Any advice for egg turner motor?

[PaulM2]

This is great thanks, and I intend to copy it, and have found a 12v motor with a 0,6 revolution on ebay! I gather that most egg turners, of the egg in a plastic holder type, turn the egg 40 degrees to either side making a total of 80 degrees. I have attached a sketch I have drawn to calculate where to drill the holes if I make a 3" (76mm) cam for this motor . I have put two holes which hold the connecting rod from the cam to the tray (omitted in the drawing for clarity). The holes need to be 2,9" (74mm) from the centre of the trays. I also put the limit stops on the cams that are exactly 90 degrees to the holes, (although in reality one can adjust the microswitches to suit where one made the holes.

 

[gpop1]

This is great thanks, and I intend to copy it, and have found a 12v motor with a 0,6 revolution on ebay! I gather that most egg turners, of the egg in a plastic holder type, turn the egg 40 degrees to either side making a total of 80 degrees. I have attached a sketch I have drawn to calculate where to drill the holes if I make a 3" (76mm) cam for this motor . I have put two holes which hold the connecting rod from the cam to the tray (omitted in the drawing for clarity). The holes need to be 2,9" (74mm) from the centre of the trays. I also put the limit stops on the cams that are exactly 90 degrees to the holes, (although in reality one can adjust the microswitches to suit where one made the holes.

Hate to say this but the drawing looks wrong.

If the wheel has the arm attached on a radius of 25mm that means the arm will move 50mm per rotation linier

At 74mm from the pivot point you are indicating that the tilt table needs to move 50mm to attain 40 degrees

that means you have a table that will turn 40 degrees forwards and then back to level.

What you really need is to draw the tilt table 40 degrees forward and 40 degrees backwards then calculate how far from the pivot point 50mm would be OR you would need to increase the size of the wheel to r50 for the connection point so you have 100mm of linier motion. Also the motor center point needs to be directly under the attachment point on the tilt table (this is the reason my test rig was never perfect as the motor was mounted to close to the center which gave unequal liner motion)

 

[gpop1]

Just noticed.

Welcome to byc PaulM2

 

[PaulM2]

Thank you gpop1, Yes you are right! Of course I have only shown half the tilt and hence the drawing is out.. Holes should be at 1,5" (39mm). I have attached a corrected drawing. Is a 2" disk sufficient or would it be better to make this part bigger. Is for example a 4" travel better? making say a 5" disk . This incubator is going to go into a fairly remote site so I am looking for ultimate reliability, and would rather over design it. Here is the new drawing (with the 50mm) 2" travel.

 

[gpop1]

Thank you gpop1, Yes you are right! Of course I have only shown half the tilt and hence the drawing is out.. Holes should be at 1,5" (39mm). I have attached a corrected drawing. Is a 2" disk sufficient or would it be better to make this part bigger. Is for example a 4" travel better? making say a 5" disk . This incubator is going to go into a fairly remote site so I am looking for ultimate reliability, and would rather over design it. Here is the new drawing (with the 50mm) 2" travel.

Its really up to you what size wheel you use its easier to use a larger wheel but if space is at a premium then the smaller wheel would work better.

 

[PaulM2]

Thanks. Then Ill probably make it larger, as I haven't built the incubator body yet, which I plan to be well insulated to reduce the power requirements. I am also thinking to mount the motor above the trays, in which case the push rod will do less work as it is in tension rather than compression. I have drawn out the larger permutations, and left the smaller ones for reference..

 

[gpop1]

how many trays are you planning to turn?

this is a incubator I built using the same style motor. It uses reversing relays instead of a wheel so its a more complicated build. (great thing is the idea can be scaled up to a 300lb linier actuator in case you need to turn 10,000 eggs)

As you can see in the video I had very limited space and I needed to make the turner removable so I made the motor a direct drive (the shaft stays still and the body of the motor turns which is connected to the tilt table)

 

[PaulM2]

Hi gpop1, thanks for all you help.

We are looking at 150-180 eggs. and it may be sensible to make it double this!

I am basing my incubator on your design in your "building an incubator from a wine cooler" (as its 12v and I think the Arduino may be the best & cheapest controller) except that we will be making a custom built box out of fibreglass covered plywood (so that its easily cleanable and the wood it totally protected from both rot and termites, so it should last a long time) I intend making it well insulated (and am considering a good heatsink, which could be water filled bottles at the bottom) with 50mm (2") thick insulation all round, so that it is low energy in it's use. It's intended to run off 12 volt so that it has battery backup, and may even be 100% solar energy operated (as although there is a mains supply it has regular power outages that can be a week in duration) . We are looking at an incubator that houses 150 -180 eggs. I think three trays that each hold 60 eggs (two 30 trays) so basically each tray is 600mm x 310mm (24" x12"0) in size. As for the weight, the trays will be made from 50x50x3mm (2"x2") angle iron (unless the weight is too much) and will weigh 15,6kg (34,4 pounds) and the trays will weigh 1 kg (2,3 pounds) filled with 180 jumbo sized eggs (chosen to create a maximum weight) the eggs will be 12,6kg (27,8 pounds) so we have a total weight of 29,2kg (rounded up to 66 pounds). Of course the weight should be balanced, except if the eggs are not placed evenly. Here the worse case would be 7,8 kg (17,1 pounds) (if all three trays are loaded fully on one side only)

I have the option of either making one steel tray, that holds a triple storey egg holder, or three separate steel trays with single layer egg holders. What is more user friendly ? I am leaning to the three separate steel trays as I think it will be more robust and accommodate self built trays easier (after the plastic one are broken)

What is the maximum weight that this setup would cater for ?

