time to build another incubator

[Strader]

On mine i didn't want warm air outside the cabinet. Wanted all warm air to just do continuos circle with placement of fans. One fan facing downwards at top front of door. One fan at rear bottom facing upwards so air shoots up behind double set of fans that are at the top and directly behind heater coils.

 

[gpop1]

Half the fun of incubating for me is to build stuff for fun. Its like mixing 2 hobby's I guess. I have a perfectly good incubator and hatcher that I built a while back that has hatched 100's of eggs so im building this more for fun and experience.

Now I could have started 100 different ways if I was planning to build another incubator but this started when someone said there was a wine cooler for sale on CL. $40 bucks for a project seemed like a bargain.

A big problem with starting with a wine cooler is that the internal space is already set. I could have worked with in the design limits but if I planned to use pre-built turners then I would have to enlarge the space. The chamber I added is nothing more than the dividing wall that is used in the rear of most cabinet incubators. Once insulated I know from earlier experiments that the metal in the chamber can be used to store and stabilize the heat. (sealed bottles of water work just as well). The idea seems to be working fine and its been running for 20 plus hours and its stable to with in 0.2 degrees.

The great thing with a arduino as the controller is that there's lots of parts available at dirt cheap prices. If I want it to e-mail my cell phone to say there's a problem that's only a few bucks. If I want it to record the temp and humidity during the incubation then that's another few bucks, Maybe weigh a egg and calculate weight loss and adjust the humidity to suit,

This ones not even close to what I would class as over kill. (because the wife said no lol)

 

[gpop1]

Ordered the turners yesterday. 3 hovabator style turners including quail and chicken rails. I really wanted just to order the rails and build my own but that became difficult to justify based on time and cost.

Im really happy with the results so far and will be doing a incubation test as soon as the rails are installed. The biggest problem I face is going to be dealing with the cables for the turners. I have a few different ways to test as I don't want to spend $30 more to buy wire rails but if nothing else works I will just have to cough up the cash. (shipping time is worse than the price as it will take at least 2 weeks to get here)

Installed some nice led strip lights in neon blue at different levels inside the incubator (hidden under the draw runners so each shelf is illuminated). It should have been a 5 minute job but it turned into 3 hours because I refused to drill a large hole. I ended up drilling a tiny hole in the incubator then a larger hole in the rear panel. Then fiddling for a while to get a tiny wire through over a inch of foam to line the 2 holes up. It looks custom so it was worth the effort in the end.

Time to start looking for a different wine cooler for a hatcher as I have a cash offer for my original incubator and hatcher combo. Im looking at getting a narrow standing unit and laying it on its side to make a hatcher 5' by 18'. Going to go with a peltier deign on the hatcher if I can find the right cooler to start with.

 

[gpop1]

I bought a real cheap wine cooler over the weekend and im not sure its possible but im going to try turning it into a hatcher. It stands 40" high by 11 wide and about 18 deep. Internally that only gives me 36 tall by 12 deep by 8 wide. Now im going to lay it on its side as the front door is has a magnetic seal so the door will stay shut. (hinges at the bottom). Add some legs and see if it works.

The floor space should be 36 x 12 usable but with only 8" of height its going to be a odd size. I really don't have hi hopes that this will work but there's only one way to find out and I haven't had a good failure in a long time so im going to try

The cooler is peltier based so im converting them into the heaters. They are rated at 120 watts total so im going to have to reduce that to under 60 watts. Ive already rewired the peltiers and added mosfets to control the power. I tested the peltier to make sure they worked and everything seems to be ok. Going to write a quick program and mount a few controls and hope for the best. If I can get a stable temp then I will make a tray with a fence to keep the chicks in the cooler when the door is opened. If it doesn't work then at least I have spare peltiers, power supplys for my other incubator so I haven't lost my 20 dollar investment.

Will post some pics when I find something free to make the legs out of. Im trying not to spend a penny on this other than what I have available left over from other projects at least until ive proven that it will work.

 

[gpop1]

first test of the hatcher with wires hanging all over the place and everything kinder half arse mounted and the temp inside is stable with small cold spots in the front corners where I expected them to be. 1 degree to a hatcher is not as bad as 1 degree to a incubator but with a few more hours playing I might be able to reduce that.

