Hacked Aqua Chef feeder for Aquarium Controller

[d0ughb0y]

I hacked and reversed engineered an Aqua Chef feeder (costs $12.97 on eBay) so it can be controlled by any aquarium controller that can output and input 5v.

The concept is simple, Aqua Chef has a pair of wires to control the motor on and off. And another pair of wires to tell you the feeder is in the "home" position.

I am currently using it with my DIY controller, but this mod should work with any controller that has an input and output. Apex controller only has inputs, but you can use an outlet and use a wall wart power supply for the output line.

Here's a video of the feeder operation.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KTd1A_XZMBM?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

http://youtu.be/KTd1A_XZMBM

Once you open up the Aqua Chef feeder (three screws at the bottom, then unhook the feeder drum side end cover (remove the drum first) and battery compartment cover, you will see a connector. Simply disconnect that and the two left wires (red color) are for the motor, and the two right wires (white) are for the home sensor.

Just hook it up to your controller output and input lines and program to turn the motor on and then check the input line until you see it go low to high, then turn off the motor.

The home sensor line is normally high (I enable Arduino input line pullup), when the drum starts to spin and moves away from home position, the home sensor line goes low, and when the drum is about to come back to home position, the line will go high.

That's about it. You may need to play around with the timing on your program. I use Arduino pin change interrupt so my interrupt handler simply set the output pin high once the pin change is detected.

The red and black connectors to the left are for motor, the two white wires to the right are for the home sensor. You can connect the black wire and the white wire together and use that as GND or common connector. You will need three connections from your controller. A motor OUTPUT line, a home INPUT line and GND. I use a PNP transistor to drive the motor line so as not to overload the arduino pin on my controller. Make sure to add a diode across the red wire and GND.

I just route the connector out the battery compartment and connect the wires from my controller to it.

 

[jpjr]

Very cool!

 

[kepheus]

Thanks for sharing and documenting your work. Very nice!

 

[cordell]

I did something similar to my Eheim feeder. Basically, took a power adapter hooked into an Apex outlet that will supply power to the drum motor for 2 seconds, just enough time to turn the drum and get it out of "home" position. Then the internal batteries of the feeder itself will run the drum on around back to the home position.

There is a thread on using this method somewhere... I didn't come up with that myself.

Very cool.. beats spending $99 on the other feeders.

 

[e55driver]

That is a cool DIY. I'm going to have to do that.

 

[d0ughb0y]

I did something similar to my Eheim feeder. Basically, took a power adapter hooked into an Apex outlet that will supply power to the drum motor for 2 seconds, just enough time to turn the drum and get it out of "home" position. Then the internal batteries of the feeder itself will run the drum on around back to the home position.

There is a thread on using this method somewhere... I didn't come up with that myself.

Very cool.. beats spending $99 on the other feeders.

That solution costs one outlet on the Apex. That's $20 plus the cost of the eheim feeder $40 and the wall wart. But your'e right, it's still cheaper than their aquabus based feeder. I'm not sure why they did not make the feed mode schedulable. I don't think it is due to any technical limitation, perhaps a programmer limitation.

Apex calls the lines IO, but in reality, it can only do input, not input-output. Not sure if they had changed their documents to call it input now, but they still sell the I/O breakout box that only does input. Had they made it into a real IO line, then this solution will work for Apex as well.

I did a hack to web enable the old AC jr, which I used for years, and is still working, but I needed more features.
https://sites.google.com/site/acserial2web/

I seriously thought about getting an Apex, but there's just too many basic features I need that Apex did not have. (not being able to schedule feed mode is a pet peeve, sure you can program the individual outlets, but its not the same thing) I think they have lots of room for improvement. It can do a lot, but still has limitations.

 

[psidriven]

Any suggestions for the best feeder to hack? By best, i'm looking at consistency of the feed amount.

 

[redtop03]

Any suggestions for the best feeder to hack? By best, i'm looking at consistency of the feed amount.

the feeder that I hacked for my Jarduino is just like doughboys but mine didn't have the digital display on it, the food drum is identical, the case and wiring is also identical...

very easy to hack, I used a cell phone charger wall wart to power mine and the Arduino just powers the trigger wire momentarily to get it past the home position, then the wall wart powers the rest of it's cycle

they feed a good consistent amount each time, it has an adjustable flap inside that limits the quantity that it scoops up and it is scooped up before the trap door opens to dump the food, so that no extra food falls out during its cycle...

mine has been working flawlessly for about 8 months now and other than the 2 times I dropped it in the tank, moisture hasn't been an issue with the food clumping...

these seem to be a reliable feeder, I've read good reviews on the Eheim feeder too

 

[d0ughb0y]

however you drive the feeder, you are driving a motor (inductive load), so make sure you use a diode. I use a PNP transistor circuit to drive the motor, so the connection only needs three wires (one to turn motor on/off, one home sensor, and one ground) and no external power supply is required. My program is also interrupt driven (event driven, and not using time delay to figure the drum is in home position), when the home signal wire switch state, it triggers an interrupt routine that turns off the motor.

 

[iced98lx]

Book Marked, would like to do this for the pellet portion of my feeding

 

[jrossjr79]

Im trying to duplicate this process, however I am stuck in the first steps. I have a RENA Auto Feeder. I can see which lines power the motor, but cant tell which of these would I use for the sensor. Seems there are two ways for this feeder to work on telling when it is in home position. There is a switch near the barrell that is closed when in home position, and open while drum is turning. But there is also a magnetic sensor inside the drum. So not 100% sure which one I should use. I have not tested it as of yet, plan on doing this sometime later today.

