1. Presented by: Carl Skeene

2. OUTLINE Motivation Introduction Problem statement Assumption Proposed solution Results Conclusion Future work References Acknowledgements

3. MOTIVATION Cats waking me up too early Regular feeding schedule Not being home for days at a time

4. INTRODUCTION My cats always wanted to eat at 5:30 am every morning. Not needing to get up until 6:15 it became a pain, because they are relentless when they want me to get up. New work schedule keeps me away from home quite a bit. I need a solution to allow me to keep them on a regular feeding schedule without over feeding. Tried store bought feeders that allow for food to refill itself.

5. INTRODUCTION Cont. Feeder that refills doesn’t work due to one of my cats abusing the endless food. Got the idea for my feeder from Mathew Newton who came in second in Mac|Lifes: Top Ten Wonders of the Home Automation World. http://www.maclife- digital.com/maclife/201003/?p g=33#pg33 http://www.maclife- digital.com/maclife/201003/?p g=33#pg33

6. PROBLEM STATEMENT Need a feeder automatically operate at two specific times in the day Ability to control the feeder from locations away from home

7. Assumptions  That my cats will let me sleep as long as they have food at the right time.  That I will be able to stay away from home when needed without worry

8. PROPOSED SOLUTION Steps taken to solve the problem of the cats feeding time: Deciding to use microcontroller or PLC Went with the PLC after doing internet searches and found the Nano-10 PLC Nano-10 offers what I needed regarding onboard server for web apps and Ethernet connections for network communication

9. PROPOSED SOLUTION Cont.

11. Assembly had a few difficult parts, filing the rod and coupling to connect the dispenser and the motor

12. PROPOSED SOLUTION Cont.

13. RESULTS Functioning pet feeder Automatically feeds twice a day Ability to control feeder manually from inside or outside of home network

14. CONCLUSIONS The results are very significant for my personal use, I have already been actively using the feeder I have learned a lot regarding the PLC that I purchased as far as programming and capabilities.

15. FUTURE WORK Redesign the exit ramp Addition of water refill Make it less bulky, take up less space Addition of a network video camera to be able to monitor Food level indicator

16. REFERENCES Newton, M. (2012). Internet-Enabled Cat Feeder-Mark 2. Retrieved on March, 2012, from http://www.newtonnet.co.uk/catfeeder/ http://www.newtonnet.co.uk/catfeeder/ Top ten wonders of the home automation world. Mac|Life.com 30-31. Retrieved Mar. 2010, from Top ten wonders of the home automation world. Mac|Life.com 30- 31. Retrieved Mar. 2010, from http://www.maclife- digital.com/maclife/201003/?pg=33#pg33.Top ten wonders of the home automation world. Mac|Life.com 30- 31. Retrieved Mar. 2010, from http://www.maclife- digital.com/maclife/201003/?pg=33#pg33. Triangle Research Int'l Inc. (2010, Nov.). In Nano-10 User Manual. Retrieved Mar. Day, 2011, from http://www.tri- plc.com/documents/Nano-10-UserManual.pdfhttp://www.tri- plc.com/documents/Nano-10-UserManual.pdf

17. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my father Mike Skeene and my brother Shawn Skeene with all the help in the physical construction of the feeder. Thanks for watching Email: carl_skeene@mymail.eku.educarl_skeene@mymail.eku.edu