4 ms·

> This thing is covered in sensors; it's got two scales, ostensibly for measuring the weight of the hopper and the weight of food dispensed, a pair of infrared

> This thing is covered in sensors; it's got two scales, ostensibly for measuring the weight of the hopper and the weight of food dispensed, a pair of infrared sensors to detect when the hooper is empty, sensors that monitor the motor's turning, and others that I haven't figured out the purpose of. Bad for business if your cat feeder fails to feed the customer's cat and they return from a trip to a very hungry cat.

quercusa 3y ago
How could you tell? Don't they usually act as if they're starving?
- stavros 3y ago
  It'd be much skinnier and/or dead.
  - brewdad 3y ago
    It’s pining for the fjords.
  - thecatspaw 3y ago
    You shouldnt leave a cat alone for that long anyway for that to become a concern. Indoor cats become bored very quickly if they dont get enough playtime
shiroiuma 3y ago
Yeah, that sentence shows me that this guy isn't an engineer at all, he's just a hacker. If he made his own automatic litter box (the rotating drum kind) for his cat, he'll also not see the point of all those sensors that "aren't really needed", and one day he'll come home to find his cat chopped in half.
- ginko 3y ago
  This take is unnecessarily negative. OP could be very aware of the limitations of their chosen approach and use the feeder accordingly.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    Perhaps, but I didn't see anything to that effect in his text. His comment about there being "too many" sensors that he didn't even know the function of, or seem to appreciate the presence of at all, seems to contraindicate your assumption. Consumer electronics are generally made cheaply, so they don't put sensors in there for no reason at all. Usually there's a very good reason they're in there.
- paradox460 3y ago
  When the device was in service, the sensors didn't really work, and were likely never enabled in the software. The hopper feed level never accurately indicated in-app, and was mostly just based on calculating the approximate amount dispensed vs a "full" hopper, and the machine would often happily report that it dispensed food, and never actually did, so I doubt the scales actually were enabled either

quercusa 3y ago

How could you tell? Don't they usually act as if they're starving?

stavros 3y ago
It'd be much skinnier and/or dead.
- brewdad 3y ago
  It’s pining for the fjords.
- thecatspaw 3y ago
  You shouldnt leave a cat alone for that long anyway for that to become a concern. Indoor cats become bored very quickly if they dont get enough playtime

shiroiuma 3y ago

Yeah, that sentence shows me that this guy isn't an engineer at all, he's just a hacker. If he made his own automatic litter box (the rotating drum kind) for his cat, he'll also not see the point of all those sensors that "aren't really needed", and one day he'll come home to find his cat chopped in half.

ginko 3y ago
This take is unnecessarily negative. OP could be very aware of the limitations of their chosen approach and use the feeder accordingly.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Perhaps, but I didn't see anything to that effect in his text. His comment about there being "too many" sensors that he didn't even know the function of, or seem to appreciate the presence of at all, seems to contraindicate your assumption. Consumer electronics are generally made cheaply, so they don't put sensors in there for no reason at all. Usually there's a very good reason they're in there.
paradox460 3y ago
When the device was in service, the sensors didn't really work, and were likely never enabled in the software. The hopper feed level never accurately indicated in-app, and was mostly just based on calculating the approximate amount dispensed vs a "full" hopper, and the machine would often happily report that it dispensed food, and never actually did, so I doubt the scales actually were enabled either