Automatic Nori feeder

[garydan]

I looked around, and i couldn't find anyone building an automatic nori feeder.

Step one was to figure out was how to store and feed the nori sheets. I was playing with some nori and i found that with some drops of RODI water i could attach pieces end to end in order to make a spool of it.



I tried to just feed it into the tank, and the nori floated on the surface. Fish won't eat it if it's floating.... So, i had to come up with a mechanism to put it below the surface.

From there i also needed to figure out the feeding mechanism. My dad has a mill and lathe, so i had him turn a couple of pieces of nylon rod to make the rollers. The nori changes thicknesses, so there needed to be some kind of mechanism to keep pressure between them. I decided to use an o-ring in a figure 8 across the ends to do this. One roller is in a fixed hole, the other is in an oblong hole to give it room to move. The o-ring keeps pressure on the material. To keep the o-ring from walking off the rod there's a notch in one rod that it rides in.




Put it all together, and you get the final assembly



I did some test runs, manually feeding it down, and ran into a problem. The wet nori stuck to the sides in the feed slot. So, i ran it through the router table and reduced the surface area in the slot.



I've been doing manual testing for this in the past few days, and the nori no longer sticks, feeding has been flawless. The nori is down low enough in the tank that the fish have no problem eating.

Next steps, I have a 1RPM AC motor coming in from McMaster Carr, it should be delivered tomorrow. Going to play with using a belt to drive it, but i expect i'll need to switch to gears. It should feed around 1/2 inch per minute of the motor running. I'm planning on plugging it into my RKE and cycling it to keep a constant supply of nori in the tank.

I have one concern still, there's around 2 inches of nori that's in the feeder through the night and waterlogged in the morning. I'm happy to say that the water doesn't soak up into the rollers and jamb them, but the nori is pretty mushy. Fish seem to like it mushy, the second it comes out they're all over it. I don't think it'll be a problem, but i'll need to give it some more time to see if there's any unexpected consequences.

This is V1, we're already tweaking the design for V2, i think i'm going to make it taller so i have room to put the feed motor inside of it rather than on the outside. Also, making it taller will change the center of gravity, right now it's a little heavy on the side that's in the water, i have to counter weight it with a ziplock of sand.

[thelizardkin]

another idea is grinding nori into flakes and putting them in a auto fish feeder

[BeanAnimal]

Nice work. I suspect that the waterlogging may become a problem over time, but who knows. I suppose if you feed enough per day then you may be able to somewhat keep ahead of it.

[garydan]

The problem with nori flakes is they float, and then are skimmed off. Also, the tangs won't eat off of the surface.

I have a possible solution if nori waterlogging is a problem, put the entire mechanism in a box and use an air pump to pressurize it. That way i can push the water out of the nori feed slot all the way down to the bottom. That's a last resort though, i don't think i'll need to do it.

[EnderG60]

Ill be keeping on eye on your progress. Thats pretty damn cool.

[patmack]

That is way cool! How many tangs do you have? do they all get to eat from there or do some of them hog it all?

[garydan]

I have two tangs, but it's not just the tangs that eat the nori. Two clowns, two damsels, and a lawnmower blenny also munch on it between mysis feedings. The only fish i have that doesn't eat it is the royal gramma. They all eat from it, no hogging.

[sfsuphysics]

Does the nori wick up water at all? that might be a concern, but then again it depends how fast you're pushing in. Also need to make sure your tangs actually eat it quick enough too. Last thing you want is to dump all the nori into the tank if they decide they really aren't hungry for it anymore

[garydan]

It wicks up about 1/4", it's not getting anywhere near the rollers. I thought that was going to be a problem, i was surprised when it wasn't. I checked it in the morning, after it was sitting in the water ~8 hours.

The plan is to feed in a little bit every couple hours, i'll have to adjust the feed rate to match consumption. I feed a fixed 1/4 sheet a day right now, so i'll probably stick to that quantity but spread it out across the whole day rather than dropping it all in at once.

[sfsuphysics]

how did you keep the nori from not floating on the surface?

[duoc9119]

Thats a pretty cool idea and would like to see a final version. I wish I had access to workshop tools, it would make my life so much easier since I do a lot of projects rather than going out and buying what I need just to mod or upgrade later on.

[capecoral]

Less work, more fun

[gman107]

Wow what a great idea,good job !!

[patmack]

Do you have any pics of it installed? How about any info on the drive motor?

