DIY Hamster Pedometer

[unfortunatalie]

Hi all! Last night was the first test run of my DIY hamster wheel pedometer. It uses a Raspberry Pi Pico W (tiny little computer board with Wi-Fi) and a magnet sensor (KY-003). Oh and the most important ingredient is my hamster Marcel, who I believe @theblondemo introduced here a couple days ago.



Here's the janky duct-taped setup
That's a Petsathome ~29cm wheel (28.5cm inside diameter), which has plenty of olive oil in the bearing because it was making a racket... anyway

I thought I'd build up suspense for the test results from the first night..


22.85km!! That's like 14.2 miles! The Wikipedia page for robo's says 6 miles (with a citation that doesn't really go anywhere so that's dodgy) so I'm very proud of my little athlete.

All the code is open-source over at https://github.com/possibly-not/hamptometer if you happen to be a computer science nerd like me
Currently working on making it look nicer plus adding more statistics (i.e speed, and times active). I've already added a spinning robo image.

 

[Maz]

Wow this is really interesting! Can you explain a bit more? I know what a Raspberry Pi is but do you programme it to read the cycles? (Presumably?). I think 15 miles sounds about right for a Robo!

If you're good at this type of thing I'd like to see the next stage - ie get it working with alexa to turn the lights on Or even better, to power a light bulb? I do remember someone on youtube many years ago did something like that I think.

 

[Maz]

It was something like this one

 

[fridakahlo]

This is amazing!!!

 

[Maz]

It is isn’t it! What’s the latest distance your Robo has run @unfortunatalie ?

 

[theblondemo]

she texted me his movement hehe, he's so fast! we're coparents of the little man :3 also bear in mind he has two wheels so the distance is likely even higher!

 

[Maz]

Averaging 15 miles a night More if he has two wheels!

 

[fridakahlo]

I would love one for my little dwarfie, but couldn't even begin to understand how to make one!! Very clever indeed. Such an interesting topic how many miles they cover, incredible.
Cheapest I've seen new are £16-17

 

[Socks Mum]

He works from home and I commute If only hamsters were in charge of transport!