Automatic Pellet Dispenser

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm looking for a cheap way to dispense a pellet of kibble into a dog crate
upon receipt of an X-10 command.  Most automatic dog feeders mete out a
whole meal's worth and that's way too much.  When the pups are sitting in
their crates, chewing their nylabones and not creating a ruckus at night
they need to be rewarded every now and then and the a good way would be to
spit out a pellet of dog food whenever I chose to.

I thought I've seen tubes with spiral inserts that look like auger bits that
dispense a certain amount of material as long as the auger spins.  Might be
a gumball machine I am thinking about  . . .

My initial sketches are for something like a handheld screwdriver run by a
3VDC wall wart connected to an appliance module converted to momentary
operation.  The screwdriver will sit inside a large funnel of kibble with an
auger bit twisting inside the funnel stem.

I don't mind if they get three pieces instead of one - or none at all (I
know, I'm a heartless SOB).  But it's got to fail "closed" meaning it
doesn't dispense any MORE than 2 or 3 pieces.  And it's got to be very cheap
to build.  That's a tricky specification here because I've got a lot of old
"junk" around like cordless screwdrivers with impractical to replace battery
packs, huge darkroom funnels and storage tanks that might dictate my choice
of materials far more than what might be best from an engineering
standpoint.

Quiet is probably good, too.  I suspect the "acking" of a powerful solenoid
will cause a stampede.  It might even be that the momentary noise of an X-10
module's relay might be too loud.  I don't want to wake up all the other
sleeping dogs just to reward one of them.  They're used to the X-10 noise to
indicate visits from people and they get very antsy if a relay clacks and no
one appears.  I might also have to do the solid state relay mod to the
appliance module as well, if it turn out to be a problem.

As usual, I appreciate in advance any useful ideas or discussion.

--
Bobby G.