Electronics - Aquaponics - Demand feeder fish lever build

I spent some time in an electronics store testing long buttoned momentary switches.

They all seem to work when you tilt the button to the side as well as when you press the button normally. Perhaps they are designed to work that way after all.

Thanks button maker.








I had a bit of a breakthrough with the entire lever, and not just the switch part. I found this fishing float had a white plastic bit that almost fit over the momentary switch's button.

That's the switch lower right.

The white plastic thing was hollow, but needed a slight enlargement with a hand held drill.





The button went in with a snug fit, and the white thing was really their just to give me some surface area glue onto.











The new lever incorporated a second fishing float as the stem, and as a nice bulb for the fish to hit.

The float stem has a bit of flex to it, so it should be forgiving if a fish hits it hard.

It looked lie this when built.






I glued it in place with super glue, and held it while it dried with what to me looks like a naked chicken with a fist for a head.











So now my device looks like this.

It also works.

I turned it on, and while I was putting a cover over the fish tank, the bigger of my two fish hit the lever and got a feed.

I did have the camera running, but the video was too dark to post, but the switch and lever worked perfectly.

I count this as a success!











120 Things in 20 years suggests you never try to take your electronic aquaponics demand feeder on a plane with you, unless you feel like explaining it for a few hours.

2 comments:

  1. That's about the craziest thing I've seen as an addition to an aquaponics system... and I love it!

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  2. Thanks John :)

    I count it as a very interesting thing to do. It's amazing how quickly fish that apparently have no memory, learn how to use the feeder. From personal memory, it was only a matter of a few days before they stopped hitting the lever if the "Feed Available" light wasn't lit.

    Everything is smarter, and infinitely more interesting than I ever thought possible.

    To quote someone interesting I know, "Wonderments will never stop failing to cease to amaze me".


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