Hey, you should enter this on the hackaday contest too: https://hackaday.io/contest/202866-2025-pet-hacks-challenge
Cool project!
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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oh thanks for the heads up!
Hell yeah, good luck!
Great project! Especially like the non-invasive pet tracking this affords.
I feel like a smaller, electromechanical version of this could also work well for people who might not need the IoT integration, it could be a nice expansion product on its own with just relays and a power circuit / classical logic circuits.
Yeah, or even something in the middle where you still use a cheap microcontroller and the hall effect sensor to track distance without any treats. You would have to find a way to get the cat running in the first place though.
It seems like people have better luck getting the larger semi-domesticated savannah cats / similar to use the wheel than domestic house cats without training
Cool project, just asking for a friend but think you can make a human version..
Seriously cool project.
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 :)
What about one of those “under desk treadmills”?
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