need auto feeder

[Coleus]

Just want to update how i do mine now. I found a better way of doing this for couple reason.

When we use the If time statement, it does not count second so if you have if time 20:00 to 21:00 then ON, if is actually on for 2 minutes. And i also turn my power head off during feeding so poor fish waiting for like 4 minutes before the food actually got dropped. Thus my power head does not run for 8 minutes per feeding. 4 feeding per days so that 32 minutes per day.

So here is my new program, by using OSC i can do per 15 second on and off

[Feeder]
Fallback OFF

OSC 000:00/00:15/00:15 Then ON // this will give enough ON-OFF-ON-OFF in 1 minute

If Time 20:02 to 13:00 Then OFF // my first feeding start at 1 and end at 8
If Time 13:02 to 15:00 Then OFF
If Time 15:02 to 18:00 Then OFF
If Time 18:02 to 20:00 Then OFF

[PowerHead]
Fallback ON
If Time 20:00 to 20:02 Then OFF
If Time 13:00 to 13:02 Then OFF
If Time 15:00 to 15:02 Then OFF
If Time 18:00 to 18:02 Then OFF

So I only lost 3 minutes per feeding instead of 8 like before which reduce 32 minutes of no water flow movement to 12 minutes. The best out of this is all my fished now don't hang on top that long and fight each other while waiting for food to drop

I also had any problem with moisture in the drum because the feeder is under my light and it get very hot when my MH is on so on moisture got evaporate

Originally Posted by abcha0s

Hi Coleus

I setup my Rena autofeeder tonight, and the program above does indeed activate a feed cycle.

One feature which the Rena has is a warmer to prevent any moisture in the drum. Presumably, this warmer can only opperate when the unit is power. I modified the program such that the unit is always on and the feed cycle is initiated by an off/on/off/on.

The problem with this seems to be the default setting of 1 automatic feed cycle every 12 hours. To get around this, I taped up the day/night optical sensor and set the unit so that it doesn't feed at night. With the unit set this way and the sensor taped, it should never initiate an automatic feed cycle.

My question is whether you have any concerns with this approach (assuming I don't want any unplanned feeding events)? I wonder why you choose to keep the unit powered off except at feed time?

One somewhat obvious problem that I see is that tape isn't exactly a long term reliable solution. Another approach might be to use a suitable paint to cover the sensor? Another problem might be that the feed at night button might acidentally get pressed, but if you spot check it regularily, this shouldn't be a problem.

Just curious what your thoughts were.

Thanks

Brad