When you are on vacation your animals still need water. That’s the premise of this Automatic Pet Water Bowl Filler project by ihmech. It monitors the level of the water in the pet water bowl and opens the water valve to fill it whenever it detects that it’s low. There are lots of safety features to prevent the system from flooding the basement. The simple solution of installing a float to detect the water level and fill it automatically like in a toilet tank was not used because of the high mineral content of the water which would plug the float valve in no time.
“The control box is built using a Board of Education and a BS2.· It includes two push buttons and an serial·LCD display.· It is powered by a 12v wall wart.· I built a battery backup circuit into the control box·to prevent flooding if the power went out during a refill cycle.· The control box is modular and I can use it for·another project if I choose too,·all I would need to connect is a DB25 connector.”
