The project was created during the project weeks 2015 in the Course Johnny-Five-Is-Alive at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, led by Fabian Morón Zirfas. The goal of the 2-week course was to implement an IOT project (Internet of Things) of your choice. There I got an insight into the framework of Johnny-Five, Node.js and Git. However, for the final implementation of the project, we could choose another technology.
During the semester break I already had the idea for such a project on my mind, but I could not find the time to actually implement it. So I took the chance to combine this with the course.
Since my cats are quite lazy, I had the vision to build a gadget that would make them move more: The idea of a treat spin was born. Simultaneously, I wanted to be able to lean back and use it as easy as possible – from the sofa or while being out and about.
- A Button on the smartphone triggers the Gadget
- A Piezo makes a sound, so that the treat spin attracts the cats’ attention and they know that something is about to happen
- A servo motor rotates and takes a treat
- A DC motor spins it away
- A potentiometer allows to control the speed and thus the distance
I am using the following hardware:
- Particle Photon
- Piezo KP-Serie
- Motraxx DC-Motor 3V/DC
- Sparkfun Servo (Micro Size)
- Potentiometer
- Various cables
- Bipolar Transistor
- Battery Box
The circuit diagram for this looks as follows:
Unfortunately there were complications with the implementation of the case and the inner mechanics, which can be seen in the video. The problem is that the mechanism is too vague, which leads to complications in transporting just a single treat. Therefore, it frequently takes along more treats at once.This however can be explained with the used materials, the accuracy of implementation and the limited time to realize the project.
In order to be able to concentrate on the hardware, I used the free service IFTTT, thus I did not have to program an app for the trigger by myself. The IFTTT allows a user to connect different services with each other. Plus, it is possible to use a DO-Button to trigger a defined function on the Particle Photon. Therefore, it is the ideal and most simple solution for my project.
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Load the code on your Particle Photon
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Create an Account on IFTTT
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Search for Particle Channel and connect to it
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Create a new DO-Particle Recipes
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IFTTT should automatically display the function name in the list:
spin on "Your Photon“
- Then the function input must be specified:
on
This project was created at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
Course: Johnny-Five-Is-Alive
Semester: 2015
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Christopher Klement
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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