Re: Automatic Pellet Dispenser

["B Fuhrmann" <b-fuhrmann-usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> If you use a disk as the shuttle (like the gumball machine) you can ramp
> the
>> trailing edge so that the top piece scrapes the excess objects off
>> without
>> breaking it up.

>> A shaded pole gear motor can be small, cheap, and quiet.  The constant
> speed
>> would let you use a one shot timer to advance the disk.
>
> Any motor noise is going to be an issue.  So will solenoid clacking, at
> least from what I've read of people who've tried this.  Some even say
> after
> a while, they respond to the solenoid click or motor whir and not the
> food!
> We'll see.  I'm going to look for toys that might be modifiable on my next
> trip to Wal-mart.

A shaded pole motor makes almost no noise.  There is nothing you are going
to find quieter, other than magic.  Deffinately less than the mechanism from
a toy.  Think of an old electric clock.

Deffinately less than the gears in a power screwdriver.


>> Another method is to use a screw feeder.  You have a very coarse screw
>> inside a tube.  One end is at the bottom of your hopper and the other is
> the
>> delivery of the material.
>> Similar use of a timer and a slow motor.
>> The method is used to move many types of items.
>> www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Screw/conveyor/conveyor.html
>
> That's what I was originally considering with an old auger bit inside of a
> plastic or metal pipe.  Friction holds the material in the auger and just
> the stuff at the very bottom drops out.  Very appealing because it's low
> maintenance, and if I use the old electric screwdrivers I have, about as
> low
> a motor noise as I can hope for.  Maybe an old 110VAC clock motor with
> enough torque would be able to drive a disk or an auger.  The pellet
> doesn't
> have to drop instantly.  It could take as much as a minute and I think the
> results would be the same.