I see there are a lot of postings about fish feeders on here, and once again here is another! I've had great luck on this forum and hopefully that will continue.
I have a drawing that I have attached, and its by no means a schematic, but more or less a chicken scratch. Basically here's the story. I have a fish feeder that runs on batteries and runs on a timer. I don't want either. I want this fish feeder to run from an outlet and be controlled by my aquatic controller. So far here is what I have figured out. The unit has a small switch (internally) that has constant power. When I press the feed button, power is cut power from the switch and the motor makes one complete rotation. So, I soldered two wires directly to the motor of the feeder and supplied it with 3.2 volts of power. When I do this the motor runs constant. However, if I keep the batteries in the unit, and supply it with about 2-3 seconds of power directly to the motor, the motor turns far enough to open the switch and then allows for the batteries to take over and finish rotating the shaft far enough to close the switch and complete the rotation.
So here is what I'm thinking. I have an aquatic controller that has a dry switch. I also have a power supply and converter to provide 3.2 volts of power. What I want to happen is, the power supply provides constant power to the motor, basically replacing the batteries. At the same time, I want to have another wire coming off that supply that is connected directly to the motor, to basically do what its currently doing (basically jump starting the motor for 1-2 seconds). For this second wire (connected directly to the motor), I was thinking some sort of relay (no sure that's the right option) that is controlled by the dry socket to complete the circuit thus providing power to the motor for just 2-3 seconds to jump start the motor and to then allow the constant power to take over and finish the rotation.
Does this make sense at all? I apologize for the rant, but I wanted to make sure the whole scenario was very clear.
I'll answer any questions, I just need help to make this happen.
Thank you so much!
Here is a picture of the feeder:
http://www.marinedepot.com/fish_food_eheim_feed-air_digital_auto_feeder-ap.html
Video of feeder in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeLG4wmbRCE
I have a drawing that I have attached, and its by no means a schematic, but more or less a chicken scratch. Basically here's the story. I have a fish feeder that runs on batteries and runs on a timer. I don't want either. I want this fish feeder to run from an outlet and be controlled by my aquatic controller. So far here is what I have figured out. The unit has a small switch (internally) that has constant power. When I press the feed button, power is cut power from the switch and the motor makes one complete rotation. So, I soldered two wires directly to the motor of the feeder and supplied it with 3.2 volts of power. When I do this the motor runs constant. However, if I keep the batteries in the unit, and supply it with about 2-3 seconds of power directly to the motor, the motor turns far enough to open the switch and then allows for the batteries to take over and finish rotating the shaft far enough to close the switch and complete the rotation.
So here is what I'm thinking. I have an aquatic controller that has a dry switch. I also have a power supply and converter to provide 3.2 volts of power. What I want to happen is, the power supply provides constant power to the motor, basically replacing the batteries. At the same time, I want to have another wire coming off that supply that is connected directly to the motor, to basically do what its currently doing (basically jump starting the motor for 1-2 seconds). For this second wire (connected directly to the motor), I was thinking some sort of relay (no sure that's the right option) that is controlled by the dry socket to complete the circuit thus providing power to the motor for just 2-3 seconds to jump start the motor and to then allow the constant power to take over and finish the rotation.
Does this make sense at all? I apologize for the rant, but I wanted to make sure the whole scenario was very clear.
I'll answer any questions, I just need help to make this happen.
Thank you so much!
Here is a picture of the feeder:
http://www.marinedepot.com/fish_food_eheim_feed-air_digital_auto_feeder-ap.html
Video of feeder in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeLG4wmbRCE