MakerBot Industries

This is a little tool that makes it easier to attach apple pieces to your bidcage. Special thanks to Karsten for needing something that holds his apple pieces! :)

Turn a water bottle into a bird-feeder.

This design is still under development. The idea is to be able to buy a 5in PCV pipe from your local hardware store, print some parts, and assembly a dry dog food dispenser. This idea could also be tweaked for a cat feeder or Some how mount a stepper motor for an automatic animal feeder!

This is my Android-powered, automated cat feeder. A Python script runs via SL4A on the phone serving up a webcam feed and taking care of triggering the feeder on schedule. For more details, video, and code, see my blog entry here:damonkohler.com/2010/11/android-automated-cat-feeder.html

This ball is intended to give your cat exercise as they eat their food. I saw a ball like this at the pet store and, as I have extremely strong makerbot goggles, decided to design and print one. It's taken her a while, but my cat is starting to learn to use it.

I saw a cat toy and thought why should I pay $3 for that...so I went home and made something similar. It is also a good print capability test.

Our two cats love their wet food every morning. So much in fact, that they wake me up at 4:30 a.m. when they are ready to eat. But if they eat too much, they get too fat. So I divide each can of Friskies wet cat food into 3 servings. But I don't always divide it correctly at 4:30 a.m., so I decided to make this cat food serving guide. Print on Makerbot, and then press this into a freshly-opened can of cat food to help make the servings even.

Taking care of two cats sooner or later involves some very nasty "sorting". Sorting litter from poop normally involves some sort of cheap plastic scoop, but since the shops were closed before I realised I needed one, I quickly threw one together in Illustrator. It's not very ergonomic, it's not very durable, but it takes 2 minutes to cut and fold and gets the job done. This is version 2.0 scaled up about 20%...

After my ferrets' hammock fell a few times, I decided to create a mount that I could screw in securely, while also easily clip on and off the hammock clips. The bracket has been in service for almost a year and the hammock has not fallen since. The bracket can easily hold ~10lbs of ferrets when they decide to all stuff into the one hammock.

(click on the thumbnail for the full-length photo) This is an internet-controlled pet treat dispenser. The model pictured has dual chutes and canholders so it will dispense two treats simultaneously, since we have two cats. That's not a necessary component, you can use a single shaft and canholder. The idea here is to put a webcam where it can view the dispenser, possibly something to make a noise to attract the cats, and then give them a treat. In our case, the 'webcam' and noise will be provided by a Rovio. The electronics are arduino-based and can be attached directly to a PC via USB or controlled more remotely with a bluetooth dongle. There is a (very) simple Perl CGI that will activate the pet feeder over the internet. For the record, the plastic used in my photos is: Blue and Green PLA from: diamondage.co.nz/pla.html Natural PLA from: makergear.com/products/filament Printed on my Thing-O-Matic. WIP WHY: * Not completely tested, but it WILL be complete by the end of the day, with more photos and demo videos!! * The joiners I was experimenting with in the STLs below are not really good, especially the part with 4 is basically impossible to get together, although it may work a little nicer in more flexible ABS; these prints of mine are all PLA. * My initial tests show the treats I'm using are tend to jam up in the canister instead of falling into the hopper. My initial plan to fix this is to chop up the treats into smaller bits by hand and load them in the canisters. If that does not work, I may have to resort to printing the entire mechanism somewhat larger, and/or designing some kind of agitator for the canisters. * Documentation below obviously WIP. * Software to be (written and then) provided! QUICK UPDATE: Testing various treats, sizes, shaking the cans, and stuff... we're stuck with the problem that the treats bind up in the can instead of falling into the holes. The next step in solving the problem will be to add some kind of better agitation to the treats that are still in the can. This will require redesigning some of the parts, unfortunately, which I'm doing now. UPDATE (2011-04-18): I've got a new design for the gears, gearbox, and canholders that might help alleviate the jamming problem. I'll post them after a test. - supplemental: I posted the parts, although they are untested and still printing here. UPDATE (2011-04-20): New parts tested and they work MUCH better. I think it could still be improved somewhat, and there's a bit too much room in some places, but I can probably run with this design as-is.

This is a replacement food dish for our hamster, Chester. It is designed to fit into the hole in the plastic shelf. The upper lip keeps the bowl from falling through the hole in the shelf.