Raspberry Pi powered Cat Feeder

thingiverse

Original Dispenser: https://www.amazon.com/Petmate-Replendish-Microban-Automatic-Available/dp/B0057LAICC/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=pet+food+dispenser&qid=1585784987&sr=8-10 Servo motor used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019TOJPO4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 I attached the circular component from the servo motor kit directly to the Auger screw using hot glue. The Python script is straightforward. It was designed to make the motor find its minimum point, but since the servo has a 360-degree continuous rotation, it will simply keep spinning counterclockwise until the script ends. Powering the servo with the Pi's 5V and connecting my servo signal to GPIO 17. The script: Servo.py ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from gpiozero import Servo import time from time import sleep myGPIO = 17 start = time.time() Duration = 3 myServo = Servo(myGPIO) while True: myServo.min() sleep(1) if time.time() > start + Duration: break exit() ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saved Servo.py to my desktop. I used cron as the scheduler. To set it up, I opened a terminal and input: crontab -e Inserted these lines at the bottom: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0 6 * * * python /home/pi/Desktop/Servo.py 0 12 * * * python /home/pi/Desktop/Servo.py 0 18 * * * python /home/pi/Desktop/Servo.py ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This schedules Servo.py to run at 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. To save changes, I pressed Ctrl X, then y, and finally enter. I prefer restarting cron after making any modifications. In the terminal, I input: sudo service cron stop sudo service cron start and it was ready to go.