Automatic door closed on chicken

[630004]

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.

That's cool. I suppose it depends on your goals. I have 18 chickens. If I had to monetize it to price per egg for the moment, it would be a frightening number

The way I look at it is how much is your time worth, and what do you find interesting or fun. For me, convenience is a huge priority. I want my chickens to be as autonomous as possible.

Right now, I need to feed them and give them water once a week. They have an automated door that let's them out in the morning and locks them in at night. The mesh fence has a solar electric fence energizer to keep them safe. Part of their job is cleaning up the yard (they love eating the moss), right now they are cleaning out the orchard.

Before they were laying, they were very hands-off. Right now I have to go get eggs each day. This is a process I want to make more efficient.

Next projects for me are:
- 55 gallon rain barrel with telemetry. I live in Seattle, so get lots of rain. My intention is to not have to water them again.
- Roll away egg collector with telemetry. I want to know when there are eggs, have them nicely sorted and quick to get. I also want to know which hens are laying and which ones are not.

 

[630004]

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.

Sounds like you have the infrastructure to easily wire. I agree it's trivial to do. For myself, it falls in the "not worth the effort" category. I find the IOT stuff interesting and this is a fun test bed to play with. My other property is too big to wire, so it's fun playing with options here.

LORA works well. Incredibly low power, long range (although low bandwidth). I currently use it for the command and control channel for a dropper on my drone. I am currently looking at it putting in a lora mesh for a bunch of CnC.

Curios on why you are opposed to Wifi?

 

[tsperry88]

That's cool. I suppose it depends on your goals. I have 18 chickens. If I had to monetize it to price per egg for the moment, it would be a frightening number

The way I look at it is how much is your time worth, and what do you find interesting or fun. For me, convenience is a huge priority. I want my chickens to be as autonomous as possible.

Right now, I need to feed them and give them water once a week. They have an automated door that let's them out in the morning and locks them in at night. The mesh fence has a solar electric fence energizer to keep them safe. Part of their job is cleaning up the yard (they love eating the moss), right now they are cleaning out the orchard.

Before they were laying, they were very hands-off. Right now I have to go get eggs each day. This is a process I want to make more efficient.

Next projects for me are:
- 55 gallon rain barrel with telemetry. I live in Seattle, so get lots of rain. My intention is to not have to water them again.
- Roll away egg collector with telemetry. I want to know when there are eggs, have them nicely sorted and quick to get. I also want to know which hens are laying and which ones are not.

Mine don't earn their keep, but I enjoy them. I can't think of any additional automation that would save me time, except a better water system. I had cool plans, but I have to many projects, and I can clean and fill the water every 2 days in about 10 minutes. Maybe one day.

 

[Mouthpear]

Sounds like you have the infrastructure to easily wire. I agree it's trivial to do. For myself, it falls in the "not worth the effort" category. I find the IOT stuff interesting and this is a fun test bed to play with. My other property is too big to wire, so it's fun playing with options here.

LORA works well. Incredibly low power, long range (although low bandwidth). I currently use it for the command and control channel for a dropper on my drone. I am currently looking at it putting in a lora mesh for a bunch of CnC.

Curios on why you are opposed to Wifi?

"Curios on why you are opposed to Wifi?"

I'm not. Not at all. I just prefer A wired LAN. Not only is it more secure and more stable you can also use POE. Not only for cameras but anything else that may require low voltage power. Not having to keep up with batteries everywhere makes a hell of a difference.

 

[630004]

I get your preference. We can argue about the security aspect of Ethernet. Secure and stable are very subjective expressions. Even shielded cable for example is very susceptible to a range of natural and made disasters. I would agree that the attack vector changes. Sure you can DoS spectrum or any kid with Kali can try to run a variety of attacks but using that logic a kid with a stun gun is probably going to cause you substantial more collateral damage, let lone say a lighting strike near some shielded cable (hey fiber for the win right?)

My point being they both have their places. Battery and signal would be too different arguments, right. I know I'm being trivial, but there are situations for both. For example, I don't want to run Ethernet anywhere, I also don't want to use wireless for everything (hey even wifi 6 suffers from device contention and throughput issues when you are comparing it to fiber). With that being said, I am not going to run a fiber tap to my laptop that I am using to answer this on the couch

For myself, I run a hybrid environment with a fair degree of segmentation. Moving TB's of video to my Synology is not something I am going to do over WiFI for example

 

[chickfused]

Seconding the Omelet door.

