aF⁴ - Auto Frozen Fish Food Feeder (1 Viewer)

[TriggerFan]

Anyone thinking about giving this a try?

aF4 Frozen Fish Food Feeder

 

[steveb]

Seems pretty neat, I may be misreading but it seems they are still crowd funding. With Nov 2020 ship date. Which is kind of a bummer.

 

[Tenny]

I've been burned by enough kickstarters to be very suspicious.

Looks cool and innovative. Hopefully it works out and makes it to market, but I'm not willing to throw $300 at it in hopes it ships.

 

[gregg]

I have so many questions... for starters it doesn’t look like it holds much and seems like a cheap toy.

 

[Tenny]

I just don't understand how it keeps it cold. It is just an AIO CPU Fan ( like this https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-Hydr...s=AIO+CPU&qid=1572578392&s=electronics&sr=1-7 ).

Which doesn't' make stuff cold, it brings it cooler (closer to ambient)

 

[inDCreations]

I have so many questions... for starters it doesn’t look like it holds much and seems like a cheap toy.

It holds 7 full size cubes of frozen food which was the max we could fit reliably without making the unit too large! The images available now are of our prototype unit, the production model will be more refined.

 

[inDCreations]

I just don't understand how it keeps it cold. It is just an AIO CPU Fan ( like this https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-Hydr...s=AIO+CPU&qid=1572578392&s=electronics&sr=1-7 ).

Which doesn't' make stuff cold, it brings it cooler (closer to ambient)

We utilize thermoelectric cooling technology to keep a very small chamber around 5F to 15F (depending on ambient temperature). The AIO CPU style fan is there to keep the hot side of the TEC from getting too much warmer than ambient temperature.

 

[inDCreations]

Seems pretty neat, I may be misreading but it seems they are still crowd funding. With Nov 2020 ship date. Which is kind of a bummer.

We just started our funding push today and we're nearly half way there. As soon as we hit our goal, we will begin the next phase of development which is handing our prototype to an end-to-end engineering firm. This firm will optimize the design for mass production and put our existing design to the test. Our NOV 2020 ship date, is to avoid over promising and under delivering...we are optimistically shooting for a summer 2020 ship date.

 

[Cody]

So it's a small freezer that sets over your tank with a rotating disc, essentially?

Not being facetious, just making sure I understand the concept correctly. A simplified explanation makes me understand it better.

 

[inDCreations]

So it's a small freezer that sets over your tank with a rotating disc, essentially?

Its a bit more than that, but essentially YES. Its a micro freezer with a precision controlled feeding carousel and a controller similar to a sprinkler timer - set the days/times of the week you want food dispensed. Additionally, the display will let you know how many more feeds you have, when to reload, and if theres any error conditions.

 

[Cody]

Its a bit more than that, but essentially YES. Its a micro freezer with a precision controlled feeding carousel and a controller similar to a sprinkler timer - set the days/times of the week you want food dispensed. Additionally, the display will let you know how many more feeds you have, when to reload, and if theres any error conditions.

Thanks for the reply. I just finished editing my previous post, which i was hoping to change before you saw it, to make me sound less snarky, which I wasn't trying to be.

 

[Cody]

And what are the two tubes attached to the unit for? Wire management?

 

[inDCreations]

And what are the two tubes attached to the unit for? Wire management?

The two tubes on the back are actually part of the liquid cooling solution (its reef safe distilled water, so even if the cooler fails your reef will be fine), during our testing phase we've experimented with different style heatsinks to keep the thermoelectric cooler as cold as possible and the results we got with this style heatsink were the best and the heatsinks are readily available. The alternative is going with a custom built (COSTLY) heatsink and while potentially better, it would make the unit more expensive for everyone.

Definitely didn't come off snarky, you hit the nail on the head with the "in a nutshell" version.

 

[mikster]

Unfortunately I feed my fishes exactly 7 cubes in 1 feeding/day! So this would only be good someone with a nano cube going on vacation in my opinion.

 

[gregg]

I’m impressed that they are responding and listening to our questions... although this is a prototype it’s exciting that something like this is in the works.

If they keep up with the concerns and with good marketing they could make a small fortune in a short time.

 

[inDCreations]

Unfortunately I feed my fishes exactly 7 cubes in 1 feeding/day! So this would only be good someone with a nano cube going on vacation in my opinion.

Wow 7 cubes per feeding? That’s got to be an awesome tank! We are keeping a tally of people who would need a larger unit and that if the demand is high enough, we can easily design a larger feeder to fit that need.

I’m impressed that they are responding and listening to our questions... although this is a prototype it’s exciting that something like this is in the works.

If they keep up with the concerns and with good marketing they could make a small fortune in a short time.

Marketing is definitely NOT our strong suite if you’ve seen our our videos and ads. We are a startup and when we chose our budget, we chose to use that money to test and test and test PRIOR to crowdfunding.

This way we would have a nearly finished product when we made our funding push instead of some computer rendered idea. We welcome all suggestions and and will happily address all concerns!

 

[Reefahholic]

Well I hope this things works. It seems to be a good idea. Sure would be helpful for a lot of reefers!

 

[TriggerFan]

AF4 Kickstarter Update 2 (Press For Link)

 

[GotFrogs]

I have mine on order!

 

[TriggerFan]

AF4 Kickstarter Update 3 (Press For Link)