Fish Food Feeder From Scrap

Hello creative minds.

Let's make an amazing fish feeder from scrap.

With simple circuit and materials from scrap this would be the cheapest functional diy feeder.

I only had to spend money on glue and on a few electronic components.

With little bit of effort and passion you could make this awesome project.

Here I used ldr circuit as the trigger mechanism to make the build super cheap.

You could also use a timer switch, Arduino or any other means as the trigger circuit it's your choice.

This project will be really useful when the covid pandemic is over. You wouldn't need to worry about feeding your lovely fish, while your are visiting your friends or relatives.

Complete guide for the build is in the YouTube video.

Buckle up for an amazing project …

PVC pipes

Plastic bottles[as container and for few parts]

Empty pen refills

Old dvd drive mechanism[or any suitable gear system you could find]

Piece of tyre tube

Sand paper

Scrap pieces of ACP[or any type of flat sheet ]

Baking soda

Super glue

Mseal

Pipe solvent

Limit switch[optional]

Screws

Double sided tape.

Circuit:

BC547 transistor

10k ohm variable resistor

LED

LDR

1K ohm

relay [6 or 12 volt depending on your use]

5 volt power supply

TOOLS :

Hack saw

Screwdrivers

Plier

Scissors

Hand file

Thermocol cutter

Mini drill

Firstly from a piece of 25mm pipe we need to make a coupler of length about 5 to 6cm.

[coupler is made by heating a piece of pipe and then jamming it with another piece ]

Now we need to make a small cut to provide spacing for our limit switch.[optional]

[Use of limit switch: We have severe ants issues here, they would get easily attracted by the fish food if not properly sealed. Even though my impeller has three blades ,there is a possibility for the blades to provide spacing. When power is off limit switch ensures that the blades stops in such a way that they provide a complete seal to the content inside.]

Also cut a piece of pipe and grind it's surfaces. So that it can rotate freely inside the coupler.

Flatten a piece of pipe by heating and placing it between two flat surfaces.

From the flattened pipe cut a small piece and join it to the coupler and pipe we have cutout earlier using solvent.

Cutout holes in the coupler, pipe and container suitable for your need.

I used hack saw and hand file to make the holes.

Cuts in the inner pipe is to provide guide lines for the remaining cutouts we need to make.As you will see it in the successive steps.

From the dvd drive cutout the gear portion .I am using an acp sheet as the base.

You can use any flat piece of sheet available to you. Also make a rectangular hole in it, such a way that it align perfectly with the holes made in the coupler and the container.

Fix the acp sheet into the dvd gear section using screws salvaged from it.

I also fixed the limit switch in place using the acp sheet as shown in the photo.

Using empty refills ,superglue and screws join the coupler to the container as shown.

Now using mseal conceal everything in place.

Make a coupler for the gear and the inner pipe using screws and tyre tube.

This coupler will compensate for any issues associated with the alignment.

Also add a clamp system available to you ,so that you can easily attach the feeder to the required place. Here I used an alligator clamp and fixed it to the drive mechanism using nut and bolt.

From the inner pipe cutout the portion as shown using an hack saw.

Using a plastic bottle, cutout the blades of the impeller and join it to the inner pipe using mseal and superglue.

I also used a refill as the center shaft of the inner pipe.

Now glue everything in place.

From the remaining parts of the bottle I also added an attachment as shown in the last image.

Here we used an ldr light sensor circuit as the trigger mechanism.

Circuit diagram is shown in the picture. The light sensitivity can be set by adjusting the variable resistor.

Enclosed the whole circuit into a small box and added an additional switch and led for indication.

I also attached a reflector lense from the torch to the ldr for appearance. [not needed only optional]

Finally add a piece of double sided tape around the ldr .This will ensure our ldr will stay in place and also protects the phone screen from any possible micro scratches.

Finally adjust your phone settings to do not disturb[to prevent unnecessary triggering] and turn on maximum power mode .

I also recommend to add a white picture as the profile picture for the contact.

Now place the circuit in such a way that the ldr faces the white contact picture.

Our build is complete when ever the phone turns on the ldr circuit will get triggered thus dispensing the food in the container.

If you already have a timer switch at home , you could use it as the trigger switch. You could also make this feeder fully automatic using micro controllers.

I hope you liked my project.

Follow me for more amazing projects.

Yours,

MISFIT MAKER