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Main Unit
Ultrasonic detector for detecting a shortage of food

Inspiration

I wanted to create a feeder that would automatically dispense food (pellets for my rabbit) as well as water. I felt like a project like this would be useful in the sense that I, as a pet owner, would forget to feed my rabbit or check up on its water and food facilities. I, at times, may be busy at times to check up on my rabbit and its food supply. Given the theme of “Hack with A Crew”, I called up my long time friend, classmate and hackathon partner, Ridwan if he was down to be a part of my "crew" and if he wanted to help me draw up a project to meet this goal. He was down, and we got to work with I focusing on the prototype design and the hardware configurations and he focusing on the software aspect of the project.

What it does

Dispenses food to your pet given a certain time that the end user inputs. There is an ultrasonic sensor that detects when there is a shortage of food, via text message. There is a water bottle that the rabbit can drink out of, with a embedded water level sensor that detects when there is a shortage of water and it needs to be filled as soon as possible via text message. We also have an PIR camera that detects when a pet has approached the dispensed food. A text message is then sent to alert a pet owner that their pet is aware of the dispensed food, so it can consume it.

Challenges we ran into

The flap opening system with the servos took a while, especially getting the timing to dispense the right amount of food. It was also hard to get Python to communicate with our Arduino programs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Finishing a worthwhile project that serves a very useful purpose for when an owner is pre-occupied to the point where they are unable to check in on their pets food and drink storage. I find this an issue when im busy with school or I am out of the house for lengthy periods of time.