Automatic Dog Feeder FIXED!

The automatic dog feeder by Wopet on Amazon is a great WIFI controlled dog feeder. Simply set a time to dispense food each day and how many portions you want and it dispenses without fail...well almost. The biggest issue with the machine is that large portions (a cup of food for example) don't fully dispense. Wopet tries to combat this by using a sensor that detects if food is backed up. However, it still can jam the feeder and when our dog goes to eat, it dispenses more once he's eaten enough to allow more to fill the bowl. This scared him and made him not want to eat at the machine. So, I set out to fix it.

As you can see in this video, the feeder dispenses until it backs up into the machine, then it stops. When it clears the sensor, more is dispensed. This scared our dog and sometimes clogged up the machine.

Now, the feeder dispenses all of the food at once due to the raised height. Let's look at how I made it.

The feeder has holes for screws to hold the machine together so I decided to use this as a way to attach the rising device I made. I also noticed the clips on the side of the bowl which make it removable. I wanted it to remain removable so I mimicked the design of the feeder to make it clip in. I also split the design into 5 pieces to make it easily printable on my 3D printer. This design was done using Autodesk Fusion 360 and I've attached the .f3d file on this Instructable.

You will need to print the five pieces which I've uploaded the files for here.

Some notes on the printing:

I used a layer height of 0.3mm which is great for speed and plenty strong.

Infill won't matter too much since the walls are all very thin.

I used White PLA

Total printing time for all pieces was around 13 hours.

In addition, I used:

4 M4 Bolts (Length isn't important)

4 M4 Nuts

4 Wood Dowels around 5/16" in diameter

2 Threaded Screws (Small and able to thread in plastic)

Assembly is very simple so we can keep it to one step.

Place the M4 nuts in the 4 nut openings. Align the pieces as shown in the image and screw in the M4 bolts to join the pieces.

Since I didn't know what screws I'd use to attach the front piece when designing, I waited to the end and drilled two small holes in the plastic and then screwed in the threaded screws which created a strong bond.

Tap in the 4 dowels and it's done!

Remove the front two black rubber feet of the machine and place it on top of the riser. Clip in the bowl and it's ready for the next meal.