Wife said to try tile in the bottom to level it out and to act as a heat sink. Ive no idea if that would work but I have seen other people do similar things so I might just try that to see what happens. I think I still have some large floor tiles in the shed so it will cost nothing to test

 

[gpop1]

just finished wiring and hiding everything. Still haven't found anything to make the legs out of so a couple of old computers are acting as a stand till I make something

Its just been turned on so ignore the temps



warming up. really do need to clean the glass before I take pics. Testing the idea of using tiles (will make them custom fit if I go this direction). After I decide on what to use on the floor I will design a fence to stop the chicks falling out. Also need to install something for humidity that doesn't waste floor space.



pic of one of the peltiers and its power supply (there are 2 on this unit)



door open. this was the way I left it last night after testing to make sure it was a viable plan



door closed. Wife is going to kill me for messing up the house but I needed it close enough to my computer so I could monitor everything on my computer and make changes to the code when needed. The blue wire is a usb plug that I hook into when I need to talk to the arduino plus it allows me to see info from the sensors that are not being displayed.

 

[gpop1]

im not to impressed with the gqf turners as they seem fragile and poor quality, I have nothing to really compare them to I just think the plastic is cheap and brittle. The trays click now and then like they are binding which doesn't give me a warm and cozy feeling.
Also one quail tray was broken in the post, they offered to replace it no questions asked so I can not really complain. Hopefully after they have been running for a while they will bed in (wear) and work smoother.

Anyway everything is now installed in the incubator and by tomorrow it should be cooking eggs. Hatcher is just about done except for installing a front fence then it will be ready for testing.

I just hope that it works as good as it looks.

 

[1coop2coop]

This is my first attempt at incubating eggs, and my first functioning Arduino project.
I am trying to learn about robot programing, and I'm new with chickens. So, the light bulb socket and DHT11 for humidity are the only things I had buy for this project.
There is a nano in the box under the LCD on a breadboard. I am using an old cell charger the run the Arduino, and the Battery pack for the hobby servo on the turner. (the turner has sense been disconnected because, the servo goes wacky if it doesn't get good power.)

I have this Question -- , How do you calibrate, check your humidity gauges? I have an Acu-Rite therm/humidity gage and the DHT11s, the Acu-rite tends to read 8-10% higher.

 

[1coop2coop]

gpop1

Forgot to say, COOL to your projects,

 

[gpop1]

This is my first attempt at incubating eggs, and my first functioning Arduino project.
I am trying to learn about robot programing, and I'm new with chickens. So, the light bulb socket and DHT11 for humidity are the only things I had buy for this project.
There is a nano in the box under the LCD on a breadboard. I am using an old cell charger the run the Arduino, and the Battery pack for the hobby servo on the turner. (the turner has sense been disconnected because, the servo goes wacky if it doesn't get good power.)

I have this Question -- , How do you calibrate, check your humidity gauges? I have an Acu-Rite therm/humidity gage and the DHT11s, the Acu-rite tends to read 8-10% higher.

Its nice to see another person interested in using the arduino as a controller. I normally use dht21 or 22 sensors as they are more accurate and give a better resolution but the dht11 should be capable. Im a electrical and instrumentation tech so I check my calibration at work then make adjustments in the code if required (haven't had to do this so far as they are with in there max error range or better).
There are great write ups on this site or online on how to calibrate a humidity sensor using salt water in a sealed bag. stable voltage to the sensor is required so a aux power supply of more than 7.5v and less than 12v is required. (this allows the voltage regulator to have enough power so any small power draw cause a power drop) Aux is the plug in on the arduino don't connect over 5v to the input pin (vin) or it will smoke. (that pin bypasses the voltage regulator) Also if possible run the sensor ground wire all the way to the arduino ground pin if possible.

To be honest if you understand incubation and hatching then the humidity sensor is nothing more than a number to start at. Nothing works better than monitoring the air cell or weight loss of the egg and adjusting during incubation. There's so many variables due to climate, air pressure etc that even if I calibrated your sensor to match mine that doesn't mean that your eggs will be at the correct humidity. Once you work out what humidity works it is nice to have a sensor that's repeatable for the next hatch even then seasons change so you might have to adjust your setpoint during the hatch. (I semi dry hatch so anything between 30-35 is acceptable as a setpoint and if it gets a little higher im not concerned) at lockdown I run the humidity up to 70-80 in the hatcher.

I have 4 different humidity sensors other than the arduinos and none of them agree with each other (10% either way. one I think just guesses a random number and says that's close enough). The funny thing is the 2 x dht21 sensors on my first build are normally with in 1% of each other which was surprising for such a cheap sensor. I got complicated on my first build and had the sensors checking each other in case one failed.

first incubator / hatcher I built using a arduino

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/976303/building-a-incubator-from-a-wine-cooler


P.s ive never had a C++ programming class and didn't even know what C++ was until I built the first incubator so I guess im still kinda new to programming myself.

welcome to incubating and if you ever need any help just post something and I will do my best to help you.