
Automated Cat feeder powered by Node.js - ohhoe
https://github.com/rachelnicole/robokitty
======
bigchewy
I built something similar for my girlfriend recently. When she's at work, she
misses our dog so I built her a device that, when activated, dispenses a few
treats, takes a video of Pickles enjoying the treats and sends it back to the
sender. She can activate it by either sending an email or, better, picking up
a picture frame that I customized. Inside the frame is a sensor that detects
her touching the photo and that triggers the process, with the video ending up
on her phone.

The main components are a Raspberry Pi to listen and control things plus an
Amazon Dash button that I reconfigured as an on/off switch located next to my
front door.

Overall, the software itself was relatively easy. The tricky part was building
a machine that dispenses a few treats consistently, not 3 treats then 15 then
0.

I've been thinking of writing this up in more detail. If there is interest,
that may provide the motivation.

~~~
ohhoe
I definitely hope to incorporate a camera as one of the future releases. :D I
want to be able to spy on my kitties while I'm away.

~~~
bigchewy
I tried an Arduino based one and the Raspberry PiCam. PiCam was far better
quality. The challenge is getting it to stream real time which typically
requires a hardcoded IP address. Easy if you have a router, hard if you live
in an apartment complex.

The s/w for both can be largely cut/paste from the templates.

Of course you could also just buy a dropcam or similar device, which streams
video to a site and then the mobile app watchest that stream, with a ~3 second
delay. But that's not really fun

~~~
HaseebR7
Have you tried one of those Dynamic DNS services ?

~~~
bigchewy
not yet. I did some basic research but haven't gotten to it yet. I"m wondering
if that is how the commercial IoT devices do it.

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lawnsea
this is a great project! i'm working on a go rewrite right now (i wish the
author had chosen a less broken language in the first place lol).

question: how hard would it be to make this work for a nutrient suspension?
i'm asking because i have switched to soylent (for obvious reasons that i will
not belabor here) but am frustrated that i still have to remember to prepare
and consume it at the correct interval.

it would be truly liberating to simply insert a tube into my mouth that would
dispense an appropriate amount of fuel into my system at the optimal moment -
perhaps triggered by my blood glucose dropping below a particular
threshold[1].

[1]: [http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2015/may-jun/glucose-
monitor...](http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2015/may-jun/glucose-
monitoring.html)

~~~
ntumlin
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but is this satire? I actually can't
tell. Between go rewrite, criticizing the language choice, and wanting to just
stick a tube in your mouth and be automatically fed soylent this almost seems
generated by a markov chain.

If sincere I apologize.

~~~
commandar
I'm mostly impressed that this kind of Poe's Law material is the only comment
on a 1400 day old account.

~~~
ntumlin
Well, it's not my only comment, I think that older ones only show up to me
though past a certain point and I haven't commented in a while. And surely I'm
not too crazy to think he could be serious, I mean there's so much on here
that talks about the same thing, maybe just not all together, and I hope I'm
not the victim of some long running hyper-trendy startup joke.

~~~
striking
No, it's _his_ only comment (his account's about two months older than you,
funny that it happens to be that close).

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kator
I built one of these a couple of months ago using a rPI and a simple relay to
control the 12v feed to one of these:

    
    
        http://www.super-feeder.com/csfmodel.html
    

Literally the code to feed them is a crontab:

    
    
        0 5,11,17 * * * /home/pi/bin/feed - > /dev/null 2>&1
    

Using this script in /home/pi/bin/feed:

    
    
        #!/bin/bash
    
        export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
    
        (
            source gpio
            echo "Using pin 12"
            gpio mode 12 out
            gpio mode 12 out
            gpio write 12 0
            sleep 1
            echo "Turn On"
            gpio write 12 1
            sleep 20
            echo "Turn Off"
            gpio write 12 0
        ) 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info -s -t feed
    
        gpio write 12 0
    
        exit 0
    
        /home/pi/bin/gpio is from here: https://github.com/lasandell/RaspberryPi.git
    

I re-wrote it this weekend as a Openresty powered API (nginx+luajit) and put a
web page on with a feed from the picam so my wife could look at the bowl and
hit a button to dispense more if the cats needed it.

~~~
mnort9
I'm looking to build something similar. What did you use as a hopper?

~~~
kator
The super feeder (linked in my original comment) is amazing, high quality,
really strong, so far I'm very happy with it.

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ape4
Sorry to be boring but a simple timer seems more sensible. Dispense the preset
amount everyday at the same time. And kitty needs water.

~~~
steveklabnik

      > Sorry to be boring but a simple timer seems more sensible.
    

Not all projects are about being sensible. This is "hacker" News after all.

    
    
      > And kitty needs water.
    

Water and food have different needs; an automatic water fountain like
[http://www.amazon.com/Drinkwell-Platinum-Pet-
Fountain-168oz/...](http://www.amazon.com/Drinkwell-Platinum-Pet-
Fountain-168oz/dp/B000L3XYZ4) keeps a pool of water fresh at all times,
without needing to dispense a particular measure of it.

~~~
nyan4
> Not all projects are about being sensible. This is "hacker" News after all.

