Servo On/Off Timer

Community Projects
1

Hello,

I’m trying to build a toy for my cat to periodically release Ping-Pong balls while I’m at work. I made this demo circuit ( tutorials/continuous-rotation-servo-tri … okup-guide ), and I am trying to add a delay timer so the servo will run for a set (but adjustable) amount of time , then turn the servo off for a set (but adjustable) amount of time. I attached the servo to a mini waterwheel (for lack of a better way to describe it), and I’d like the wheel to spin just enough to release one Ping-Pong ball at a time (from a funneled bucket of balls) at fixed intervals. For example, it would be perfect if the servo/wheel combo could release one ball every 5 minutes.

I’m brand new to electronics and trying to avoid coding for this initial project. I purchased the SparkFun Nano Power Timer ( https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15353 ), but unfortunately I can’t get my idea to work. Two questions:

  1. If I get two Nano Power Timers, would it be possible to stagger the timers and have one to start the wheel and one stop the wheel?

  2. If #1 above does not work, does anyone have any other ideas for how to make this project work?

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

2

Sorry, I see that I copied an incomplete link to the demo circuit. Here is the full link to the circuit I assembled (found in the “Getting Started Quickly” section of the page). https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/co … okup-guide

Thanks again!

3

You’d need a lot more circuitry to make something like this work and even then, it might not work reliably.

I know you want to skip code, but the easiest way to do what you’re looking to do would be to use an Arduino, a regular servo and a bit of code to turn the servo a given amount of degrees every so often. You’d need to make some sort of ratcheting mechanism on your wheel to turn the wheel a set amount every time the servo moves to and fro.

Doing this with timers is going to be hard to setup to make it reliable and you could inadvertently release all your balls all at once if things don’t work absolutely perfectly all the time.