incubator ideas! post your ideas for home made incubators, whether they work or not~

[3forfree]

We made an incubator about a month ago based on what we had seen here and it seems to be going okay. My wife candled the eggs at day 11 and thinks we have 7 good prospects out of 15 eggs. We purchased eggs on ebay that were shipped so I see almost 50% as pretty good. I couldn't figure out how to make a page on the incubator page so it ended up as a comment on the coop page called the "Cheap o Bator". Because I am what some call a raging dork I also have been recently playing with Arduino microcontrollers. If you are not familiar it is a programable processor that can deal with several inputs and outputs. They sell for about $30 at radioshack and are awesome if you fancy excessive technology. Anyway, if we incubate more eggs, we will, then the incubator will be automated except for turning the eggs since that is too much fun. A temp/humidity sensor with .1 degree and 3% accuracy can be bought for $10 and relays are cheap. So if you think programming is fun or at least rewarding you can easily have true +- 1 degree and 5% control over your hatching environment for only $40-50 more then what your incubator was going to cost anyway, negating the need for a thermostat. And if you play with the Arduino when you are not hatching you can write off the $30. With a few controls you can have vents open and close, lights turn on and off, and water exposure all controlled. If you are really serious about documenting data then you could also set it up to document temp and humidity every so often so you can figure out what works best. Just a thought and if we go forward with this dorkiness I will be more then happy to make any programs written freely accessible.

Good luck to every body else out there reinventing the wheel for what ever reason.

Welcome to byc. Sounds like you've got a good setup. I worked as an electrician in a iron foundry, and over the years everything went to puters and electronics. We had to wire everything that a machine would do into into a processor, and print out everything to a remote location. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes not. With something as small as an incubator and having only a few inputs and outputs it would be fun to monitor as the eggs were in it. I was wondering where one could buy digital temp readouts, and different kinds of probes to take temps in different areas in the incubator. I'm going to check out some of the things you mentioned in your post, and maybe get something going. I just acquired a dorm sized refer and am ready to start punching some holes in it.

 

[DroolBubbles]

KellyN, no offense taken, but . . . Like I explained when I described our incubator,
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cheap-o-bator
it COULD have been made cheaply. We probably have $50-60 in it but we spent a little more since we started with some parts that were replaced. We initially wanted to save a little money but in the end we just had a lot of fun making it and learning a little in the process. The computer control stuff is only in my imagination right now. But if we were to start over then it could actually make the thing a little cheaper! That is only if you let me make the argument that I already have the Arduino laying around, of course. A digital temp and humidity sensor is $10 and relays are less then $2 (relays are what let you control 120v switches with something low power like a computer), and that will replace the need for a $20 thermostat and a $10 thermometer/hygrometer. An automatic egg turner is as easy as a $5 servo and writing a quick program (I am not programmer smart but it would only take 15-20 minutes to do this).

3ForFree, if you google Arduino you will find a lot of information on microcontrollers, it is all freeware with a large support community, like this one but dorkier. You can buy parts, boards and begginer kits on amazon, radioshack, ebay, etc. You can find hackable (easily programmed into arduino) sensors at futurlec.com or digikey.com, futurlec is easier to browse but you might save a buck or two on digikey if you can wade through all there items.

We are certainly a little odd in my house. We often start doing things our selves with the guise of saving money but we usually end up spending more time and money then was necessary, but we have a lot more fun, learn a little, and have more ownership of our projects. The computer control stuff is just an idea for people like me who would waste time and money making a dog feeding robot, not because I don't want to feed the dogs but because I just want to see if I can and I want to see the dogs reactions (they would freak out)

Hmmmmm, now to start working on the dog feeder.

 

[mossypath]

My 2 incubators I have made both use light bulbs for heat but I would like to build a new one with a heating element.
Having just given my crock pot to my son I was going to use made me start looking around. What I found was an old Popcorn Popper and was thinking if it could be slowed down with a Rheostat it would be perfect for an incubator. Can it be done and what problems could come up from slowing the heating element and fan if any.
Would I want to
wire the thermostat before the rheostat or does it matter
Thanks

 

[WVstruttin]

Heating element from GQF costs 11.00 bucks and works great.

 

[mossypath]

Thanks WVstruttin,
I was going to order a Wafer Thermostat but kind of like this element and the way it is housed, just don’t know if just the fan should be slowed down or if I also want to slow the heater . I will run a 2 fan on a low speed to keep the air moving at all times and use the fan in the popper with the heater.

 

[quintinp]

Thanks WVstruttin,
I was going to order a Wafer Thermostat but kind of like this element and the way it is housed, just don’t know if just the fan should be slowed down or if I also want to slow the heater . I will run a 2 fan on a low speed to keep the air moving at all times and use the fan in the popper with the heater.

Couldn't you easily just remove the heating element from the fan? I don't think a Rheostat would need to be used if you just use the heating element, and not the fan that is attached to it.

 

[3forfree]

Couldn't you easily just remove the heating element from the fan? I don't think a Rheostat would need to be used if you just use the heating element, and not the fan that is attached to it.

By just using the heating element and not having any control as to how much heat comes off it may make it too hot. I've been playing with a hair dryer that has a similar element to the air popper, and it just gets hot and stays there. I'm going to try a dimmer switch to see if I can control it with that.

 

[mohillbilly]

By just using the heating element and not having any control as to how much heat comes off it may make it too hot. I've been playing with a hair dryer that has a similar element to the air popper, and it just gets hot and stays there. I'm going to try a dimmer switch to see if I can control it with that.

try using a thermostat

 

[cva34]

try using a thermostat

X-2 Without one its :like driveing a car with no steering wheel or brakes...cva34

 

[mossypath]

Thanks for your input.

My thought was this little thing gets so hot so fast that by the time the thermostat reads the increase in heat to cut it off, the amount of heat coming off the coils is going to take a while to mix with all of the air in the bater. Won’t slowing the heat sources and the use of baffles help disperse the heat more evenly?