🐾 Setting Up the Raspberry Pi-Based IoT Cat Feeder (Day-27)

Introduction

In today’s guide (Day-27), we’ll walk through the complete process of setting up your own IoT-based pet feeder using a Raspberry Pi. Our goal is to automate the feeding process using a servo motor, Python, and scheduled cron jobs.

🎯 Objective

Set up a Raspberry Pi-powered automated pet feeder that runs a Python script to control a servo motor — scheduled to feed your cat daily.

📚 Table of Contents (Day-27)

1. 💾 Flashing Raspberry Pi OS to SD Card
2. 🔐 Enabling SSH Access
3. 📶 (Optional) Configure Wi-Fi for Headless Boot
4. 🔌 Booting the Raspberry Pi
5. 🌐 Detecting Raspberry Pi on Local Network
6. 🛜 Attempting SSH Access
7. 🧠 Verifying SSH Setup Again
8. 🖥️ Tried Accessing via Hostname
9. 📌 Diagnosis
10. ✅ Final Status (Day-27 Recap)

🐱 Step-by-Step Setup Guide

1. Flashing Raspberry Pi OS to SD Card

• Download Raspberry Pi OS (Lite) from the official website.
• Use Raspberry Pi Imager or Balena Etcher to flash it to a microSD card (32GB in our case).

Tool Used: Raspberry Pi Imager
Card Size: 32GB microSD
Status   : ✅ OS flashed and verified

2. Enabling SSH Access

Inserted SD card into MacBook → Mounted as:

Created the SSH file in boot partition:

✅ SSH enabled successfully for headless access.

3. (Optional) Configure Wi-Fi for Headless Boot

Created wpa_supplicant.conf inside the boot partition (optional if using Ethernet):

💡 Replaced with real credentials, saved and ejected the SD card.

4. Booting the Raspberry Pi

• Inserted the SD card into Raspberry Pi
• Powered on via USB-C
• Waited ~2 minutes for the OS to boot

✅ Expected: Pi should connect to local network (via Wi-Fi or Ethernet)

5. Detecting Raspberry Pi on Local Network

Ran a network scan and see the 🖥️ Output (Filtered):

6. Attempting SSH Access

Tried to connect But ❌ Error:

7. Verifying SSH Setup Again

• Reinserted SD card into Mac
• Confirmed ssh file still exists in /Volumes/bootfs
• Reinserted back into Pi and rebooted

Still, SSH failed. Possibly:

• SSH service didn’t start properly
• Raspberry Pi didn’t boot fully
• Network issue

8. Tried Accessing via Hostname

But ❌ Error:

🔍 9.Diagnosis:

• .local resolution via mDNS might be missing on Mac
• Or Raspberry Pi never fully booted

📌 10. Final Status (Day-27 Recap)

🔜 Coming Up: Day-28

In the next post, we’ll troubleshoot Raspberry Pi SSH issues step-by-step, verify if the OS is booting correctly, and check if the SSH service is running. Once resolved, we’ll test the Python servo script and complete our cat feeder automation.

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