 

[Mouthpear]

I get your preference. We can argue about the security aspect of Ethernet. Secure and stable are very subjective expressions. Even shielded cable for example is very susceptible to a range of natural and made disasters. I would agree that the attack vector changes. Sure you can DoS spectrum or any kid with Kali can try to run a variety of attacks but using that logic a kid with a stun gun is probably going to cause you substantial more collateral damage, let lone say a lighting strike near some shielded cable (hey fiber for the win right?)

My point being they both have their places. Battery and signal would be too different arguments, right. I know I'm being trivial, but there are situations for both. For example, I don't want to run Ethernet anywhere, I also don't want to use wireless for everything (hey even wifi 6 suffers from device contention and throughput issues when you are comparing it to fiber). With that being said, I am not going to run a fiber tap to my laptop that I am using to answer this on the couch

For myself, I run a hybrid environment with a fair degree of segmentation. Moving TB's of video to my Synology is not something I am going to do over WiFI for example

"We can argue about the security aspect of Ethernet. Secure and stable are very subjective expressions. "

Um. No. If that were the case then why are corporations and even small business use wired LAN? Security wise and dependability are defiantly way better with a Wired LAN.

"let lone say a lighting strike near some shielded cable" Anything physical can happen to either system but the likely hood of a lighting strike happens way less than things that happen that interrupt a WiFi signal. Weather my cause lightning but it causes Ionization every single time it rains. When landlines are still in use for businesses, why? I have dropped calls and no internet on my phone WAY MORE often than I ever had on my land line.

Again I am not against using WiFi. I has purpose but does that purpose make it any more useful in coop operations, where you will need power to run components from motors to sensors. "Battery and signal would be too different arguments, right." I don't know where that came from or if you thought I was mixing the two, still that is wrong. Battery or lack of power will make a signal weak. So, NOT to different arguments.

 

[630004]

I wrote a reply several times and then I thought, this is a chicken forum on the internet.

Not worth the effort.

 

[tsperry88]

"We can argue about the security aspect of Ethernet. Secure and stable are very subjective expressions. "

Um. No. If that were the case then why are corporations and even small business use wired LAN? Security wise and dependability are defiantly way better with a Wired LAN.

"let lone say a lighting strike near some shielded cable" Anything physical can happen to either system but the likely hood of a lighting strike happens way less than things that happen that interrupt a WiFi signal. Weather my cause lightning but it causes Ionization every single time it rains. When landlines are still in use for businesses, why? I have dropped calls and no internet on my phone WAY MORE often than I ever had on my land line.

Again I am not against using WiFi. I has purpose but does that purpose make it any more useful in coop operations, where you will need power to run components from motors to sensors. "Battery and signal would be too different arguments, right." I don't know where that came from or if you thought I was mixing the two, still that is wrong. Battery or lack of power will make a signal weak. So, NOT to different arguments.

Corporations use both. Cisco has been trying harder to compete in the wireless realm due to the fact. Not everybody feels the need to come on a chicken forum and tout their credentials. I prefer wired where it counts, but dude, its a freekin chicken coop. They are animals that no amount of sensors will mitigate the need to go check on, preferably daily at least. I let mine out to play. I have some losses. I have injuries to deal with. I have a happy flock. Tech is cool. It pays my bills. Do it if enjoy it.

 

[Mouthpear]

Corporations use both. Cisco has been trying harder to compete in the wireless realm due to the fact. Not everybody feels the need to come on a chicken forum and tout their credentials. I prefer wired where it counts, but dude, its a freekin chicken coop. They are animals that no amount of sensors will mitigate the need to go check on, preferably daily at least. I let mine out to play. I have some losses. I have injuries to deal with. I have a happy flock. Tech is cool. It pays my bills. Do it if enjoy it.

"but dude, its a freekin chicken coop." But dude I was asked several times why NOT wifi.

"Corporations use both." Yes they do but tell which do they use most. Also I never said that they don't.

"Not everybody feels the need to come on a chicken forum and tout their credentials."
When did I do that? I stated that I worked in the industry. I never gave credentials.

"They are animals that no amount of sensors will mitigate the need to go check on, preferably daily at least. I let mine out to play. I have some losses. I have injuries to deal with. I have a happy flock. Tech is cool. It pays my bills. Do it if enjoy it."

Relax. This is just a discussion in a forum. There a lot of opinions. Points were made and countered. Don't take it personal.