Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I bought one but it only lasted two weeks. I would return it but I tried to fix it myself so now I can't return it. I love the idea but would ideally like a 240 vold one.

Mine is still going fine.

First i've seen of these.. Might have to get one and give it a go..

All the ones I looked at were small aquarium sized or really big and expensive, but these look to be about the right size for my setup..

Now $40.00

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005IGCGA8/ref ... B005IGCGA8

I thought that I would take a punt, and I bought one of these a year ago from Soldsmart. When it worked, it worked fine. When it didn't work, it just kept rotating, and dispensed all of the food, or it would just shutdown, and require the batteries to be taken out for a period of time before it would reset. This would typically happen about day 3 in a cycle. There was no joy in dealing with Soldsmart in getting a replacement, and it appears that it does not have a warranty.

It is too bad, because it has the capacity and functionality that I wanted, with a cheap price to boot. Not cheap if it doesn't work though...

If it breaks you could pull it apart and redo the electronics with arduino/picaxe/rasberry pi /other.
A few others here have done it with home made mechanics.

The best part about this one is all the tricky mechanical stuff and protecting the food is already done.

I'm going to get one on ebay, that why if it breaks in the first couple of weeks i can get my money back with paypal.

I got this in the mail today.
It is easy to convert it to mains operation (with a 6v plugpack)
Use a mulitmeter to find out which end of the battery compartment is connected in series.
The other end to that is the + and - that go into the feeder (the spring is negative)
Hope this diagram helps

+Batt-,+Batt- |
|
-Batt+,-Batt+ |

4 1.5v batteries in series is 6v.

just bend the +ve terminal a bit and just use clips or solder etc to attach the output of your 6v powerpack.

Just tested it too

Any update on these machines..
I am looking at them and wondered how they went with different size pellets and how accurate you can control delivery..
Eg 5gm a feed...
..
.

..
and how they cope with different sized pellets

this is one that I am looking at..
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gross-Green-Automatic-Aquarium-Digital-Tank-Pond-Fish-Food-Feeder-Feeding-Timer/753124027.html
..
.