Tending to our pets is one of the many joys in having them, but sometimes life is a little busy. Thankfully, there are brilliant makers out there like Sepfy on Hackster, who shared a very useful fish-feeding project they've created using our favorite single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi. The fish feeder makes it possible to feed your fish remotely and even monitor them with a live camera feed.
If you're going to be late getting home or maybe taking a short trip out of town, this is a great way to keep an eye on your aquatic buddies and make sure they get supper right on time. All you need to make it work is an internet connection and a device capable of reaching the internet via a browser, like a computer or a smartphone.
The Raspberry Pi is responsible for quite a few things. It not only hosts a web server for the video feed, but also has an interface you can use to tell the feeder when it's time to dish out the tasty bites. When the command is received, the Pi triggers the food feeder to automatically dispense a little bit of food.
The main board powering this project is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W that is connected to a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3. All the hardware is housed inside a 3D-printed shell that is suctioned to the side of the tank. We can see a little wheel on top that rotates using a stepper motor which helps empty the food contents into the tank.
Sepfy was kind of enough to make the project completely open source, which means you can recreate it at home and download all of the source code. There are instructions on the project page detailing how to set up the OS image and use the scripts to control both the feeder and the remote web interface.
If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project and see it in action, head over to Hackster to explore the full build guide.
