fish feeder

[Cascao]

Had made a fish feeder.

Used a cheap clock and turned this polypropylene part with acrylic cap

[mklotz]

I can't tell how it works from the picture. Could you provide a bit more explanation, please? I'm interested because I once built the most complex fish feeder known to mankind. Fortunately for mankind and fishkind, it was a complete failure.

[Cascao]

This thing you see in photo is fixed on hour handle from chinese waĺl clock. At every 6 hours food fall from inner to outer circle untill it fall on water.

[DIYer]

Thanks Cascao! We've added your Fish Feeder to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: Cascao's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Fish Feeder by Cascao

tags: clock

[Captainleeward]

Hay mklotz your a funny guy Really like you web page....
Hay Cascao I like your good idea for a fish feeder.

[Frank S]

I like it but my problem would be I would forget to fill the center so I guess I would have to carrry it 1 step further and ad a valved tub to the center which would extend up to a hopper the way I invision the tube valve wouold be similar to those used on agriculture planters each time the center part was positioned straight up the valve would allow a measured amount of feed then as the normal rotation took place it would function as you have made it.
OK Marv maybe I should enter into a competition with you for designing the world's most complicated fish feeder I could add in more clock work and gravity teeters long spiral down chutes weighted pendulums. But why should we have all the fun how about letting the fish actually feed themselves by making then learn to swim through a water wheel? I actually tried that one, But I heard somewhere that a gold fish only has a 3 second or 3 minute memory or something like thatand the guppies were too fat to swim through,but I digress LOL
Seriously though Cascao, I do like your fish feeder, back when I had my aquarium I was forever trying to think up a way to feed my fish which would allow me to be gone for a couple of weeks without having to buy one of those pricey automatic feeders. My best solution was to give one my daughters's little friends a key to the house she loved watching the fish as much as my girls did she was over at our house so often I sometimes worried that I had 3 daughters.

[mklotz]

Frank, you must be reading my mind.

I had similar thoughts with my abortive feeder. I'll forget to reload it so it needs to have a large capacity hopper. I ended up building a cardboard bin with an angled bottom so feed would be forced by gravity to the bottom center. At this center I mounted an auger I had hand-carved from a wooden dowel. As the auger turned, food would be carried along outside the hopper where it would drop into the tank.

The auger was connected to a small, geared-down DC motor. Using a 555, I constructed a circuit that, when triggered, would pulse the motor long enough to turn the auger through three revolutions.

Now came the problem of how to trigger the circuit. Using something simple like a clock was too easy for this idiot. I had to do something really technical. I had a photoelectric switch I had recently built so I decided to set it up outside the fish tank. If a fish swam in front of it, the motor would be triggered and the auger would dump a little reward into the tank. You can't imagine how clever I thought I was.

I filled the hopper and we went away for a long weekend. I either underestimated the activity level of fish or overestimated the amount of food to deliver with each turn of the auger; when we returned the hopper was empty, the tank was cloudy as hell, and half the fish were dead.

Since then it's become a family joke. Don't let Dad feed the dog; he'll build some contraption that'll kill the dog.

[Frank S]

Frank, you must be reading my mind.



geared-down DC motor. to turn the auger through three revolutions.

photoelectric switch outside the fish tank. a fish swam in front of it the auger would dump a little reward into the tank. You can't imagine how clever I thought I was.

I filled the hopper and we went away for a long weekend. I either underestimated the activity level of fish or overestimated the amount of food to deliver with each turn of the auger; when we returned the hopper was empty, the tank was cloudy as hell, and half the fish were dead.

Since then it's become a family joke. Don't let Dad feed the dog; he'll build some contraption that'll kill the dog.

ROFLMAO until my sides hurt. We got to love our R'G' projects. Even those with dubious results
THREE TURNS" what were you thinking LOL

[mklotz]

Yes, building stuff "by the seat of the pants" does indeed have its drawbacks. We don't need no steenkin' design work, just "ger 'er done", has yielded some truly awful contraptions.

[Toolmaker51]

There's a jpeg, Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and quip about ME's.
I like this better. Judged one of a few 'most complicated devices'. I'd have been happy with contract for the line clamps...http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-photos/188785-machinery-most-complex-rocket-engine.html