 

[kenman345]

I was wondering, is it not possible to disable the built in feed button? If the button is just shorting when the button is depressed, then you could potentially use the "Relay" on a SW5 module of a Reefkeeper system, or create a outlet controlled wall-wart with a SS Relay to enable that trigger, assuming one can solder to those connection points. I have two of these devices at home that are not in use. I may give it a try and see how small those connections on the board are

 

[kenman345]

I was wondering, is it not possible to disable the built in feed button? If the button is just shorting when the button is depressed, then you could potentially use the "Relay" on a SW5 module of a Reefkeeper system, or create a outlet controlled wall-wart with a SS Relay to enable that trigger, assuming one can solder to those connection points. I have two of these devices at home that are not in use. I may give it a try and see how small those connections on the board are

I opened mine up today. Turns out it's an annoying 4 pin button that i can probably wire into, but am not as familiar with these switches as I would like.

I believe I figured out the common ground between both pairs, but cannot find much evidence of how to hijack this. Do I just need to put a 2 pole momentary switch between the two common pairs to get it to work? or do I need to do more wiring than that? If I can get some help on what to do, I would happily take charge and attempt such a modification. I was thinking how I can add some type of modular component out the back of the device so I can easily attach or detach a switch that I would connect to the Relay port of my Reefkeeper. Due to this being above a SW tank, i was thinking maybe something along the lines of moving the connection to a few feet away, so i dont have any openings in the device that I cannot seal 100%.

 

[d0ughb0y]

I never removed the electronics of the feeder to see what the switch looks like. I was thinking this will have one of those membrane switches that shorts some pcb contacts. But if you see a physical switch, then you can test the voltage on the pins when you press the button to see what happens.

 

[kenman345]

I never removed the electronics of the feeder to see what the switch looks like. I was thinking this will have one of those membrane switches that shorts some pcb contacts. But if you see a physical switch, then you can test the voltage on the pins when you press the button to see what happens.

The button looks like that one in the image. If this datasheet is correct, I just need to short them.

I will give it a try soon and let you know

 

[kenman345]

excuse the double post, but i just gave it a try.

Shorting out just two of the 4 connections makes it turn the drum. Guess I have an obligation to get this thing wired up for this project and take some pics. I will need to do this over the weekend, will not have the time today to do it to completion, still wanting to think over how to connect my controller to the device, what connector would be best...

 

[d0ughb0y]

It looks like it will work. You just need to solder your two wires to the two contacts on the feed switch.

 

[kenman345]

It looks like it will work. You just need to solder your two wires to the two contacts on the feed switch.

So what is the power needs on this thing? I believe it's 3V right? I am considering instead of destroying the shell, just removing the bottom battery cover of the thing and routing the wires through there. I would also want to get rid of the need for batteries, but unlike the other solutions, I would be able to not use a outlet on my controller, but would only need the Relay port on my controller....which some may argue is just as valuable, but I only ever planned to use that for advanced programming and is a small price to pay.

Please note, I have a ASF-1 feeder....so this little project is just more of a fun thing for me. I have no real need for it, but who knows, i might decide to use it with a regular timer with a relay inside in the future for my QT

 

[d0ughb0y]

If you want to keep it simple, just leave it as battery operated. And just control the feed switch from your controller. When I was using the feeder stand alone, I only change the batteries once a year before I go on vacation. The feeder works fine as it is, feeding can be programmed twice a day. The only reason I modified it to control it is because I wanted to feed 4 times a week and it is not possible to do so with the built in feeder scheduler.

I would just make a hole on the back cover to route the wire out to the controller. You can seal the hole with caulk, hot glue, etc.

My mod requires an input line to detect the home position, but since motor is controlled directly, batteries are not needed. With this switch mod, it will now be easier to control from pretty much any controller since the home sensor input line is not required.

This is a very good feeder, whether used as is or modified. I just checked on ebay and the price now is $13.41, still cheap.

 

[kenman345]

If you want to keep it simple, just leave it as battery operated. And just control the feed switch from your controller. When I was using the feeder stand alone, I only change the batteries once a year before I go on vacation. The feeder works fine as it is, feeding can be programmed twice a day. The only reason I modified it to control it is because I wanted to feed 4 times a week and it is not possible to do so with the built in feeder scheduler.

I would just make a hole on the back cover to route the wire out to the controller. You can seal the hole with caulk, hot glue, etc.

My mod requires an input line to detect the home position, but since motor is controlled directly, batteries are not needed. With this switch mod, it will now be easier to control from pretty much any controller since the home sensor input line is not required.

This is a very good feeder, whether used as is or modified. I just checked on ebay and the price now is $13.41, still cheap.

Well, I actually have the Resun, which was about $15 when shipped, so it is very cheap. I guess I'll keep it battery operated. I just need to find my 24 AWG wire and my dremel. Man I need to get my own and stop sharing with my dad.....

EDIT: I am glad you see the convenience of my solution over yours. I like what you did, but it is more of a one way solution. If I ever decide to use or not use my solution, it is still a fully functioning item and can be used with or without the external control....and I get a FEED button to boot.... I like finding ways to add to devices without sacrificing anything in the process (or as little as possible).