- Jun 4, 2010
- 70
- 4
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Started with a plastic storage box, divided and insulated, lamp heater on one side and adjustable speed computer fan, two openings in the divider air-in and air-out with the lamp and electronics behind the divider, relatively precise temperature control with homebrew circuit and a triac module. Scavenged parts, gears/plastic from a VCR, motor drives wooden wheels with rubber bands to step down speed, only drives from one side to the other then shutting down until timeout and reverses. That and more homebrew electronics got toggling 6 eggs 45° on a platform every 2 hours or 4 hours. There's a tin from a frozen lasagna tray fitted to the bottom for the last days extra humidity. The egg tilter fits in and gets removed the last days. Other wise just a cup of water in a corner refilled by tube from outside periodically.
The egg tilter worked okay but some roos had an extra step in the comb which I attribute to tilting rather than turning.
Trying again this spring but am right now building a rotator. An 8" diameter wheel with wooden spokes cut from plywood. Cut PVC at 45° for oval slices to place in the indices. Will be driving the wheel with a stepper motor and an RPI3+/Adafruit IO combination. My attempts at humidity measurement often failed. One used to be able to get small Springfield temp/humidity thermometers. I would remove the thermistor and humidity sensor and remount on fine twisted wire to hang in the incubator. Humidity sensor would too often fail. This time I'm buying humidity modules and that should improve effectiveness. Although the temperature will still be controlled in an external box at the incubator, the temp and humidity measurements will be sent to my desktop so if changes need to be made, e.g. water added to the internal cups, I can do that.
With the shifting platform I would periodically need to manually rotate the eggs in the half carton and twist them 90°, this to even out the unequal heat distribution. The rotating wheel, moving all eggs relative to the air ports in the divider, and the eggs rolling on their axis, means the egg manual rotation every few days won't be necessary.
With a new platform cut to fit the lasagna tin, I toyed with wheel placement relative to a strong stepper motor I salvaged from an early printer. Looks like its gear isn't removable and will just fit through the plywood platform enough to drive the wheel with out any extra height. Would be close.
But while reading the stepper motor drive documentation I decided to look for a 120 vac 2" gearmotor I've had for years. Found it and put it on test to learn its speed. Turns out to rotate 360° in 30 minutes. Am going to use it but will need to gear it down externally, probably with more salvaged gears. This gearmotor is out of a washing machine and probably identical to that which drive dryer timers as well.
I'll still be using the Raspberry Pi to transmit temperature, humidity, and once around data to my desktop, the once around data from a hall effect module outside the ring.
What I need to know is the optimal egg roll speed, albeit very slow and probably not visible. What I found on PubMed is that static egg incubation depletes the sodium concentration of albumen in the vicinity of the yoke. (Quail) Egg turning reduces the magnitude of the sodium depletion allowing full expression of ion and water transport across the blastoderm into the yoke sac. (Br Poult Sci, 1996 May; Latter GV & Baggott GK). And another article on quail eggs turned 90° hourly showed additional mass at 84-96 hours. (Br Poult Sci, 2008 Sept; De Winter P & Baggott GK)
So, I should do some measurements and get a full rotation every 4 hours, I think.
BillJ
The egg tilter worked okay but some roos had an extra step in the comb which I attribute to tilting rather than turning.
Trying again this spring but am right now building a rotator. An 8" diameter wheel with wooden spokes cut from plywood. Cut PVC at 45° for oval slices to place in the indices. Will be driving the wheel with a stepper motor and an RPI3+/Adafruit IO combination. My attempts at humidity measurement often failed. One used to be able to get small Springfield temp/humidity thermometers. I would remove the thermistor and humidity sensor and remount on fine twisted wire to hang in the incubator. Humidity sensor would too often fail. This time I'm buying humidity modules and that should improve effectiveness. Although the temperature will still be controlled in an external box at the incubator, the temp and humidity measurements will be sent to my desktop so if changes need to be made, e.g. water added to the internal cups, I can do that.
With the shifting platform I would periodically need to manually rotate the eggs in the half carton and twist them 90°, this to even out the unequal heat distribution. The rotating wheel, moving all eggs relative to the air ports in the divider, and the eggs rolling on their axis, means the egg manual rotation every few days won't be necessary.
With a new platform cut to fit the lasagna tin, I toyed with wheel placement relative to a strong stepper motor I salvaged from an early printer. Looks like its gear isn't removable and will just fit through the plywood platform enough to drive the wheel with out any extra height. Would be close.
But while reading the stepper motor drive documentation I decided to look for a 120 vac 2" gearmotor I've had for years. Found it and put it on test to learn its speed. Turns out to rotate 360° in 30 minutes. Am going to use it but will need to gear it down externally, probably with more salvaged gears. This gearmotor is out of a washing machine and probably identical to that which drive dryer timers as well.
I'll still be using the Raspberry Pi to transmit temperature, humidity, and once around data to my desktop, the once around data from a hall effect module outside the ring.
What I need to know is the optimal egg roll speed, albeit very slow and probably not visible. What I found on PubMed is that static egg incubation depletes the sodium concentration of albumen in the vicinity of the yoke. (Quail) Egg turning reduces the magnitude of the sodium depletion allowing full expression of ion and water transport across the blastoderm into the yoke sac. (Br Poult Sci, 1996 May; Latter GV & Baggott GK). And another article on quail eggs turned 90° hourly showed additional mass at 84-96 hours. (Br Poult Sci, 2008 Sept; De Winter P & Baggott GK)
So, I should do some measurements and get a full rotation every 4 hours, I think.
BillJ
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