever, be moved.
http://www.colfert.com/Public/img/catalogo/products/zoom/img...
https://admin.abc.sm/upload/1115/catalogodinamico/prodotti/H...
Sounds more like an excuse I'd give my wife for why I solved the tampering problem by introducing a mess problem.
I was more focused on the "foraging" concept with regard to cats. I don't think cats forage.
Years ago we rescued a barn cat, she would wonder all over the area to find food (few mi radius): birds, mice, etc.
Barn cats are so cool! Little murderfloofs with their instincts well intact.
CleverPet Hubs work with cats, too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzXwrXEkmHM
Also, there have been rumors that the Hubs will be user-hackable in short order. And they use Particle Photons in any case ...
EDIT: the link I was talking about was thhis: http://www.super-feeder.com/ It is very cool if money is not an object to you
"Eat it up! Eat it ALLL up my little Tigers!"
Anecdotally, once I had two cats that I "trained" to use a catdoor I had just installed.
Cat #1 learned to use it in like three times I guided him thought the thingy. Cat #2 simply couldn't grasp the idea and after like 100 attempts I gave up.
Later I heard "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, tlatlac!", cat #2 never learned to use the catdoor "properly", or maybe he had some vision defect, cannot really say, but he got that it was a way in so it simply went head in on the whole door (from left to right in 15 cm steps) until he got through the cat door.
One way or the other, he got in.
I think that was half the point.
In the event of a malfunction and all the food is dropped I believe the tigers will actually throw a party.
In the event the tigers die from overeating then I am a terrible tiger dad and they die a happy death.
I do not know how to hack a tiger per se but I like tigers. Which is why I built this. So I dont see myself intentionally putting them in any form of danger.
If you're worried about starvation, the article mentioned that this was only for the morning meal, so that the cats won't drag their human out of bed. If it malfunctions and doesn't turn on, I suspect the cats would fall back to dragging their human out of bed. This isn't for long term "away" feeding - the human will know it malfunctioned long before the cats are in any danger of starvation.