In this project, we will use a 4Duino and several IR sensors to create a simple pet food dispenser. If you want to know more on how an IR sensor works, please refer to 4D-PR-100-015 project documentation. 4Duino checks whether a food tray contains enough food or not. It is programmed to read IR values from each sensor. These values change depending on the amount of food in the container.  The feeding time can be set by the user via the graphical user interface. The device continuously checks the time from an NTP server and updates the display. Once feeding time is reached, the dispenser will automatically release food into the tray if it has insufficient food. The dispensing of food can also be done manually by touching a button from the display.

 

HOW IT WORKS

how it works

COMPONENTS

  • 4Duino
  •  μSD card
  •  4 or more IR LEDs
  •  4 or more IR Phototransistors
  •  LM324 OP-AMP
  •  Potentiometer
  •  Resistors (220 Ohms and 10 kOhms)
  •  Servo motor
  •  μUSB cable

IMPLEMENTATION

Step 1: Build

Build the circuit as shown in the following diagram and table.

 fritz

Step 2: Program

Workshop 4 – 4Duino Basic Graphics environment is used to program this project. This project requires the Arduino IDE to be installed as Workshop calls the Arduino IDE for compiling the Arduino sketches. The Arduino IDE however is not required to be opened or modified to program the4Duino.

Open this file using Workshop 4.

open

Step 3: Compile

Click on the “Compile” button.

Note: This step could be skipped. However, compiling is essential for debugging purposes.

Step 4: Comms Port

Connect the 4Duino to the PC using μUSB cable.Then navigate to the Comms tab and select the Comms port to which the 4Duino connected.

Step 5: Compile and Upload

Finally, go back to “Home” tab. This time, click on the “Comp’nLoad” button.

The Workshop 4 IDE will prompt you to insert a μSD card to the PC in order to save the widget images. Insert μSD card, select the appropriate drive and press button “OK”.

If the μSD card has the widget images you can click button “No Thanks”.

Step 6: Insert μSD card

After uploading the program in to the 4Duino, it will try to mount the μSD card. If the μSD card is not present it will prints an error message.

 ok

All you need to do is insert the μSD card you saved the image files to into the 4Duino.