Raspberry Pi3 Chicken Coop Door

[tsperry88]

What are you using to dim the LED lights from the Rpi? I've been doing a bit of searching the last couple of days and not finding a great solution.

On my door I just used a bank of relays, it's very simple to reverse the DC motor with two relays. Let me see if I can find the wiring diagram I made.

JT

If you have an available PWM output, there are a number of little boards with mosfet and resistors, that should be plug n play.

 

[jthornton]

If you have an available PWM output, there are a number of little boards with mosfet and resistors, that should be plug n play.

I've not used my PWM output for anything yet. Got a link to one? I've seen so many not sure what to get.

Looking at this 12v LED.

JT

 

[tsperry88]

The nerd part of me wishes the Arduino had native connectivity for remote control like you both can do. The practical side of me is happy with my module and a linear actuator. This image is how I did my door. It has been running for about 2 months now. Just a 1/2 thick cutting board and used a router to cut tracks in a 2x4.

 

[tsperry88]

I've not used my PWM output for anything yet. Got a link to one? I've seen so many not sure what to get.

Looking at this 12v LED.

JT

These should work for you. I don't have experience with the Rasberri though. Just 12v in the vin screw terminal and led on the other.

https://www.amazon.com/IRF520-MOSFE...1&keywords=mosfet+board&qid=1596375318&sr=8-5

 

[fairie]

I have developed one based on the Arduino. I'll offer them to anybody who is interested once I am satisfied. The Rasberry is much less resilient to a harsh environment and power loss. It provides more remote capabilities, but I have to fix enough things in my real job, I wanted me coop to be as reliable as possible.

I designed it to handle lighting as well. In my coop it slowly brightens the lights 30 minutes after sunrise and slowly dims them 30 minutes before sunset. I also added a paremeter in the program to set the number of hours of lighting, for those who use artificial lighting for egg production. Because the lights dim over a set period of time, it doesn't plunge the birds into darkness.

My husband is a clown(seriously www.dadoshow.com) and has been working on a piece fir his show with the Raspberry pi then switched to the Arduino as well.
We just installed a coop door but the lights are run separately.
I would be very interested in your design when you are ready.

 

[fairie]

I just gave up on WiFi and ran a Cat 5 cable out to my coops. Never had an issue after that.

I just looked at Twilio and I'm not a fan of anything that mentions a cloud lol. That's why I just use the native email in Python and my phones sms gateway.

I have a lot of cameras in my coops and they are all POE. Never had an issue with dust on the lens, they are all pointing down a bit and the sun cover overhangs the lens a bit.

A photo from one of my POE cameras this morning in the Cinnamon Queen Coop.
View attachment 2272854

JT

That looks great. Do you have surveillance for raccoons or foxes? Do your chickens have a YouTube channel?

 

[jthornton]

Do your chickens have a YouTube channel?

https://www.youtube.com/user/Gnipsel

JT

 

[Mr. Barred Rock]

Here it is... this one shows a mechanical door stop using the up/down switches.
When you energize the top relay the door goes in one direction and when you energize the bottom relay the door goes the other direction. If you energize both nothing happens, but that's not a good idea.

View attachment 2272871

JT

I'm still working on the dimmable lights just order some dimmable LED's and some FQP30N06L Mosfet to try to wire them in circuit. I used a L298N motor controller (about $5) the Pi3 and 4 Jumper wires and code to control my door. I tried a bunch of other ideas, but all seem like to many things to fail. With the L298N motor controller you can actually run two motors.

 

[tsperry88]

My husband is a clown(seriously www.dadoshow.com) and has been working on a piece fir his show with the Raspberry pi then switched to the Arduino as well.
We just installed a coop door but the lights are run separately.
I would be very interested in your design when you are ready.

I decided I wanted to 2nd pop door for free ranging, but I don't want it opening automatically with the main pop door. I just redesigned my boards to independently control up to 2 doors. The board is only slightly larger at about 2.5"x3". It can take up to 3 switches for manual control. My program will use 1 switch for each door and one for lights. Pressing a door button will open or close that door and hold that position until the next time it is scheduled to open or close. Pressing the lights button will turn them off if scheduled to be on, or if they are off, turn them on and immediately beging dimming. In my coop the dimming cycle is 30 minutes, so turning them on would give you 30 minutes of light. That way if I must turn them on for some reason, the chickens don't panic when they turn back off.

 

[tsperry88]

If anybody runs out of things to automate, something cool would be an electronic lock on the man door. It could run in parallel with the pop door and lock/unlock on the same schedule. I might one day. I have too many projects at the moment.