I knew from the start, putting a computer in my cat's feeder would never be enough. It could have a scheduling system, it could have a web interface, but if it doesn't have a mobile companion app, can I really call it successful? So that's what I did: Introducing the Cat Feeder Companion App
Figure 1: Screenshot of Cat Feeder Companion App. App displays Real Time, System Time, Next Feeding, as well as options to edit the schedule, feed now, and refresh the screen.
I'll be the first to admit that this app is simple, but it is also very well designed and intentionally simple. Upon first opening the app, the user is greeted with three time readouts: Real time as determined by your phone, the time the system current is set to, as well as the next feeding time. These readouts allow you to see at a glance that they system time is accurate and when the next scheduled feeding is.
Below the readouts are a series of buttons. The first is a schedule button, which will open up a new activity where you can update the currently scheduled feeding time. Following this is a feed now button, which does exactly what you would expect. Finally, there is a simple refresh button on the bottom to update the view with the latest readouts from the server. These readouts update whenever you re-open the app, but I opted to have a simple refresh button rather than adding in more process intensive solutions that would affect system performance. Please note that all imagery and iconography was either free or paid for.
While there are still more things I would like to add to this app, and the system for that matter. This alone felt like a great place to leave part 2 of this project. I made a nicely designed app that can interact with the cat feeder's server, and it was a good refresher for some of my app building skills. Stay tuned for part 3, I'm either going to port this to my smart watch next or add in multiple feedings, we'll see which one peaks my interest first!