Automatic door closed on chicken

[630004]

Models

I have an Asus ZenWifi Mesh network with 4 base stations. Use whatever works for you.
Have a look at ring.com for the base station

 

[Mouthpear]

I have an Asus ZenWifi Mesh network with 4 base stations. Use whatever works for you.
Have a look at ring.com for the base station

"Use whatever works for you"
OH I'm going that route. I'm just asking for others who might want to do it your way. I didn't see much of any details, so I'd thought I'd ask. Plus get that bump in for you that you like.

And as for ring.com. I wouldn't use them. I am not paying for data storage. I have a network for that.

 

[630004]

"Use whatever works for you"
OH I'm going that route. I'm just asking for others who might want to do it your way. I didn't see much of any details, so I'd thought I'd ask. Plus get that bump in for you that you like.

And as for ring.com. I wouldn't use them. I am not paying for data storage. I have a network for that.

Fair point on the storage. I already have a monitored account and available hardware so it wasn’t an issue. I’m not sure I would buy one just for monitoring the chickens alone.

Now I also have a Home Assistant setup running which arguably would be the better long term solution but didn’t have any spare hardware to integrate at the moment. long term I think it could be a fun project to automate the heck out of the coup. Some of the ideas for that would be temperature, air quality, water level of the rain barrel, and egg counter/ sensor for a roll-away egg box. from a software perspective keeping stats on each chickens laying as well as a computer. Idiom based where is my chicken feature could be fun.

 

[Mouthpear]

Fair point on the storage. I already have a monitored account and available hardware so it wasn’t an issue. I’m not sure I would buy one just for monitoring the chickens alone.

Now I also have a Home Assistant setup running which arguably would be the better long term solution but didn’t have any spare hardware to integrate at the moment. long term I think it could be a fun project to automate the heck out of the coup. Some of the ideas for that would be temperature, air quality, water level of the rain barrel, and egg counter/ sensor for a roll-away egg box. from a software perspective keeping stats on each chickens laying as well as a computer. Idiom based where is my chicken feature could be fun.

In post #5 I mentioned the SONOFF 4CHPROR3. With the eWelink app it allows you to use a phone to be used as a wifi camera.

" Some of the ideas for that would be temperature, air quality, water level of the rain barrel, and egg counter/ sensor for a roll-away egg box. from a software perspective keeping stats on each chickens laying as well as a computer."

I have 3 Arduinos on my test bench that control all that.

Have design plans for the nesting boxes to record weight(in and out), who, time, egg counter with rollaway and belt collection, including push out gates.

Air Temp and humidity are monitored via Arduino but controlled by more "analog" means.

As far as water levels I am using these. Haven't installed but tested. Upper and lower.

 

[630004]

In post #5 I mentioned the SONOFF 4CHPROR3. With the eWelink app it allows you to use a phone to be used as a wifi camera.

" Some of the ideas for that would be temperature, air quality, water level of the rain barrel, and egg counter/ sensor for a roll-away egg box. from a software perspective keeping stats on each chickens laying as well as a computer."

I have 3 Arduinos on my test bench that control all that.

Have design plans for the nesting boxes to record weight(in and out), who, time, egg counter with rollaway and belt collection, including push out gates.

Air Temp and humidity are monitored via Arduino but controlled by more "analog" means.

View attachment 3031196

As far as water levels I am using these. Haven't installed but tested. Upper and lower.
View attachment 3031576

Interesting. I was thinking of using an esp32 with a BMP88 for checking volume of water in the rain barrel. I need to look around to see what other options there are for pressure and if they have sufficient precision for 55 gallon drums which are relatively low pressure compared to the big ones (ie 1000 gallon)

I’m fortunate in that I don’t need to pump water as it is all gravity fed from 55 gallon catchment drums.

I like your idea of doing weight in and out for eggs. I was thinking of doing the roll away egg box and either a micro switch or an IR break beam sensor which would be activated when it rolls past.

I have seen some projects for identifying the chicken using RFID bands. Most of the problems with that seem to be having appropriate antennas as well as getting reasonable rfid bands for the chickens.

I like the idea of this being as “off grid” as possible so needs to be reasonably power efficient. One thought on that was to set up a LORA network as much less power and further range than Wi-Fi.

