x10 Compatible Solenoid

[erasei]

My poor cats have to complain to me about food far too often lately. Seems that I can remember to change their litter every day but I space out on food, which is right beside the litter. They luck out on water because I bought them on of those large tank/waterfall style dishes with the water pump and filter.

In creating the design I was thinking about building a large wooden box that would hold a bag of food, and then at the botton have a small push level that was spring loaded that would open a small hole and allow food to empty into their dishes below.

I could then mount a solenoid onto the push level and be able to automate food both for daily delivery and for the weekend trips where I'm out of town.

I have two questions..

1: I've googled and searched here for a recommended 120vac solenoid with no luck. Anyone know of one?
2: Any one got a better design I haven't thought of for this scenario?

Thanks,

 

[Gemini]

Hate to go low/no tech, but how about something that works off of the magic called gravity! For $15 why over engineer?

http://www.petco.com/product/9351/Petmate-...ro-Feeders.aspx

 

[erasei]

Hate to go low/no tech, but how about something that works off of the magic called gravity! For $15 why over engineer?

I already have one of those. The cat feeder is in my hobby room, because its the only place inside the house that is mess-friendly. The problem is their food stinks. I run an air purifier 24/7 and it handles odor fine for 1 days worth of food, but when you put a big mess of it out there with fresh food coming in to replenish food they eat.. it smells horrible.

I have been thinking about this project though. This has been done before with a cd-rom tray acting as the solenoid to push the lever.. one guy even used a VCR.. eject out the tape to push the lever, 'play' the tape to withdraw it back into the VCR. 98% of my reasoning for doing this is to actually create it.. not necessarily because I need to use it.. but that's how I sell it to the wife

 

[CollinR]

It's called an x10 powerflash module.

Better yet you could use an auger and extrude a preset amount of food by controlling the RPM and duration of the auger. If build properly you can ake the auger seal to the barrel basically stench proof.


Me personally, I say change the food or ditch the cat.

 

[erasei]

It's called an x10 powerflash module.

I thought the powerflash module just detected stuff coming on and off? Would an Appliance module not do the job? I'm not well versed on the different modules just yet.

Better yet you could use an auger and extrude a preset amount of food by controlling the RPM and duration of the auger. If build properly you can ake the auger seal to the barrel basically stench proof.

I'd been considering something kind of like this but actually using an auger hadn't occured to me. Not at bad idea at all. I could get by with a pretty week continous rotation motor, which I have plenty of already as part of my electronics hobby (PIC controlled cars, etc). I could wire up the motor straight from a wall-wart plugged into an x10 module, so that when power is applied it starts rotating the auger, and stops when x10 turns off the juice.

Since their kibble is pretty small, I wonder if I could use something like a masonary drill bit as the auger.. I have a 1" diameter 12" long one I could try out.. even if I had to buy a brand new replacement bit they are only like $10 at Home Depot.

Another idea would be to just find an old electric drill with a Low spee setting at a garage sale, and tape down the trigger. Wouldn't look as nice but would not use one of my good DC motors..

Me personally, I say change the food or ditch the cat.

I've thought about changing the food myself, but none of them really smell that great. A better option would be to move it to a laundry room or some other location that had good venting with low occupancy, but there isn't any such place in our house.

As far as getting rid of the cats.. well.. I am a dog-person to the core, but I have to admit, our little boy cat is about as rambunctious as a puppy, and he even plays fetch... so I think he's assured himself a spot in the family for a long time