Automatic Pet Feeder

[Christina Delgado]

Hello,
I'm having trouble figuring out a good mechanism to dispense dog food automatically, I currently have a slab with a motor going in and out off the bottom of a funnel, wondering if there's another way to do it.

 

[IRstuff]

Generally, some sort of compartmentalization is desirable, since it's too easy to jam doors and gates with kibbles caught in the middle. A paddlewheel or conveyor belt with tall fins would allow you to dispense discrete amounts of kibble.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[3DDave]

I direct you to the USPTO United States Patent and Trademark Office that has, online, search capability for US patents. They typically show the generic workings of whatever is patented and have explanations of why their design is better than other designs and therefore worthy of a patent. They also list the status of the patent and the ones that are no longer active are fair game for borrowing.

 

[3DDave]

One I think would be fun to watch is the alternating staircase mechanism. It is used in marble machines to cause the marbles to walk up. Obviously for dry pelletized food, and the staircase parts need to be removable to allow the small particles that will certainly fall into any gaps to be cleaned out. It's jam resistant as long as the gaps are smaller than the pellets and, as I said, it's fun to watch them going up the stairs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4MBu84p7CI

- skip the lever that is loading them one at a time and just funnel the food into the fixed bottom stair. Also - Denha has a lot of interesting mechanisms.