I've started scope-creeping a bit while waiting for the PCBs - thinking about enclosures, optimizing construction and dimensions, making it easy to (dis)assemble, etc.

However, the enclosure is secondary and can be made out of almost anything as long as it is not IR-transparent.

What I need to focus on is just these two things:

The dispenser design

The dispenser and baffles still need some tweaking to be able to run for weeks without temporarily jamming. I think I am close though.

I've started making a similar disenser for peanuts in the shell, but these are tricky - not as dense and lots of friction make them harder to dispense in a reliable and consistent way. I may need to make a helix feeder for this, so I got a cheap heat gun today to let me mold those PVC sheets into spirals.

The circuit design

I will populate and test my new PCB in the next few days. I have a short list of tweaks I want to make anyways (have already made the changes in Kicad), and may find more necessary changes based on my testing.

I should be able to get both of these to the next level in a week or so, and will update here with the results.