21st Century Incubator in development. Need feedback/volunteers!

[tracecom]

Quote:
What's the latest?

 

[bigstack]

I'm still extremely interested! Just waiting for the proto type to be finished. If the OP is half as busy as I have been, It may still be a bit. The funny thing is I work for the Gov. We're supposed to get paid for doing nothing! LOL With these crazy times right now...... It's hard to find time to do what i Have too at home! Let alone do any of my projects! I will be happily waiting!!! It will deffinately be worth the wait! I have been dreaming of doing this myself. I just didn't have all of the experience needed to apply my ideas. I know most of the basics, Just not a whole lot on the programing side. I'm sitting on pins an needels, but still content to wait for as long as is needed.

Praying my name is drawn!

Good Luck and God Bless!

 

[wolftracks]

One more tester here!

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

Just found this thread and read all of the entries. FASCINATING!!!

I'm not interested in being a tester (still haven't figured out how to get pics out of my digital camera), but I'd love the opportunity to be a "buyer" of the finished product.

Jason~~I didn't see any mention of monitoring humidity; will it be addressed? Are you going to include the O2, CO2 monitors?

 

[IggiMom]

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Haha, I think it depends on what part of the gov you work for! My son is in the Air Force and he certainly works! So apparently you didn't get into the part of the gov where you get paid for doing nothing. Well, shoot, someone out there has to be working!

I'll be interested to see what happens, also.

Catherine

 

[OSUman]

I just found this thread and i just wanted to add that from what i understand is that the non styrofoam (Brinsea, cant think of the others name) incubators are the ones that have the best control of temp and humidity bringing better hatch rates.

 

[aprophet]

it would be nice to have a sticky like this thread where we could deposit ideas about homebuilt bators egg turners and so on

 

[Penturner]

I also lost track of this project for a while. I got ahead of myself and have spent the last few weeks trying to incubate 60 or so eggs in my homemade bator. I have two. One is definitely better than the other so the lesser of the two is now officially a Hatcher / brooder and I have the parts to make a second good one. Problem is I now have a hen laying eggs on a regular basis and can actually use three good reliable incubators.
Several pages back I mentioned checking out the resistor heater thing. The one I built from the links would not work for heating an air space. they seem to only be powerful enough to warm a surface they are actually touching. But the resistors do get warm. I tried to build a little individual egg heater but that pretty much flopped as well. Mainly getting a thermostat circuit built. I keep destroying Thermistors rather than getting them soldered. Lack of adequate equipment more than anything. Anyway glad to see this is getting revived and hope you are still making progress with the final prototype. I will add my name for the list of potential testers now that I have some eggs to test it with and the experience of having done 4 hatches so far. My latest hatch had a 60% hatch rate with Serama eggs. 50% for serama is considered average. I also have a source I can borrow eggs that are more reliable to test with as well.

Regardless I am very interested in being a buyer when this is all finished.

 

[aprophet]

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the resistor heat tape type heater I was thinking of using 5-15 watt resistor the ceramic type like used to be used as ballast resistors on older plymouths. on the thermistor are sockets used for them like IC's maybe solder a socket in then put the thermistor into a socket ??

 

[CoopCreations]

Wow, a lot of time has passed. Sorry folks!!! Yes, this is still alive and well, I have been working VERY busily on my home renovation, trying to get it done and move in before school starts up again for the youngsters. I bought a 1933 farmhouse that was in very bad shape. But it coming along nicely. Hopefull there is a way to subscribe to this thread so you can all stay in the loop. i will be more diligent on posting more often, I just really hadn't had the time to work on this lately. So, time for the revival of the star-bator.

I had read in a post about air quality sensors...CO and CO2? Is there value add there?

Here is what I have so far:

2 tri-colored LED's. They show RGB (red, green, blue). They will be used to prominently display the health of temperature and humidity. Red too hot/high, Green good, Blue too cold/low. The sensors being used are highly accurate, +-.5 degrees Celsius and +-3% RH (relative humidity). There will also be a bank of 5 bright red LED's that will show that the incubator is in LOCKDOWN. Which I hope will help to keep the curious hands away. There will also be a buzzer that will chime to notify of any problem.

There is also an LCD display that will show temperature, humidity, and time incubated.

The temperature will be able to be maintained without any user intervention based on the logic that the bator is programmed with. Preliminary tests show that it will be within 1 degree F.

The chip that runs the operation is already programmed. For chickens. Based on their temp/humidity/days till hatch requirements. The incubator will be modular to accommodate changing the chip for other species, or for a custom request.

I am at the breadboard phase, creating a prototype of the circuitry.

I am still struggling with the case, I have found some nice rigid closed cell Styrofoam, but I think styrofoam looks cheap. I may create a custom wood box, something old school looking maybe knotty pine, with insulated panels. Haven't decided yet.

So, yes, while it still may be a little while off, I am going to working on it with a renewed sense of urgency, surprising to me, the word has gotten out, and apparently there is a little buzz going on.

What is listed here, this would be the basic model.