MA Feeder - Auto feeder

This Is the Marine Assistant Auto feeder, It can feed All sorts of dried fish food like Flakes or pellets. The food is dispenced using a threaded coil for precice controll.

It uses a custom designed PCB which is Compatible With home assistant using the ESP home plug-in. The case is completly 3d printed and is simple to print and assemble.

More information coming soon so check back in!!

Features:

- Open source 3d printed body, adjust and modify if you wish.

- Well tested hardware, High quality electronics for a long life and reliability.

- Takes many different sorts of dried foods.

- Fully automate your feeding schedule with full controll over the amount that is fed each time.

- Food outlet is compatible with 20mm PVC pipework.

The MA-feeder is delivered in kit form and will require some assembly on your part, this is not dificult and is well documented below....

Get yours Here

Some More Images....

Build Guide...

The MA-Feeder has been designed to be easy to put together and use, The 3d printed parts require minimum assembly and there are only 3 components that require soldering.

Here is the Build video, In this guide is shown how to put the MA-feeder together. Including Sodlering the PCB, finishing the 3d Printed parts and putting it all together.

Video Build guide

Written Build guide

PCB Assembly.

The PCB has 2 buttons, 1 Capacitor and one 4 pin screw terminal for the Stepper motor that need soldering. All other components are Pre-assembled

Push the buttons in from the front and they will hold themselves inplace, turn the board over and solder the pins.

The 4 port screw terminal is inserted from the front, secure with a little tape and then solder the pins on the back. make sure the terminal is parallel to the edge before soldering.

Future Versions of the PCB may vary slightly in design but the info in this guide remains up to date.

To finish the assembly you will need to insert a CR2032 coin cell, This is used for the Real time clock to keep the automations running in case of a loss of conection to Home assistant. This is not included in the kit.

The parts are really easy to solder as they are all quite large and are easyly assable with a soldering iron, There are 4 parts that need soldering to complete the board and here are some pointers:

The Buttons

Start with the two buttons, they are simply pressed into their locations on the PCB as pictured below. They snap into place so when you turn the board over to solder they wont fall out.

4 Port motor input.

The motor input port has four pins to be soldered. Place it in with the input side facing inwards as pictured, this is to ensure the wires are correctly oriented inside the case. Solder one pin then check alignment, then solder the other three.

Capacitor

This is the only part that is polorised, meaning it has a positive and a negative side. the PCB has a little - marking and this corresponds to the negative side of the Capacitor. The capacitor has a white line on one side, this is the negative side! Insert it as pictured below and then solder from the underside, cut off the excess.

PCB Complete

3d Printed parts Preperation

Either Print your own parts or purchase the Full Kit in the store, either way you will need these parts pictured.

If you have printed your own parts you will need to go over all the parts and remove any sharp edges, If you purchased though the Online store then the parts will have already been checked and you shouldn't have to do Much yourself. If you printed your own be sure to remove all the support material and trim the edges where needed.

Next you will need to Insert the Threaded Inserts, The brass inserts need to be heated and pressed into the holes on the printed parts. There are 16 in total, see the images below for reference. To insert them use an old tip on your soldering iron, put the insert over the hole and apply heat until it start to "sink" into the hole. Use a pair of thin nosed pliers to push it into position if needed and be carefull not to apply too much heat.
If unsure there are many Youtube videos on how to do this, Search "3d print threaded inserts"

Next Glue the hopper faceplate to the cover, Use superglue to glue the following parts together.

- Both parts have locating slots (3rd Image). Apply a little Glue and press the parts together. Check alignment on the Top edge of the faceplate, this should be Almost flush with the top of the cover.

Putting it all together

You now have all the parts preped and just need to put it all together, after that the firmware will need to be loaded. heres what to do next:

1. Prep the stepper motor, Insert the grub screw into the gear and slide the gear onto the shaft as shown in the image below. Be sure to measure between the mounting surface of the stepper and the end on the gear, It should be 19mm. Once you have it set to 19mm you can tighten the grub screw, Ensure its tightening onto the flat part of the shaft. You can also insert the cable plug at this point as shown below.

