Monitor Your Cat’s Food Levels Using a ToF Sensor and an ESP8266
Cats are fairly independent creatures as far as pets go, but they do need a few things, such as having their bowls refilled. You could simply check the bowl occasionally, or wait until your feline friend keeps meowing at you. But why not use technology to make sure they have sufficient food?

To monitor his cat’s food, hacker Pat Dhens used an ST VL53L0X sensor to detect how high the food level is, then relay this info to the cloud via an ESP8266 module.
Data is logged in a Google Drive spreadsheet, and manipulated via AT&T’s M2X servers in order to generate nice graphs. Finally, if things get critical, it can even send out an SMS alert to his phone or smartwatch via IFTTT, so the kitty never has to go hungry!
Looking to replicate this project for your home? Check out the hacker’s write-up here.


