3DPrinting

17888 readers

27 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or [email protected]

There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Rules

No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
Do not create links to reddit
If you see an issue please flag it
No guns
No injury gore posts

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

I 3D printed an automated cat treat dispenser to train my cat to exercise! (printables link with files and code in comments) (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

tl;dr: my cat was getting lazy, and was developing health issues, so i wanted to make something to trick him into exercising more. I did this by attaching a treat dispenser to a cat wheel, and giving him treats when hes ran certain distances.

This was my entry for the printables smart pet gadget contest. https://www.printables.com/model/1278945-smart-cat-treat-dispenser-for-one-fast-cat-wheel

There were a few back-to-back all nighters right at the end in order to get this submitted in time (managed to submit 7 minutes before the deadline!) - so the code is all kind of lumped in one file. Ill clean the code up in the upcoming weeks, but the short bullet point list of features are:

Almost entirely 3D printed (other than a motor, 4 bearings, some sensors, and the nuts and bolts
Detects that the treat level is low before completely running out! no more sad cats that hear the food dispenser going off, only to be left with an empty belly!
Self hosted wifi configuration page (connect to the AP, go to 192.168.4.1, enter your wifi settings, and it will join your wifi network
Completely self hosted web UI / API - configure all your settings, vend treats remotely from other smart devices, and track your cats stats!
MQTT support - connect your treat dispenser to a platform like homeassistant to see graphs of your cats activity and be alerted to when the treat dispenser is almost out of treats.
simple electronics (no analog components other than resistors for some LED's)
cool design features like internal wire channels so theres minimal exposed wiring (other than power, and a single connector to connect a hall effect sensor to the treat dispenser for detecting cat wheel rotation)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I wanted to make a human sized wheel to bring to opensauce that dispenses candy thats the equivalent to the calories you burned, or possibly had motors acting as a generator that powered up a power bank for people to charge their phones from!

Thanks for the feedback though, and glad you liked it :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What about one of those “under desk treadmills”?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

He does little bursts of running with periods of walking in between, so I dont think it would work. Perhaps with other cats it would though