My Final Project
Planning the project
To plan and organize the final project (and also the assignments), I'm using Notion.
1st idea
My idea is to create panels that you can easily rearrange as you wish to build a pet house that suits your needs, wills or taste.
In addition to the ease of use of these panels, you can choose different types. For instance : depending on the weather, you will have plain panels or perforated ones to let in or protect your pet from fresh air.
This basic pet house "kit" will have several optional accessories that you can also easily add/attach to the panels (and remove).
- Surveillance camera activated by a movement sensor
- food and/or drink dispenser activated by a movement sensor
- outside light that indicates if your pet is inside
- pot holder for a cat grass plant
- scratch board
- drawer underneath for storage or cleaning (if you put a litter box
- tunnel to add some protection against the cold in winter
Accessories examples :
I've already doodled my ideas in a big A4 notebook that I will use to sketch the designs and visual ideas.
I also searched for images of existing pet items to get inspired and made a Pinterest pinboard with them.
I've decided how I wanted my pet house/box to be built and assembled.
Panels will be square and the holes to attach the accessories hexagonal to look like a honeycomb on some sides, like this 3D printed tools storage panel idea you can find on printables.
I've made a first attempt of building a box by cutting panels of 4 mm multiplex to search for the final panel sizes.
For that, I just generated a box on the Gravini website and added several options like hexagone holes on one panel (to already see how I will work on that "accessories addition" part), elevation pieces (maybe later a drawer), the front hole size to get inside,...
It didn't result so well because the panels weren't flat so the assembling was horrible !
I had to use wall tape (we were currently painting at home) to keep them together !
And once built, the box seemed to big for me.
New turn in my project : 2nd idea
My basic idea is still blur in my mind and the more I learn and work with the Fab Academy, the more I'm aware that I have to focus on smaller parts of this first project.
So I will focus on the accessories (before the whole house) and start with the pet feeder.
I searched for existing models and found this rotating one that can be useful if you go away for several days or need to put your cat on a diet.
My cat isn't greedy so the food bowl is always open.
But leaving it open makes the dry food take the atmosphere humidity and the food will be less tasty.
That's why I'm thinking about integrating a detector that will open the current day bowl whenever she goes to eat a bit, without using the rotating part (which will only be in move when you change the day part).
A good inspiration is Pamela Arana's Fab Academy page, Tony F. Barreiros' Fab Academy Page or Bianca Guimaraes' project this year.
Schedule
As I'm changing my final project, I'm still figuring out how to plan it's building.
So right now I'm using Notion to help me out organising the next weeks (final scheduling planning will come soon!).
Moodboard
As it can be seen in this moodboard, my final idea will be a feeder with a lid. I will integrate a cat head shape in the design and the colours will tend to white, brown and grey.
Project explanation
So, for my final project :
I'm building a cat feeder (that can also work on small dogs but as I'm a Cat Lady, cats go first ! :D).
This cat feeder consist in a "cat-shaped tower", which will have most of the electronics parts, and a dish support with lid where you can put the cat's food.
The eyes of the "cat-shaped tower" will be a distance sensor. This sensor will detect the cat (or human slave hand) approaching and turn on the servo-motor that will open the dish support lid to let the cat eat its food (or the human slave to put some new food in it).
In the dish support you'll have a metallic bowl to put the food. It's easier to clean, more food friendly and also easier to fill (let's help the human slave a bit ! ;) ).
Between the dish support and the bowl there will be a force sensing resistor to measure the quantity of food in the bowl.
If the bowl is full, Led lights, that are in the "cat-shaped tower" 's ears will turn green.
If half of the bowl is empty/full (for the cat it will certainly be EMPTY!), the ears will turn orange.
Finally, if the bowl is empty (FOR REAL!), the ears will be red.
Goal and purpose of the project
Goal
With this project I'd like to work on electronics mostly but also 3D printing with the "cat-shaped tower" part and maybe the dish support.
I love to work with wood and the laser cutter but as I've already used it before I'd like to try out the CNC and shape the dish support with it to give it a "natural" look.
Purpose
Force Sensing Resistor
The Force Sensing Resistor will help the human slave to serve the right amount of food per day to its Cat's Majesty. For example I will talk about my sister's cats that overweight and for whom she has to give different quantity of food per day to help them loose some weight.
Lid with Servo Motor
The lid will help to keep the food secure against room temperature and humidity and keep its texture and taste as it should be.
But also, as part of a future upgrade, it will keep the food from being eaten by the other cats. For that, I will switch the distance sensor with another one that would read the cat's ID chip or collar chip that I'll have to provide with the feeder.
3 colors LED Lights
The LED lights will visually help the human slave to know if the cat really needs some food if it's gently asking for some. For that I've bought a whole box of them (I will be able to fail some times without having to buy some again ! XD)
In another upgrade, I'd like to have this alert on the human slave's smartphone by adding an application which will include the quantity of food remaining, an alert when the cat eats some and maybe more.
3D modelling
- "Cat-shaped tower" for electronics parts
As I'm not enough comfortable yet with the 3D modelling programs as Freecad or Fusion360, and also really short in time to complete my final project, I'm currently modelling the items in Tinkercad, with it pre-designed forms.
For now, the item that will hold all the electronics looks like this : simply shaped minimalistic cat body and head.
On the next weeks I will work on it seriously to get this "cat-shaped tower" mostly finished so that I can work on the bowl and lid part.
- Bowl and lid
For the "bowl and lid part", I found some small Inox plates in a cheap shop. They are initially to make small dishes and go in the oven.
But for me, if you take off the handles, they have the perfect size and shapes for a pet bowl that can be removed from my cat feeder to be filled and washed easily.