8 Hour Feeding Timer

A decorative timer with an alarm that allows pet owner to know if their pet has been recently fed, or might be hungry. In this demonstration I focused on fish, but this can be applied to cats, dogs, or even work as a medication timer.

small canvas - 5 pack for about $20. I bought a 4 pack from Walmart for about $7, but any canvas will do as long as it is deep enough to house the circuit playground.

adafruit circuit playground- $20.z

conductive thread or a thin wire - about $6.00

4 green LED lights (number flexible depending on your needs) -$5.00 for both red and green lights

1 red LED light (number flexible depending on your needs)

tape

paint or markers to decorate the canvas

Battery pack and batteries (pack comes with circuit playground, takes AAA batteries)

cardboard

tinfoil

Optional: conductive tape, soldering station

I used adafruit's 'makecode' to code my timer. However, if you can code it using any other system, then that is just fine. I coded mine, for demonstration purposes, to only last about 20 seconds for testing. Once you are confident in your timer, feel free to add more time to it. I also coded my circuit playground to change colors every two hours and turn off one of the green LED lights. Once the timer runs out, and alarm sounds and the red LED light turns on, signifying that your pet is ready to be fed.

Here, I used markers and they created a nice texture and bold color to the canvas. In previous versions, I used water color, which is lighter and lets the light of the adafruit come through the canvas. Whatever you choose is fine.

Add lights to where you want them. I stacked them to create a 'progress bar' effect on my timer.

trace a star, or the shape you want, out of your cardboard and cut it out. Cover it in tinfoil. Use a sharpie or highlighter to color the button. This will allow it to still be conductive, but will look nice.

Attach grounding wires to the grounding pins of your lights and your circuit playground. If you can, solder them to the playground. Link the active wires to the corresponding pins on the circuit playground. Again, solder it if you can. If you are using thread, make sure that none of your threads are crossing.

Secure your wire or thread to the button and lead it around the back of the canvas to the adafruit playground. Your circuit playground should be suspended in the back of your canvas.

Place the batteries in the battery pack and turn it on. You now have a working timer!