John Park poses a kitty conundrum: Who's going to feed the cat while you're on vacation? Using a motor from an old VCR, he creates an automated feline feeder. While building this Make: magazine project, John learned that newer VCRs have safeguard technology, limiting access to the motor. Watch John as he demonstrates his solutions to this challenge.
Well, issue is that cats don´t necessarely need food to eat over a week-end.Fresh water is more important. Cool rig though but seems a little bit pointless unless it is for guidance of oppotunities of old VCR:s
Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out. Make: The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things... Welcome to Make: Online!
More contributors: Mark Frauenfelder (Editor-in-Chief, MAKE magazine), Kipp Bradford (Technical Consultant/Writer), Chris Connors (Education), Diana Eng (Guest Author), Peter Horvath (Intern), Brian Jepson (O'Reilly Media), Robert Bruce Thompson (Science Room)
Behind the Scenes at MAKE and CRAFT
In January, many of the remote MAKE/CRAFT team members (myself included) convened at the Maker Media headquarters at O'Reilly Media in Sebastopol, California. Take a look behind the scenes of your favorite DIY publications as Goli Mohammadi gives us...
More...
Sign up for the Make: Newsletter
Our Make: Newsletter covers news from maker Media, has original columns, Shed deals, and more! You can also read the archives of past issues.
Am i wrong or this an original project by James Larsson? http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/10/the_maker_file_interview.html
Reply to this comment
@designswarm - yup! many / most / all of our projects online, in video, on Make: television are likely based on something we've done in the magazine.
Reply to this comment
Those wheels they used looked cool. What are those wheels from?
Reply to this comment
Our very astute technical adviser, Bill Gurstelle, passes on this note re: the wheels in the VCR Cat Feeder...
I got them at Northern Tool.
See
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_13794_13794
Reply to this comment
Well, issue is that cats don´t necessarely need food to eat over a week-end.Fresh water is more important. Cool rig though but seems a little bit pointless unless it is for guidance of oppotunities of old VCR:s
Reply to this comment