Fish Feeder

This fish feeder was built and coded to dispense a standard amount of fish food while moving in either a straight line or in a circle depending on the code used. This project is meant for small ponds, lakes, or stock tanks. The Arduino board sits inside of a 3D printed housing and held afloat by the housing with the help of pool noodles on each side.

1. Arduino and Breadboard (Arduino Kit) 
2. Includes: 
3. Wires 
4. Servo Motor 
5. 2x Gear Motors 
6. Arduino Wheels 
7.  A foam pool noodle 
8. 8x plastic spoons 
9. Cardstock 
10. 3D printed housing 
11. 4x screws 
12. 4x nut 
13. A plastic water bottle 
14. Hot glue gun (Hot glue sticks) 
15. Tape 
16. Fish food 

Begin by creating the Arduino board in TinkerCad and use the code file/flow chart to code the fish feeder. The code has detailed comments to help understand each line. Use the picture provided to correctly construct your Arduino board using 2 Gear motors, 1 servo, 1 button, and 1 motor driver.

The next step is to build the physical Arduino Board. We have linked a step by step detailed presentation to help! You can also use your TinkerCAD version as well.

This container was drawn using OnShape and 3D printed to keep the Arduino Bread Board from getting wet. It has grooves in the top to help with a complete seal, a lid, and hole for the screws/washers to secure the lid to the box. Here is the file: Onshape CAD File

Paddles: 

1. For this part of the project you will need two Arduino wheels, 8 plastic spoons, sand paper, and a hot glue gun with hot glue sticks. 
2. First, get the two Arduino wheels and take the rubber wheel part off leaving only the base of the wheel left. 
3. Next, sand down the surface of the wheel to create a rough surface that the hot glue will stick better to. 
4. Put the wheels off to the side while you work on the spoons. 
5. For each spoon sand down the back side until the surface is flat and rough. 
6. Then hot glue the back sides of fours spoons to each wheel making sure to hold the spoons in place until the glue is dry so that they won't move. 
7. After the wheels are made they can be attached to the servo motor standoffs on the box.  

Wiring: 

1. To do the wiring look at the wiring presentation. 

Box: 

1. To make the box you will be a 3D printer and the file provided to print it out. 
2. Once it is printed check to see if the servo motor freely move in the hole and if they are getting stuck sand the inside of the hole a little bit. 
3. Last, get the screw and nut to bolt the box shut. 

Fish Food Dispenser: 

1. For this part of the project you will need an empty plastic water bottle, a hot glue gun and hot glue sticks, some cardboard, and the servo motor. 
2. First cut the bottom two inches off the water bottle 
3. Next, place the top of the cut out piece on a piece of card board and trace the bottom on the cardboard 
4. Next, cutout the cardboard circle 
5. Next, draw a 1in by 1in square in the middle of the cardboard circle and cut it out. This will eventually be where the food can be put into the dispenser.  
6. Next, hot glue the cardboard piece on to the cutoff side of the water bottle 
7. Next, draw three small rectangles going across water bottle from just above the card board side to jest below the end of the water bottle making sure that they are all and equal distance from each other around the bottle. This will be where the food falls out of the dispenser. 
8. After everything is dry then you can attach the back of the dispenser to servo extension with either hot glue or tape

If you are confused about any of these instructions, you can refer to this video for help! Final Video.mp4 

Attached is a video of the project in action! (in a kitchen sink :D)