Week#22 3/2 - 3/7

This week the fish feeder broke so that means I had to repair it. As much as this project annoys me I agreed to work on it since I had an idea on how to fix it. Now it isn't really broken it's just that the current design had a flaw. The hole for the auger on the previous design was too wide and fish food was getting caught in the hole also the shape of the fish food holder was a V and that worked well to ensure that fish food would get to the auger but it was unstable and led to fish food getting caught and stopping the auger from moving. Another issue was how the PVC tube that delivered the food to the tank would slide out of the clamp.

In my new design I address both these flaws. I designed the box that holds the fish food to just be a rectangle shape and not a V. Even though a V ensures that all the food will get to the auger this shape will make it so there is much more room around the auger and fish food will hopefully not get caught. To have this new shape I instead needed a flat bottom so I also had to design a new L bracket to attach the base.

As for the clamp to hold the PVC I designed a new version that will make it so the PVC does no go inside the box like the old one but is on the outside. The new clamp also mounts to the box with more screws (3 instead of 1) and it screws into the PVC this time which the old one did not.