Problem is: people in the node.js community have a pattern of going from the
"weekend hack" to the "production" stage in weeks. Code maturity has no
meaning to some.

~~~
rhgraysonii
If were being honest with ourselves, are we really concerned about the code
maturity of a simple server feeding a cat? This isn't rocket science. Its a
silly/fun project.

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RankingMember
I've envisioned something similar, but for wet food (dry food is better for
our convenience than it is for cat health in my experience). You'd fill a
(washable and refrigerated) cylinder with wet food, which would be forced out
a heated tip by a piston (sort of like squeezing a toothpaste tube).

The refrigeration and heated tip are the complicating factors. The heated tip
is used because cats don't tend to like cold food, and if you're going to go
to the trouble of hacking something like this together, you might as well go
all the way.

~~~
mkoryak
My cat doesn't care if the food is cold. In fact, he will eat pretty much
anything.

He loves to eat the salad we make every day for dinner, and its not just the
avocado, the other day he ate some tomato that I dropped on the floor by
mistake.

If your cat doesn't like cold food, perhaps you are feeding him too much?

~~~
CaptSpify
More likely: the cats are just different. I've had cats that were super picky
eaters, and ones that will eat almost anything.

~~~
joshschreuder
I think from an evolutionary standpoint, having warm food is probably more to
their liking (killing prey and eating it), though I agree with your point, as
my cat doesn't seem to care either way if it's room temperature or cold.

------
cauterize
Very cool! I've had a Petnet (www.petnet.io) feeder for a few months now and I
never want to go back. Dispensing small quantities multiple times a day has
made my cats inhale-until-instant-vomit issues go completely away.

~~~
gouggoug
This product looks absolutely great. Unfortunately they don't offer an android
app, and it's not clear whether you need the app to program it or if it's just
a bonus.

Do you need the app to use this feeder?

edit: just saw someone else's comment about the app being mandatory to use
this pet feeder.

~~~
cauterize
It is unfortunate, but given that the product is quite solid, time may change
that.

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cing
Cool project, I'm a major fan of automated cat feeders but never attempted the
DIY approach. On a related note, I got a laugh out of this insanely complex
"review" about hacking a cat feeder:
[http://www.amazon.com/review/R3V5LAWRW84JF7/](http://www.amazon.com/review/R3V5LAWRW84JF7/)

~~~
pepsi
I love when people who are obviously of the engineering persuasion write
Amazon reviews. I came across this one when shopping for an automated litter
box recently. A list of issues, with hardware fixes!

[http://www.amazon.com/review/RF24V0C0EGNKP/](http://www.amazon.com/review/RF24V0C0EGNKP/)

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baldeagle
I backed a kickstarter for something like this, plus a wifi camera and laser
pointer. It hasn't shipped yet, but does look like it might actually deliver
(which is something for hardward KS).

[http://kittyo.com/](http://kittyo.com/)

~~~
keehun
Holy batman that scroll hijacking.

~~~
krisroadruck
I have to ask. Why do people dislike this? The browser scroll bar is often
ugly as sin. Also its useful when having more than one area that needs
scrolling capability without having that ugly default scrollbar junk up the
middle of the screen in said application.

~~~
djloche
Look at the name people give it. Scroll-hijacking. The web designer hijacked
the scroll action and modified the behavior to something other than the os
and/or browser level setting. When I scroll, I expect to scroll based on the
settings in my browser. I don't want your website to stop scrolling and use my
scroll action to play through the frames of your slow-loading animation. I
just want to scroll down and keep reading.

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2xlbuds
I never understood the point of automatic feeders for cats - you lose out on
that association your cat makes with you feeding them so your cat doesn't
necessarily like you as much.

~~~
bobbyd3
My cats are very neurotic when it comes to me feeding them. Sometimes they
don't eat when I am not standing right by them. I am looking to disassociate
myself from feeding time as much as possible.

------
armini
I built a dog ball launcher and treat dispenser similar to this using Arduino.
Feel free to ping me if you want the source code and electronic diagrams
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jMdRXeMfA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jMdRXeMfA)

------
brandonmenc
This is definitely a product category that needs shaken up.

My parents recently had to buy four or five of these things just to find one
that worked kind-of sort-of reliably.

------
dominotw
cool. but I won't subject my cat to "kibble".

~~~
justboxing
What do you mean? What do you feed them instead? Curious. I have 3 cats and
they are on the kibble. 1 of them has IBS. I always wonder(ed) if it's cos of
this solid food full or "fillers".

~~~
skunkworks
Wet food is almost certainly healthier for cats. Less carbs, more moisture,
fewer urinary tract issues, etc.

Kibble is great for when you need to get away for the weekend, however.

~~~
gknoy
How do your cats maintain clean teeth when on solely wet food? I had thought
the kibble helped with that, but that may have been more because of my prior
cat's allergies than the food itself.

~~~
skunkworks
Surprisingly, kibble is supposed to be worse for teeth because it gets stuck
on teeth more easily. Same argument has been made for humans and cereal
grains.

------
guymcarthur
A simple (gravity-powered) cat feeder works perfectly well. Unlike dogs, cats
are smart enough to eat only what they need. I have to refill the feeder for
our 3 cats maybe once or twice a month.

~~~
ohhoe
As the person who made this project, I assure you this isn't true.

I have one cat who is a reasonable free-feeder, and another cat who is a food
beast and will devour everything in his grasp.

