I would be concerned about the food balls getting stuck together in the "hopper" and jamming up. Also if I understand properly the chute the balls slide down will not have water flow so it may get dirty or have a slow buildup of junk, salt creep, maybe even ice depending how cold it gets, that's the benefit of Weast's design is that it always has flow through it so it's self-cleaning to some extent. I'm not a huge DIY'er so I could be wrong or misunderstand something, just some thoughts I had looking at that diagram.
Frozen food Auto feeder...
- Thread starter EnderG60
- Start date
I would be concerned about the food balls getting stuck together in the "hopper" and jamming up. Also if I understand properly the chute the balls slide down will not have water flow so it may get dirty or have a slow buildup of junk, salt creep, maybe even ice depending how cold it gets, that's the benefit of Weast's design is that it always has flow through it so it's self-cleaning to some extent. I'm not a huge DIY'er so I could be wrong or misunderstand something, just some thoughts I had looking at that diagram.
dogstar74
Premium Member
I'm green with envy about Steve's set up. I just think these are two different animals. Steve's is feeding liquid food, This would be for feeding frozen food. Neither system would be free of maintainance. But if you are accustomed to feeding frozen food, then this could buy you a couple of days on the road without resorting to that well wishing neighbor. It would most likely need to be cleaned once a week to keep it running correctly.
Thanks for the comments.
Aaron
I dont want to do anything involving frozen cubes. I would want to use tawed frozen food, like a soup of foods.
The only problem Im seeing now do doing a system like Uhuru's got on his NFS tank is that Ive heard frozen food will only keep for a week or two thawed in the fridge. I would want at least a months worth to make this worth while....
Can anyone confirm?
The only problem Im seeing now do doing a system like Uhuru's got on his NFS tank is that Ive heard frozen food will only keep for a week or two thawed in the fridge. I would want at least a months worth to make this worth while....
Can anyone confirm?
something like this for strictly frozen foods should be a stopgap or temporary measure i think. Some kids out in virginia i think did their thesis on this for an electronics class. They actually built a working model complete with peltiers and microcontrollers. It even had a complete parts list with it. I'll see if i can find it when i get home.
Guys, I am playing with this idea for quite a while and here are my thoughts:
Delivering frozen cubes: not a a good idea beside being very difficult.
Delivering thawed food - possible. So far my thinking goes to build an insulated box (wood + drywall insulation ?). Inside I will have at the bottom a small computer fan having two small magnets for steering the liquid. On the top of the electromagnetic steerer a plastic container (about 1 gal) with an IceProbe mounted close to the bottom.
Inside the container obviously the stick for steering and a small pump for delivering the liquid.
Doubts at this time:
IceProbe; can one unit bring a gallon of water under 40F ?
I will be using my Arduino controller for liquid temperature measurement & IceProbe control as well as feeding time.
The liquid food will be delivered directly in the sump and the recirculation pump will push it to the tank.
What do you think ?
cheers,
Marian
Delivering frozen cubes: not a a good idea beside being very difficult.
Delivering thawed food - possible. So far my thinking goes to build an insulated box (wood + drywall insulation ?). Inside I will have at the bottom a small computer fan having two small magnets for steering the liquid. On the top of the electromagnetic steerer a plastic container (about 1 gal) with an IceProbe mounted close to the bottom.
Inside the container obviously the stick for steering and a small pump for delivering the liquid.
Doubts at this time:
IceProbe; can one unit bring a gallon of water under 40F ?
I will be using my Arduino controller for liquid temperature measurement & IceProbe control as well as feeding time.
The liquid food will be delivered directly in the sump and the recirculation pump will push it to the tank.
What do you think ?
cheers,
Marian
stugray
Premium Member
The snow cone making machines are the little hand crank ones that kids use, they scrape of ice shavings.......
Funny....... Not a single comment:
If I wanted to build one, here is what I would do:
1 - cheap dorm fridge for the freezer & cold sections, has to sit above the tank that is to be fed.
2 - Snow-cone making machine ( the kind you turn the crank & ice comes out the bottom ) run by timer/controller with a motor.
3 - Peristaltic pump ( as mentioned above ).
You would load a frozen block of food into the snowcone machine that sits in the freezer section. When timer #1 turns ON, it "grinds" X-amount of food that drops into a hopper (food receiver). Timer #1 turns off.
Timer #2 then turns on the peristaltic pump that pumps tank water up to the food receiver and it melts & drains to the tank thru a large diameter pipe (1/2").
Put a water level limit switch in the receiver and make it so the cycle cant run if the limit switch is tripped ( this would indicate a clogged outflow )
This keeps the frozen food in the frozen section and the "grinded" food still in refrigerated section so no food spoils.
Stu
AND I thought about it some more. You dont need an expensive peristaltic pump for this application.
A cheap powerhead in the display would work.
Funny....... Not a single comment:
If I wanted to build one, here is what I would do:
1 - cheap dorm fridge for the freezer & cold sections, has to sit above the tank that is to be fed.
2 - Snow-cone making machine ( the kind you turn the crank & ice comes out the bottom ) run by timer/controller with a motor.
3 - Peristaltic pump ( as mentioned above ).
You would load a frozen block of food into the snowcone machine that sits in the freezer section. When timer #1 turns ON, it "grinds" X-amount of food that drops into a hopper (food receiver). Timer #1 turns off.
Timer #2 then turns on the peristaltic pump that pumps tank water up to the food receiver and it melts & drains to the tank thru a large diameter pipe (1/2").
Put a water level limit switch in the receiver and make it so the cycle cant run if the limit switch is tripped ( this would indicate a clogged outflow )
This keeps the frozen food in the frozen section and the "grinded" food still in refrigerated section so no food spoils.
Stu
AND I thought about it some more. You dont need an expensive peristaltic pump for this application.
A cheap powerhead in the display would work.
Evi1Monkey
New member
If I tried making one, I'd do something like what cape said. The last episode i watched of the LAFish guys showed a freezie pop style brick of food for the jellies. I would imagine you could make your food up, freeze it into like a 1 inch cylynder, and in a freezer unit have 2 main parts:
1 - tube cut in half for food to rest in with some type of arm to push it
2 - a cutter peice and a chute for it to fall down.
So the action would go:
Push food stick forward x distance (longer = more food)
Cutter down to cut food, cutter up to reset
Food could then fall to whatever device you prefer for dispensing.
You could have it do a variety of things from there, fall into a small container with tank water to stir for a bit, or whatever, but just that as a basis.
Very similar to the 1/2 inch cube idea dogstar had. For some reason I keep wanting to think of using Legos to complete this action
1 - tube cut in half for food to rest in with some type of arm to push it
2 - a cutter peice and a chute for it to fall down.
So the action would go:
Push food stick forward x distance (longer = more food)
Cutter down to cut food, cutter up to reset
Food could then fall to whatever device you prefer for dispensing.
You could have it do a variety of things from there, fall into a small container with tank water to stir for a bit, or whatever, but just that as a basis.
Very similar to the 1/2 inch cube idea dogstar had. For some reason I keep wanting to think of using Legos to complete this action
