Both our liquid and food subsystem and perform simultaneously. The final setting and code so that both can work together and dispense the appropriate amount of substance is still being worked on. This week the liquid subsystem used a new setup to pressurize the cartridge, an air solenoid valve was included inline with the air pump and the cartridge (syringe). The air solenoid can do 10 cycle/sec with a .05 sec response time. The current solenoid valve does not have an exhaust, we are initiates our testing with the valve to evaluate if it meet all our needs. Our goal is to dispense 1 mL and 2 mL with a 10% error or less. We are working on a second alternative for the liquid dispensing which is a rack and pinion mechanism that would drive the movement of an air filled cartridge which will displace the piston in the liquid syringe by the same amount. The idea is that the displacement will translate through the pressurizing of the air between the 2 cartridges. The first prototype of cartridge was made, we have a one way valve at the tip of the cartridge that essentially acts as a seal to prevent air from contaminating our substance inside. This will avoid having to cap the cartridge after every use, however we do want to have a screw on cap in case the cartridge wants to be save for a much later time. Testing with this new cartridge prototype has not yet begun but will this coming week. Screens available are, home screen, greeting screen, pet registered, dog existing and manual overwrite. Preset-up strings work, greeting screen works when initializing and when selecting existing pet it does give the option as to an already created dog profile. The dog’s weight is one of the parts of interface achieved, when prompt for dogs weight it can now be entered by scrolling up and down 2 touch buttons on the screen.

Integrated Pet Feeder for Health and Wellness, Sandy Moreno