 

[Mouthpear]

Interesting. I was thinking of using an esp32 with a BMP88 for checking volume of water in the rain barrel. I need to look around to see what other options there are for pressure and if they have sufficient precision for 55 gallon drums which are relatively low pressure compared to the big ones (ie 1000 gallon)

I’m fortunate in that I don’t need to pump water as it is all gravity fed from 55 gallon catchment drums.

I like your idea of doing weight in and out for eggs. I was thinking of doing the roll away egg box and either a micro switch or an IR break beam sensor which would be activated when it rolls past.

I have seen some projects for identifying the chicken using RFID bands. Most of the problems with that seem to be having appropriate antennas as well as getting reasonable rfid bands for the chickens.

I like the idea of this being as “off grid” as possible so needs to be reasonably power efficient. One thought on that was to set up a LORA network as much less power and further range than Wi-Fi.

The Water feeder I use is an inverted 55 gallon inverted drum that is gravity fed from the Rainwater holding tanks 100 feet away at the house.

I was going to use laser though beam(already purchased) for counting eggs but having to wire them all up was just not something I wanna do. Instead I am going to use a 5 wire tension Low tech system. Much cheaper and easy to install.

Th RFID bands are getting cheaper and cheaper. Link was provided. Making a reader and antenna is not that hard. Most of the Arduino kits come with the chip and card & key fob to experiment with. I plan on doing something like this guy, and incase them in some epoxy something like this guy they will make up the sides of the nesting boxes. Or maybe just the bottom.

 

[630004]

The Water feeder I use is an inverted 55 gallon inverted drum that is gravity fed from the Rainwater holding tanks 100 feet away at the house.

View attachment 3031654View attachment 3031655View attachment 3031656

I was going to use laser though beam(already purchased) for counting eggs but having to wire them all up was just not something I wanna do. Instead I am going to use a 5 wire tension Low tech system. Much cheaper and easy to install.

Th RFID bands are getting cheaper and cheaper. Link was provided. Making a reader and antenna is not that hard. Most of the Arduino kits come with the chip and card & key fob to experiment with. I plan on doing something like this guy, and incase them in some epoxy something like this guy they will make up the sides of the nesting boxes. Or maybe just the bottom.

I never thought about winding my own antennas. That's an awesome link. I see he is constrained by the diameter of his PVC pipe. I think 3D printing an enclosure would solve the problem of correct diameter and having something to keep it in. I think this might be a quick thingiverse project I need to do

Probably a case of making an antenna holder then for each nest (would need to see how well it works) and just slotting it in. NFC works so much better also for ingress and egress which is great for seeing if all the locusts make it home. Computer Vision works pretty well but I have not been able to generate a good model for identifying the chook on the nest. Also, I found just with testing camera lenses get filthy so quickly. NFC seems like a much more reliable solution.

Did you find a good source for bands? I have seen people doing some crazy DIY solutions with key-fobs etc.

Love your water holder. It's a high-tech version of mine. I did a down pipe from the coup to a 55 gallon drum. I should probably build a nice cinder block frame like you have.

End goal is to have it all through home-assistant. You can also do interesting automations and integrations, which is kinda cool. I still want to train my chickens to go to bed when they hear the purge alarm

So many cool project to do, so little time....

 

[630004]

Oh, sorry, forgot to post this. On the wifi connectivity side. Have you played with LORA? Good range, low power. Great for IOT devices.

 

[Mouthpear]

Oh, sorry, forgot to post this. On the wifi connectivity side. Have you played with LORA? Good range, low power. Great for IOT devices.

Are you talking about LoRaWAN? If so, No. If I am going to implement this automated system I will NOT be using WiFi. As a person who has worked in communications and has a degree in Computer Networking, I will do the majority of the install Wired. I have/had a few 1000ft rolls of shielded cat6 direct burial cable that I might as well use. In fact the my whole house is wired and did it myself. I have WiFi but it only gets use by my phone and family members when they visit. The only other reason I have it is to test anything that needs a WiFi connection. The coop will also have AC/Mains Power. That part is already in the ground along with the data cable and waiting for construction to begin on coop. While most of the systems will run off of the battery bank, most of the year, things like water pumps and water heaters will run off of AC power during winter months. Everything else will run mostly off of POE.

 

[tsperry88]

How many chickens do you two have? I'm curious if the high tech chicken coup is helpful or just fun? I designed the attached controller with the nano and I figure its overkill for my dozen hens.