Dirty cheap PCB will make your life MUCH easier.

The ultimate, cloud cat feeder

If you haven’t seen it before, this post is about the ultimate cloud cat feeder. See the product demo here.

PCB?

As I was putting the electronics together while testing it with Arduino on a breadboard, I went ahead and soldered it permanently, creating this disgusting spaghetti:

One day, something there failed… and this event immediately gave me undoubtful hint that it’s time to design a PCB. I’ve downloaded Fritzing - a Grasshopper friendly, open-source program for designing circuits, boards, etc. Few hours later, I’ve created this:

After ordering PCB and waiting… a while, I got this:

Putting it together was a bliss. Given prices of a double-sided board these days - imported, with shipping = ~15$ for 3 pieces (!!!), I really wish I didn’t do it before. Here is the end result:

Find the files here: TheUltimateCloudCatFeeder-PCB - GitHub repository

Interested in Cat Feeder updates? Perhaps you are just interested in the finished product? Anyways, feel free to sign up, I'll let you know.

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Bill Of Materials

Count	Item	Link
1	Stepper Driver - Pololu A4988	link
9	Jumper cap, 2.54mm	link
4	JST Connector, 2.54mm, 3pin	link
2	JST Connector, 2.54mm, 4pin	link
2	JST Connector, 2.54mm, 5pin	link
1	JST Connector, 2.54mm, 7pin	link
1	DIP8 Socket, 2.54mm	link
1	MH-ET LIVE ESP32 Development Board	link
few	Female&Male Pin Headers, 2.54mm	link
1	Buzzer Module	link
1	28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor + ULN2003 Driver	link
~0.5m	WS2812B RGB LED Strip, 144 pixels/m, 5V	link
1	DC-DC Step Down Power Supply Module, 3A (9V->5V)	link
1	200g Load Cell	link
2	10kg Load Cell	link
2	HX711
4	Ceramic Capacitor, 100nF, 6.3V
4	Electrolytic capacitors, for example 250uF
2	A3141 Hall Sensor
1	DS18B20 Temperature Sensor	link
1	9V 2A Power Supply
4	22kΩ Resistor
1	47kΩ Resistor
1	4.7kΩ Resistor
2	51kΩ Resistor
1	470Ω Resistor
1	Calibration Weights	link
1	100mm x 5mm Stainless Steel Ground Shaft Round Rod	link
1	32DP 5mm 17T Motor Pinion Gear	link

Note: the links are non-affiliate. Do not treat them as a recommended source of parts. Those are just to get details about the element, in case I forgot to include any details here.

What needs improvement?

Opsss, I forgot to add the temperature sensor to the board! Next version should for sure include it. Also, when programming the microcontroller, one need to press the button on the ESP32 board, which - taking into account how hard it is to disassemble the cat feeder - can be cumbersome.

What worked well?

So far, the cat feeder works with this electronics version for 3+ months, continuously. Fingers crossed for the future!

Other resources

You can find more details on the cat feeder (building progress, features, technical details) here - all posts with cat-feeder tag.

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