My DIY Automatic Chicken Door

[jthornton]

Of course I had to add a 16x2 and a 20x4 display that shows the times it will open and close, Current date and time, Julian date for egg collection, and Temp & Humidity read out.

My Coop Deux has a Rpi 3 with a 7" touch screen and USB speakers as well as Internet.

Sounds like we both like to tinker.

JT

 

[Mouthpear]

I was speaking of the video with the photo cell and through beam and a DIN rail full of stuff...

I admire your creativity with the 2 timers and yes it's very simple and straight forward.

I didn't even know you could get Astronomical DIN rail timers, that does make it so much better.

JT

Yes I know what you were talking about. That's why I mentioned the terminal blocks. They take up room but I like them. The the reason all extra stuff is there is for testing purposes. It is also a sort of display. People always ask if you can use a photocell and timer. I tell them it is virtually impossible to do it with just the simple components, and tell them they need a complex circuit to mix the to. Or using an Arduino.

So if I was to take off the photocell "DIN" (which goes outside anyway) or just remove it all together, it will be less "clutter".

Remove the Volt / Amp meter.

The rest are things that people will put in there anyway. Like the charge controller. Timer and relay.

BTW the two slim relays take up less room than a single DPDT relay. Also the timer ("big" black box) is a three switch timer. So that's basically the same as having three timers but you only have to change the time on one of them.

One last thing. The Safety through beam circuit can actually be less "complicated" and easy to install, if you use one of these relay modules. Very simple. The one on the right is a bistable latching relay that requires no power to keep latched an operating. I could have used this but like I said, I like to keep things uniform.

 

[Mouthpear]

My Coop Deux has a Rpi 3 with a 7" touch screen and USB speakers as well as Internet.

Sounds like we both like to tinker.

JT

7" touch screen? wow! That takes up the same amount of space as the terminal blocks. Sounds like we both like to take up space. LOL.

 

[Mouthpear]

My Coop Deux has a Rpi 3 with a 7" touch screen and USB speakers as well as Internet.

Sounds like we both like to tinker.

JT

BTW I would love to see a picture of that setup..

 

[jthornton]

BTW I would love to see a picture of that setup..

I'm a bit embarrassed with the condition of the control center. I've placed an order with the maintenance supervisor for a larger shelf but he keeps ignoring my requests and keeps building accoutrements for the 12 Cinnamon Queen chicks in the brooder.



JT

 

[JakeCpuNut]

Sighhhh. I guess I should have done more research.. Dead battery this morning and door only opened about 2 inches.

I have a 10 watt solar panel that according to the specs puts out .6 amps in optimal conditions. I have it going through a battery tender.

Hooked up to the battery is the 12" actuator (not sure of the current draw) and the small wyze cam which was unhooked all weekend.

Per my posts above the 2 timers and relay are set to cut off so they were not on all day Sat/Sun with good sun.

The battery is an 8ah and new. The tender showed to be charging all day but never fully charged. At one time Sunday afternoon input from the solar was 12.5 output from the tender was 11.5.

I realize I need to measure current and will when this rain moves through but if otpimal is .6 from the solar I'm probably not getting enough current to keep charged even with the actuator only working 2 times a day?

Not sure whether to add a 2nd solar or just drop the $$ for direct burial cable and run 150' to get power.

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[jthornton]

Not sure whether to add a 2nd solar or just drop the $$ for direct burial cable and run 150' to get power.

I'd run some 12-2 UL to the coop and be done with it. Dunno your location but if it freezes where you are a heater in the water bucket makes life much easier.

JT

 

[Mouthpear]

Sighhhh. I guess I should have done more research.. Dead battery this morning and door only opened about 2 inches.

I have a 10 watt solar panel that according to the specs puts out .6 amps in optimal conditions. I have it going through a battery tender.

Hooked up to the battery is the 12" actuator (not sure of the current draw) and the small wyze cam which was unhooked all weekend.

Per my posts above the 2 timers and relay are set to cut off so they were not on all day Sat/Sun with good sun.

The battery is an 8ah and new. The tender showed to be charging all day but never fully charged. At one time Sunday afternoon input from the solar was 12.5 output from the tender was 11.5.

I realize I need to measure current and will when this rain moves through but if otpimal is .6 from the solar I'm probably not getting enough current to keep charged even with the actuator only working 2 times a day?

Not sure whether to add a 2nd solar or just drop the $$ for direct burial cable and run 150' to get power.

Thoughts/suggestions?

Make sure that your solar panel or the charge controller has a Blocking Diode/Battery drain protection. Solar panels will drain a battery at night if there is nothing to keep the power from reversing back to the solar panel.


OK no need to run power just yet. In you comment I do not see anything about a solar charge controller. You mentioned a battery tender. Are you talking about one of those battery tenders with a solar panel meant fro motorcycles and boats?

Please upload a picture of the solar panel, battery and controller.?
Model numbers or links will be helpful.

Test the solar panel. This video does good at showing how.

If the panel is good test the charge controller. Take off the solar panel wires. Put the multimeter leads to where solar panel goes. I you read voltage at that point it means the controller is backfeeding power to the solar panel. Install a blocking diode. Some panels come with didoes but they do go bad.

 

[JakeCpuNut]

I'd run some 12-2 UL to the coop and be done with it. Dunno your location but if it freezes where you are a heater in the water bucket makes life much easier.

JT

Yeah as cheap as copper is even my 175 run may be in the works before winter.. Live in NC so we do get freezing temps.. But solar is just so cool and nerdy lol

 

[JakeCpuNut]

Make sure that your solar panel or the charge controller has a Blocking Diode/Battery drain protection. Solar panels will drain a battery at night if there is nothing to keep the power from reversing back to the solar panel.


OK no need to run power just yet. In you comment I do not see anything about a solar charge controller. You mentioned a battery tender. Are you talking about one of those battery tenders with a solar panel meant fro motorcycles and boats?

Please upload a picture of the solar panel, battery and controller.?
Model numbers or links will be helpful.

Test the solar panel. This video does good at showing how.

If the panel is good test the charge controller. Take off the solar panel wires. Put the multimeter leads to where solar panel goes. I you read voltage at that point it means the controller is backfeeding power to the solar panel. Install a blocking diode. Some panels come with didoes but they do go bad.

The battery tender solar controller does have a blocking diode.. I emailed support and they confirmed..

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tend...75&sprefix=battery+tender+021,aps,167&sr=8-11

Panel

https://www.amazon.com/Newpowa-Poly...oop+solar+panel+10+watt&qid=1590068655&sr=8-9

The battery is a new 8 ah

Since I unhooked the Wyze Cam it seems to be keeping up.. I got on the Wyze forums and found the camera draws like .4 amps so I'm pretty certain that was the culprit.

With camera unhooked, draw between power and battery for all hooked up was 8 ma. When I plugged the camera back up it maxed out on my 300ma setting on my meter but my 10a fuse is blown so couldn't see how high it was, but enough to tell me it was more than I thought.

I haven't been able to do much testing with the monsoon we have been having for the last few days, but I did have full green on the tender yesterday after leaving the wyze off.

Maybe I can find a battery powered wifi cam to take it's place but in reality as already mentioned and as cheap as copper is, I'll probably run power out to the building/coop sometime this summer.