I guess the real challenge in going bigger is maintaining the temperature easily on a 12V system.

 

[gpop1]

Hi gpop1, thanks for all you help.

We are looking at 150-180 eggs. and it may be sensible to make it double this!

I am basing my incubator on your design in your "building an incubator from a wine cooler" (as its 12v and I think the Arduino may be the best & cheapest controller) except that we will be making a custom built box out of fibreglass covered plywood (so that its easily cleanable and the wood it totally protected from both rot and termites, so it should last a long time) I intend making it well insulated (and am considering a good heatsink, which could be water filled bottles at the bottom) with 50mm (2") thick insulation all round, so that it is low energy in it's use. It's intended to run off 12 volt so that it has battery backup, and may even be 100% solar energy operated (as although there is a mains supply it has regular power outages that can be a week in duration) . We are looking at an incubator that houses 150 -180 eggs. I think three trays that each hold 60 eggs (two 30 trays) so basically each tray is 600mm x 310mm (24" x12"0) in size. As for the weight, the trays will be made from 50x50x3mm (2"x2") angle iron (unless the weight is too much) and will weigh 15,6kg (34,4 pounds) and the trays will weigh 1 kg (2,3 pounds) filled with 180 jumbo sized eggs (chosen to create a maximum weight) the eggs will be 12,6kg (27,8 pounds) so we have a total weight of 29,2kg (rounded up to 66 pounds). Of course the weight should be balanced, except if the eggs are not placed evenly. Here the worse case would be 7,8 kg (17,1 pounds) (if all three trays are loaded fully on one side only)

I have the option of either making one steel tray, that holds a triple storey egg holder, or three separate steel trays with single layer egg holders. What is more user friendly ? I am leaning to the three separate steel trays as I think it will be more robust and accommodate self built trays easier (after the plastic one are broken)

What is the maximum weight that this setup would cater for ?

I guess the real challenge in going bigger is maintaining the temperature easily on a 12V system.

If I was planning to build what you are describing then I wouldn't use the 0.6rpm motor design.

I would be looking at a linier actuator 12vdc with a 4-6 inch stroke. The ardunio will be used to reverse the motor every 2 hours and micro switchs will tell the arduino when the trays have reached 37 degrees. At 40 degrees the clutch on the actuator will kick in as a safety.

Heaters would be 3 peltiers also controlled by the arduino (shouldn't need more than 2 but that leaves one as a backup). A 30 amp 12vdc power supply would be required to run the peltiers and turner.

If you are in the USA I could send you my test motor set up using the 0.6 to see if it was up to the job.

 

[PaulM2]

Hi gpop1

As I haven't bought the 0,6rpm motor yet, I will certainly take your advice. I presume the furtherest from the centre the motor is the less strain it will take and hence last longer. One of the challenges in building this unit is that it will be a long way away, so I am really going for tried and tested (and was thinking that I would build redundancy into it for stuff that fails). If it was here with me, I'd be testing how cheaply and efficiently I could build it, but I like tinkering. I had even thought that all I needed was a tiny aquarium pump, and two big tanks suspended from each side of the trays, and that by simply pumping water from one side to the other , the trays would tilt.

So on a 300mm shelf (12") a 40 degree either side tilt moves the shelf edges through 193mm (7,6") a 150 (6") travel will be 117mm from the centre, while the 100mm (4") is close to halfway at 78mm(3"). In this situation 6" (150mm) actuator, makes sense, unless I was to use wider than 12" shelves. The load on the actuator will be light, unless the eggs are really badly packed. I see a 150mm actuator is rated for 500Newtons so it should lift a mass of 50kg or 110 pounds (about 720 Jumbo eggs or 1000 medium eggs). so even if I went for 24" deep shelves it can handle it. I looked at the 0,6rpm motor, it has a torque of 25kg/cm so at our 78mm arm (ie 100mm travel) it can lift a mass of 320 grams (or 5 eggs ) If my calculation is right.

I had been wondering what the best way to heat it is.. I presume you are suggesting 100w Peltiers? What are the advantages of the Peltiers over the alternatives?

I once ran my home built telescope with a tiny motor, it always amazed me how such a small stepper could move something so big.

The real challenge is knowing whats easy for a motor, as thats really the sweet spot. How does one handle jams.. can it be programmed to stop or reverse if it hits an obstacle ? or does it just stop without damage?

I have kept chickens for about 8 years now, but have relied on skilful hens to hatch the necessary offspring, I am hoping this incubator can create a successful business. I am in South Africa, but this incubator is going to do service in a rural area in Malawi.