2. Drop the corkscrew into the main body, It should move freely and fall into place. You can then place the stepper motor assembly onto the corkscrew and move it until it falls into place and the gear sits in the corkscrew, you may need to rotate the stepper shaft until it all aligns. After that hold it in place with your finger and turn it over to attach the 4 M3 x 8mm screws as shown. You will need a long screwdriver.

3. Attach the front faceplate with the 4 M3 x 5mm screws and slide in the hopper cover.

3. Screw on the Pre assembled PCB onto the back of the housing and connect the wires as shown in the pictures below. Once done insert the buttons into the PCB Cover and secure the cover with 4 M3x18mm screws. At this put you can also install a CR2032 coin cell battery for the clock.

The best way to put on the faceplate with the buttons is to place the buttons into the cover from the inside, then without turning it over place the feeder on top. You can then turn everything over and insert the screws without the buttons falling out.

Mounting options

The Marine assistant auto feeder comes with 3 mounting options:

A simple foot, for placing the feeder on top of a tank lid over a hole
A glass mount, For hanging on the edge of a glass tank. There are 4 adapters for 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 12mm glass
A wall mount, this uses the same glass mount bracket but instead of hanging on glass it hangs on a wall mounted bracket.

Foot

Glass mount

Wall mount

Firmware Install

This Guide Assumes that you already have setup Home assistant and have the ESPhome add-on installed. If you still need to do this check HERE for a guide.

1. Adding the MA-Feeder to ESPhome

Click on ESPhome in your sidebar then add device and follow the on screen instructions.

You will need your to input your Wi-Fi name and password, be sure to set the name to "MA_Feeder" and the board type to "ESP32-s3".

Click new Device

Set the name

Select ESP32-S3 as your Board

You will then be presented with a option on how you would like to upload the code to the board, the first time this must be done via a cable conected to your computer. Once ESPhome code is running on your board then from that point onwards you can use Wi-Fi.

Once this is all done and correctly installed the sensor module should show in esphome with "online" in the corner, you can also open the logs at anytime to see what is happening and if there are any errors. There are many ways to install the ESPhome software to your device, this is one of many. There are many guides online on how to to do this.

2. Installing the custom MA-Feeder code

The custom code for The MA-Feeder contains all the information needed for the internal PCB to function correctly, Information like the motor connections as well as the buttons and Real time clock.

Here we will install the complete code but you are free to modify it if you wish.

Download the MA-Feeder code from the downloads section here.
Open the code with notepad++
In ESPHome click on "edit" under the MA_Feeder device.
Copy the code from notepad++ and paste it into your sensor module device below the code that is already there. Simply add a few spaces below and paste it in.
Click on save and install (Wirelessly), wait for the code to upload.

Now you will need to setup some cards in your dashboard to set the feed times and amount.

3. Setting up in the home assistant dashboard.

You will need to setup a custom card in your Home assistant dashboard, this card will set values like the feeding times and the amount that is fed. Once these values are set they are stored on the feeder itself, this means that it will continue to feed even in the case of a loss of Wifi.

Create a New Dashboard (Optional)

In Home Assistant, go to the Dashboard (Overview).
Click + Add Dashboard (optional, for dedicated feeder panel).
Click the three-dot menu (⋮) at the top right → Edit Dashboard.
Name it "Aquarium Feeder".

Add the Lovelace Card

While editing the dashboard, click + Add Card.
Choose "Manual" card (last option).
Paste the code into the card editor. (Download the code "MA_Feeder_Code" from the donwnloads section.
Click Save

Set Feed Times and Amount

Use the sliders in the card to enter times.
Set Feed Amount (e.g., 1500 ms).
Click the Feed Now or Prime Feed button to test.

Need Help?

The best place to get help and help others is on the marine assistant Facebook group, here are many marine assistant users that make up a great Community. We activly help users with their build here too.

If you can't find the help you need then please feel free to send us an email to marineassistantinfo@gmail.com