Yet Another Auto Feeder

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Piper
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:13 am
Location: Oakley, CA

Re: Yet Another Auto Feeder

Post by Piper »

Did you put a meter on your adapter to make sure you have the correct polarity and you're actually getting 3v out of it? From what I remember it was a pretty straight forward connection when I hooked mine up.

~Charlie
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Sacohen
Posts: 1833
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:25 am
Location: Davie, FL

Re: Yet Another Auto Feeder

Post by Sacohen »

Yes it is 3.00v exactly.
I'm going to double check the polarity when I have a little more time.
I may of had it wrong because when it was connected and I put batteries in it didn't even work.
When I removed the adapter the batteries will power it, so worse come to worse I can at least use it with batteries and have the RA trigger it.

I don't have the time to re-solder it right now.

Thanks Piper
Smotz
Posts: 412
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 5:02 pm
Location: CT, USA

Re: Yet Another Auto Feeder

Post by Smotz »

dlplunkett44 wrote:So I finished modifying my Eheim auto feeder last night both for relay trigger and ac adapter. It runs fine when there are batteries, but when I have the ac adapter plugged in and set to 3v, whenever the "feed now" button is pressed, or the relay triggered (which does the same thing), it quickly turns off and on the feeder instead of rotating the feeding drum. This will happen 9 times out of 10, but every once in a while it will work. I don't have a multimeter, but I figured maybe the ac adapter wasn't giving it enough power (maybe less than 3v?), so I set it to the next step up which is 4.5v. When it is set at 4.5v, it works fine everytime; it also turns the feeding drum a little faster. I'm not sure if this is ok for the feeder long term, but it seems to work ok for now. Since it is opperating on a higher voltage, I don't want to leave the feeder itself powered all the time, so I've modified the code yet again to come on 5 seconds before the relay is activated so it has time to initialize, then stay on for 15 seconds after activating the relay giving the feeder time to fully rotate (I may have to modify the timing). Again, I'm going to try it tonight if you guys think the code is ok. THANKS AGAIN!!!!

Code: Select all

static unsigned long feeding = 0;

if ((now()%SECS_PER_DAY==28800) || (now()%SECS_PER_DAY==50400) || (now()%SECS_PER_DAY==72000)) //if it is 8am or 2pm or 8 pm
{
  ReefAngel.FeedingModeStart(); //START FEEDING MODE
}

if (ReefAngel.DisplayedMenu==FEEDING_MODE)
{
  if ( feeding == 0 ) {
    feeding = now(); //set the time of the start of feeding to variable feeding
  }
  
  if ((now()-feeding>=55) && (now()-feeding<=76)) //if between 55 and 76 seconds has past
  {
    ReefAngel.Relay.On(Port1);  //TURN FEEDER POWER ON
  }
  else
  {
    ReefAngel.Relay.Off(Port1);  //TURN FEEDER POWER OFF
  }

  if ((now()-feeding>=60) && (now()-feeding<=61)) //if between 60 and 61 seconds has past
  {
    ReefAngel.Relay.On(Port8); //TURN FEEDER RELAY ON
  }
  else 
  {
    ReefAngel.Relay.Off(Port8); //TURN FEEDER RELAY OFF
  }
} else {
  if ( feeding > 0 ) {
    feeding = 0;
  }
}

This is how I did mine - seems easier..

Code: Select all

// if the hour is 7a and minute is 30 and seconds is 0 start the feeding mode
    if ( ((hour() == 7)) && (minute() == 30) &&(second() == 0) ) ReefAngel.FeedingModeStart(); 
  
    if (ReefAngel.DisplayedMenu==FEEDING_MODE)
    {
    if ( ((hour() == 7)) && (minute() == 31) &&(second() == 0) ) ReefAngel.Relay.On(Feeder); //TURN FEEDER RELAY ON at 7:31:00
    if ( ((hour() == 7)) && (minute() == 31) &&(second() == 2) ) ReefAngel.Relay.Off(Feeder); //TURN FEEDER RELAY OFF at 7:31:02
    if ( ((hour() == 7)) && (minute() == 32) &&(second() == 0) ) ReefAngel.Relay.On(Feeder); //TURN FEEDER RELAY ON at 7:32:00
    if ( ((hour() == 7)) && (minute() == 32) &&(second() == 2) ) ReefAngel.Relay.Off(Feeder); //TURN FEEDER RELAY OFF at 7:32:02
    }
// end feeding mode
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