So I recently created a Wi-Fi (Tuya) based doggie door for my Husky “Doogan.”
Now, in order to make sure he is nowhere near that door when I close it remotely, I have created a similar Wi-Fi based “Cookie Dispenser.” 3D printed the internals, the hopper, and the control box, and deployed it for the first time this morning:
At first I thought I might want to use the Echo Studio sitting in the living room to get his attention… but he’s been watching me for the last few days as I built this thing, and I’m sure he knew that something was up. First run went flawlessly. The sound of the mechanism got his attention, he looked over his shoulder, and when the cookie dropped, he wandered over and snagged it up and took it over to the round rug where he always goes to eat them. He returned back to the device… sniffed it over a few times, and then went and laid down across the room where he spends much of his time when unattended. I’m very pleased.
The internals are a 2" Linear Actuator, and the same twin-relay Wi-Fi board that I used to control the Doogie Door project, and a 12v transformer. Printing the internals and the hopper took about 15 hours, and I had to modify and reprint the underlying tray piece three times until I got the cookie to fall out correctly and consistently. The hopper is overkill, as it will hold 12-15 milk bones and I really only need to have 3 or 4. The sliding tray was ideal from the get-go, so no revisions there. A longer throw on the Actuator would have been nice, but moving beyond the 2" range got more expensive.
It took about 14 hours to print the control box and another 5 hours to print the lid. Both of them work well, but if I were to make another, I might change things around for aesthetics a bit.
Here are some links to the unit in action (May trigger Alexa devices, sorry, I’m not at home to edit the sound out):
Screenshot of dashboard controls on my phone:
$67 plus 3D print materials. Not bad.
Thanks for checking it out.
Jim
[P.S. I love my dog.]
