Question for the "techie" people out there - automation, wifi etc.

[nickyblase]

I'm looking to do a few upgrades to my coop and need some input. I plan to get an automatic door opener, but would like to have the ability to do a manual override over wifi or bluetooth. I see that the "Coop Tender" has wifi available, but their reviews are abysmal. Total bummer to see that, I was very close to ordering one!

The coop is wired for power, and I also plan to have some other automations put into place, such as temperature-based commands (if temp sensor goes below xx degrees, turn on wall mounted radiant heat panels, or if temp sensor goes above xx degrees, turn on fan). I was toying with using a smart power strip that could do IFTTT or Alexa (or it's own app).

One thing I'm not sure of is what automatic coop doors could be a good candidate for this. The power strips that have WIFI that I'm looking at also have a few USB ports plus a handful of smart outlets (and can do things like scheduling and scenes, etc).

If using a smart power strip to do ad-hoc open/close isn't feasible, is there another way to add wifi functionality to a door opener? The coop is about 40 feet from the house, and has a strong enough signal that I was able to take a video call on my laptop for work out there last week.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Parront]

I have a Thermo-cube that turns on a fan when it gets to 78. I do not trust my chickens lives to flakey Wi-Fi connection. If a printer sometimes drops off the network, I do not want that stuff in a critical application. I ran cat-5 wire to the video cameras from the recorder. I use wi-fi to connect the camera server to the house so I can look at it in the middle of the night if I want to check. Sometimes, it is not connected and needs re-set. Some of these things are fun to play with, but not worth it to most people. Here is a photo of the low-tech thing that turns on the fan.

 

[amk122284]

We converted a section of our second garage into a coop. We actually have wifi in the garage. Depending on how techie you are you can build your own automated door with a linear actuator and some controls. Hubby does similar stuff for a living so it isnt too difficult for him to rig up. Our chickens are 6 weeks old and we should have our automated door in sometime in the next week. It will be controlled via app on our phones through wifi so when we are out of town we can still open the coop door and watch them via security camera. Inlaws are our neighbors half a mile away so if we observe an issue via camera it's a quick call and they can come to the rescue.

 

[Ted Brown]

@jthornton is skilled in these areas, perhaps he can offer some guidance?

 

[jthornton]

I'm more old school techno nerd and my automation is provided by a Raspberry Pi 3 with a Cat 6 wired connection to my LAN. I don't trust WIFI as sometimes my printers go off line and I have to reboot them. I have POE cameras on my LAN to monitor the coops and grounds. The Raspberry Pi can have multiple DS18B20 temperature sensors connected and has outputs than can be connected to a relay board for controlling things. I wrote the program in Python and no that's not the snake...

@Tsheaby has an excellent design for a linear actuator door using smart timers.

JT

 

[nickyblase]

Thanks for the replies. I was actually looking at playing around with a Raspberry Pi (and I'm familiar with what Python is - I work in IT, but to say I'm not a coder is an understatement!). There are a few threads on here that show the code that you all had used, right? I'll have to go back and look at those. Not sure if I will end up going that route for a permanent solution, as I could most certainly get in the weeds fast and not know how to dig myself out! lol


I get what you are saying re not trusting wifi. Thankfully mine has been pretty stable.

Curious to hear about the setup @Tsheaby has done.

 

[jthornton]

I was actually looking at playing around with a Raspberry Pi (and I'm familiar with what Python is - I work in IT, but to say I'm not a coder is an understatement!). There are a few threads on here that show the code that you all had used, right?

My code has evolved since then for sure. The basic code does this, after midnight get the new astral stats for the new day and update the door open/close and lights on/off times. Then every second the QtTimer runs a bit of code to see what needs to be done. The Coop Deux has a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 7" touch screen and has USB speakers so I play music all day for the chickens and me. I need to break it down to the basic operations and post it on my github chicken-automation repository. Right now there is some outdated code there as well as coop1 which is the RIR hens coop and it has just a Raspberry Pi 3 with a relay board so that should be the current code for it.

I'm certainly glad to help you with the code for your adventures.

JT

 

[nickyblase]

very cool - thank you!

 

[CajunChooks]

on my github chicken-automation repository.

Thanks for the repo, I will post mine when I do this. I am building my first coop, and I have several big plans for it that will probably really only happen over a long time - going for a camera and coop door first. Anyway, here are some of my ideas I am just pasting from my reply on another post. Would love to see if anyone has any other interesting ideas to add. As for what I am using, a raspberry pi running mqtt to talk to my home assistant server, and this nice little piece of software (very configurable for lots of motion based automations) for the camera feed

My comments from this post:
Great to see this! I am a soon to be chicken owner, but long time hobbyist electronics tinkerer, so I was looking forward to building a smart coop. You have given me a leg up with the door solution (Although I am doing a ramp). I also plan on using a raspberry Pi to control it, but I am going to integrate it with my existing smart home system (I use Home Assistant). I have several other things I am thinking of adding, over time as I am able to build them. Here are some thoughts on each one, and yes, some are over ambitious, but I will start simple and then overengineer them when I have the time to play

1. Coop Cam! Using a raspberry pi camera module to have a livestream! Also, potentially to see if eggs are out when getting up in the morning.
2. Automatic door/ramp: I was considering having them be on schedule, and on demand (via the web interface for home assistant). For the automatic schedule open/close, I am thinking of adding a motion detector to see if any of them are locked out! Some logic like this: at 9pm, if no motion sensed in the run for the past few minutes, close door. Also, a trigger for "if door closed, but there's motion in the run, open it." another thing here is that I might not need a PIR sensor, I have used this software for DIY security camera before, and it senses motion via the stream itself.
3. Water: Level sensor in the bucket to send a notification if low. Maybe also solenoid valve to refill if low, but that's really just overnegineering for the fun of it. I plan on collecting rainwater and I live in Louisiana, so unlikely to get empty anyway!
4. Ventilation/Cooling: So a temperature sensor in the coop, and then use it to trigger some ventilation fans, maybe attached to the wall of the coop at its highest point, blowing hot air out of the coop. I am thinking of just recycling some PC cooling fans, although I feel like they will die with the humidity eventually. Maybe also turn on little water misters on the run? Seems like they might enjoy that in the heat.
5. Heat: Same as above if cold, turn on relay switch for warming lamp if too cold. Although I don't think this will ever be an issue here in Louisiana

 

[CajunChooks]

@jthornton do you have any good ideas about what kind of DC motor to use for the door, since I hear you are a specialist

I am thinking maybe a stepper motor driving a screw, but not really sure. I have played with basic electronics, but not with DC motors really