[garydan]

This is the motor i'm using, i just received it yesterday so it's not installed yet. $23, so it's a little pricy.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#cadinlnord/3867k1/=cw010t

This is the second motor. For the first i grabbed a $8 motor from ebay, it ran at 3-4 RPM. It would feed the nori fine, but there was no way to control whether it went clockwise or counterclockwise. When you powered it on it would randomly change directions. It needs some kind of ratcheting mechanism to prevent it from going reverse, i don't have the time to devise something so i abandoned it and moved to the more expensive solution.


This is what it looks like in place, i have the motor setting roughly where it's going to be installed.



This photo should answer the question on how i keep the nori from floating, the yellow damsel was the first one to grab some when i rolled some down this morning.

[SkullV]

My friend you will want to apply for a patent on this ASAP now that you have posted it. Great $$$ potential there. Great work! Looks very nice!

[EnderG60]

check surplus center. If you want something AC thats unidirectional you will need to get a gear motor. usually under $20 but they tend to be kinda loud.

[patmack]

Originally Posted by SkullV

My friend you will want to apply for a patent on this ASAP now that you have posted it. Great $$$ potential there. Great work! Looks very nice!

Too late now I already saw it.. JK,JK

+1000

[jhentr]

Awesome. That's what I call thinking. Where did you get the toilet roll sheet of nori? do you just cut the 10x10 sheets and roll them up.

I tried different brands of nori and some are more flexible at bending than others. Some are crispier so when you bend/roll them, they break. Others are better at holding together.

Either way - great job at finding a possible answer to a question/dilema with feeding nori.

[garydan]

I thought about patenting, decided not to go that route.


I'm using bulk nori sheets from the local asian market, cut it into strips and then use a couple drops of RODI water to glue the seams together. This wouldn't work with the crispier sheets. One area of concern i have is if you make 10-20 feet on a roll it would probably last a month. It's in the canopy and exposed to air, so it may dry out and break.

[derek4real]

Originally Posted by garydan

I thought about patenting, decided not to go that route.


I'm using bulk nori sheets from the local asian market, cut it into strips and then use a couple drops of RODI water to glue the seams together. This wouldn't work with the crispier sheets. One area of concern i have is if you make 10-20 feet on a roll it would probably last a month. It's in the canopy and exposed to air, so it may dry out and break.

You could copyleft it, LOL

[garydan]

Gears on the way, tried driving it with an o-ring but putting enough pressure to keep the oring from slipping would twist it and bind it in the housing. I had some luck using a wide rubber band, but it would walk off of the shaft.

One concern with using a gear is the ability to manually feed it so you don't have to power it on in order to feed in a new roll. Also, i don't want to risk burning up the motor in the event the feeder becomes jambed.

I'm thinking i'm going to put a clutch on it. Basically, on the feed roller shaft end i'm going to sandwich the gear between a couple of felt washers and use a lock nut to adjust the pressure holding the gear on. I should be able compress it enough that i get a few inch lbs of torque before the motor starts slipping (the motor provides up to 9 in lbs). Leaving a manual feed knob on the other side of the shaft, i should be able to manually overpower the clutch for filling it.

I'll try to post some pictures next week when the gears arrive.

[kybreos]

You sir are a genius, I will pay $100 for one, a manual one is fine for me don't need a motorized one let me know when you work out the kinks. Pm me if your willing to sell me one.

[patmack]

Couldnt you put a fuse on the motor? If it becomes jammed the current will spike and the fuse should blow.

[Fishkybizniz]

Looks great! Probably want to keep it under wraps till you have full ownership of a patent but once you do, I would love to see a video posted on You tube showing it in action with your fish. I buy nori from the asian market and chop it into flakes myself as suggested in this thread. Also stated in this thread, if you introduce Nori flakes dry into the tank, it floats. For my tank, that means it all ends up in the return. This is one reason why I opted not to try putting it in an auto feeder. My other reason was concern it would absorb just enough evaporated moisture to gum it up which would end up over feeding the fish or not feeding them at all. Putting a sheet in clip didn't work well either. In my case, it all started off pretty good but as the stuff soaks, large pieces break off getting stuck on the intake, circulating pump or end in decor where my fish can't get to it. The best I've been able to manage is put my home made flakes into my pre made food cups. I put 5 squirts of Arti pods and a cube of shrimp, clam or plankton, teaspoon of nori flakes and one eye dropper of salt water into a food cup. I freeze the food cups and pull one out after each feeding to thaw in frig for the next feeding. Once the nori has soaked in the juices & water in the cup, the flakes stay submerged fluttering around in the tank just like the other food while the fish lap it up. Great solution but like wet food, my fish only get it if being manually fed. SOOO, will we all be seeing you pitch this on the show Shark Tank?