/diy/ - Do It Yourself

If by "360 degree worm gear" you mean an archimedes screw, then yeah, either/or will do. I guess it depends how fragile your product is, an archamedes screw will allow much greater torque and you might find the product gets crushed beteen the blades and the inlet.

Forgive the crap drawing.

Older can dispensing coke machines have something like pic related.

One one can come out per payment.

this would allow a certain amount of fodd to come out per revolution.

>>751897
a sideways archimedes screw sounds like a good option to me, figuring out the proper amount of food it'll drop is the tricky part

>>751900
weight sensor under the bowl maybe?

another dispensing idea:

hackedgadgets.com
/2010/05/24/
diy-automatic-medication-dispenser

another dispensing idea:

>>751906
that does sound good, although if it gets lighter and the cat lifts their head they'll get food dumped on them.

>>751912
the weight sensor would only be active when you want it to dump food - so whenever you normally feed them, say before work each morning.

the sensor checks the weight of the bowl and decides 'has enough food', 'needs some food', 'needs full feed' etc.

>>751912
could also have an angled chute that the food runs down and slides into the bowl...

but the idea of a cat learning to dodge dropping food is too good to resist!

Ok, if your set on using a 75mm pvc pipe, and assuming you mean dry food, not wet canned stuff.

Vertical construction.

Screw down majority length of pipe.

Servo at top.

Controls for servo to manual spin forwards and backwards, timer for automatic dispense.

Stick bottom of pipe in food bag/box whatever, then spin screw in reverse to 'suck up' food.

Pop the full pipe in a stand, set the timer and all good to go.

>>751906
Precisely!

>>751892
Yes, but where the "blade" only makes one revolution around the Y axis.

>>751900
I already have the PVC parts for a vertical construction. But I could see pellets getting stuck in your idea :/

>>751912
>>751914
>>751915
Put a failsafe sensor aimed at the bowl.
Cat is present = no food dump.
No warmbody present = go ahead and dump.

>>752108
It will be dispensing at a specific time of day. There is also a chute.

>>751917
man a wet cat food dispenser would be fucking gross, but doable, probably not sanitary though
basically build a caulking gun that is large enough to dump bulk cat food into it and mechanize the plunger on a timer.

>>752056
I suggested horizontal because I could more easily see the vertical getting damaged on food entry to it

the vertical is a simpler construction process though, so if you don't get trouble from it after a while, great, but if you do, come on back and we'll try to see what went wrong..

>>752116
So horizontal wont get jammed as easily?

Would a piece like this do? Or does it need more spirals?

Thanks!

>>751876
You need something shaped like this and a low speed gearhead motor.

>>752130
>>752136
I'm thinking you can avoid doing any fabrication or sourcing an unusual part by using a large drill bit. The corkscrew has a steeper incline, but it could be placed horizontally.

>feeding your pets when being away for longer periods of time
surely there have to be some kind of tutorials or stuff to buy for this purpose as op cant be the only one with this matter

>>752130
well what you're doing essentually is the kibble fall into the side of it and it smoothly falls in, the only jamming possible is in the sides of the tube itself, which is possible with vertical as well, but vertical has the additional ability to get jammed at the top since you'd have the head of your axle inside the dried food, which is all getting powdery from the top of the screw grinding the bottoms of kibble as it passes.

I'd say horizontal but on a slight angle wouid be best, the screw wouldn't likely need to be very long but how big the gap is, is pretty key.

There is a third option I just thought of now though.
Take a look at the inside of a cement mixer's tank, pic related
the entire screw is stationary inside the container, it is impossible to jam it this way, because it moves the entire container instead.

this is of course, overkill, we are feeding pets not pouring gravel.

>>752143
the thing shown by >>752136 is called an auger, and is usually used with either dirt, or ice on a strong motor, and is a much better option than 'a large drill bit' but is also entirely overkill for feeding fluffy


>>752144
automatic pet feeders are a common product, there's been plenty of threads in the past, but people have different needs.

I'm partial to the 'having dogs that eat until they're full and get exercise' and having multiple dishes myself, but that is a bit too ideal

>>751876
we had this question a while back.

what you want is a horizontal-axis screw in a tube. the food enters through a hole in the top at one end, gets pushed along horizontally, and then falls out a second bottom hole a couple of inches further away.

the technical name for this device is a "screw conveyor". the screw is the part that turns, and the tube is stationary.
small ones often don't use a real screw, they just use a piece of wire coiled up into a spring. these are called "centerless screw conveyors" or "shaftless screw conveyors".

the spring still moves the food. use stainless steel wire.

Depending on where about you are you could possibly get your hands on an ice-drill for fishing. The hole would be around 110mm+ (up to about 200 mm) might be unnecessarily large but since the hardware is already out there you should be able to save cash on fabrication. Apart from that, at least around here there's an entire industry around wood pellets, there should be lots of knowledge to gain there. (screws are one of the main meansof transporting the pellets from silo to burner.

>>751910
That seems simple and efficient...

>>752170
>>752277

Would this do? All the "Screw Conveyor" would be is a circular piece of sheet metal, with a radius cut out, and then bent out at a 45 degree angle. Do you think the food would even get pushed all the way to the "Screw Conveyor"?

>>752488
>Would this do? All the "Screw Conveyor" would be is a circular piece of sheet metal, with a radius cut out, and then bent out at a 45 degree angle.
I doubt it, none of the 'real' ones are made that way.

Here is a page showing a centerless/spring one:
http://www.spiroflowsystems.com/equipment/flexible-screw-conveyors/technical.cfm

you don't need to use a real Archimedes screw. all you need is a piece of thick stainless-steel wire bent into a spring shape, that the motor can turn