Want to monitor your Coop from your Phone?

[technocoop]

Welcome to BYC!
Neat project you are working on.

It is not something I would be interested in though, sorry.

Thanks for the welcome KikisGirls, it's nice to meet everyone!

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Well this is what I have so far in my coop and what I spent (about)

A ChickenGuard door opener/closer I NEVER set it to open just to close if I let them out and do not lock them in before dark myself, the cool feature about it is the opener has a built in light meter and the closing is set at a certain light reading. It is battery operated and the batteries are said to last a year. $229.00

I have electric in my coop and a strong wifi signal, two big advantages for wifi controlled everything...

I have a 4 wifi cameras that I can monitor from my phone, 2 in the coop, one in the egg collection area of my roll out nest box and one in the chicken yard. $99 from amazon

I have a smart lightbulb that I can set the on/off times and brightness from an app on my phone, I have it come on at 2:30 AM at 10% brightness and up another 10% every minute until its full bright, that way the chickens are not woken up abruptly. $20 from amazon

So I am already $350 into my coop automation and I am only doing a few things. I think add on modules for different things all on one app would be the way to go.

Gary

 

[technocoop]

I totally agree, couldn’t have said it better myself

Thanks for both of your specific feedback. This is a list that I can work with. For the heated water presumably that would be something you'd want solar powered? On that note how about a kit that would retrofit a water cooler to provide insulation and hence reduce the power input needed from the solar system?

 

[technocoop]

Additional feature, but related to your photo aspect... I'd like to see if predators are in my yard and/or near the coop, so either an additional camera, or motion sensor that gets tripped and sends an alarm to my phone, or something along these lines. If I had hot wire I'd want to be able to see that it is working and hasn't shorted out or something.

I am not interested in the feed weight aspect.

I am interested in temperature in and out of the coop as well as wind speed, I have recently acquired a weather station and I'm contemplating hooking it up at my coop instead of the house (not that they are far apart), but I'm more interested in how the chickens are being affected when I'm not home and can check in on an app.

Many de-icing methods, tank de-icer, heated chicken waterer, heated dog dish, are already thermostatically controlled, but I do wish I could easily just turn mine on and off at night, otherwise the heater will run all night when it's below freezing, but this is not necessary as the chickens aren't drinking at night so it's a waste of electricity.

I know I could likely set all these things up individually, but I like your centralized control idea.

sorry if these are all things you've thought of, just brainstorming

Also I'm not sure how different these features are from other smart home products and systems, can this just be a special app that works with an existing system? As a consumer, why would I buy this vs any of the other smart home products out there? There are already ways to remotely control outlets, lights, cameras, etc., what is different or special or unique about this? Why wouldn't I continue to use an established system? Just things for you to think about if you really want to market it beyond a personal hobby and your personal coop setup.

Hi PirateGirl, thank you so much for the detailed feedback. General coop security from predators is another avenue I've not really thought too much about. We have hawks so being alerted to movement around the enclosure is something that could be useful. Maybe especially if I was told what activity happened around the coop over time etc.

On your note about why not use other products, I guess I need to review more what's out there. I think there's probably two points that spring to mind. 1) bundling everything into one package for a coop could make sense, that way you're not cobbling together a this thing, plus that thing, and trying to connect five different ways to see what's happening 2) Optimizing for solar power seems something that other IoT products don't care too much about, but coops tend to be far away from peoples houses, enough that the cost of running cable or the visual disturbance of a yellow wire might be worth paying for a complete system.

Your last point is a key one, need to think hard about what is the problem that can only be solved this way vs using one of the many other solutions.

Thanks for your thoughts. Best, Steve

 

[technocoop]

Well this is what I have so far in my coop and what I spent (about)

A ChickenGuard door opener/closer I NEVER set it to open just to close if I let them out and do not lock them in before dark myself, the cool feature about it is the opener has a built in light meter and the closing is set at a certain light reading. It is battery operated and the batteries are said to last a year. $229.00

I have electric in my coop and a strong wifi signal, two big advantages for wifi controlled everything...

I have a 4 wifi cameras that I can monitor from my phone, 2 in the coop, one in the egg collection area of my roll out nest box and one in the chicken yard. $99 from amazon

I have a smart lightbulb that I can set the on/off times and brightness from an app on my phone, I have it come on at 2:30 AM at 10% brightness and up another 10% every minute until its full bright, that way the chickens are not woken up abruptly. $20 from amazon

So I am already $350 into my coop automation and I am only doing a few things. I think add on modules for different things all on one app would be the way to go.

Gary

Hi Gary, I like your setup, and many thanks for sharing the details. If you don't mind me asking, which specific cameras did you buy? I'm seeing tones of options but the prices might be off due to Black Friday, and it's always good to know specifically which ones you like. It might be that a BirdBrain can leverage external IP cameras if the hardware is cheap.

Having power in your coop really does open up the options of the tech that can be used. I guess I have to work out if I want to press forward with a solar-optimized design or go for a feature packed wired setup. I think wifi would have to be required otherwise you'd need sim cards for the gear and cell phone subscriptions. Not sure if this should be a driver, but going solar-only does narrow down the other solutions I'd be pitching against.

Something I'm also taking from your comments is that lots of cameras would be helpful. One for the nesting boxes, one for outside and one to check they are all in the coop at night. Also that you should make this modular so you can provide different entry and feature levels.

Many thanks for sharing details on your system.

Best,

Steve

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Hi Gary, I like your setup, and many thanks for sharing the details. If you don't mind me asking, which specific cameras did you buy? I'm seeing tones of options but the prices might be off due to Black Friday, and it's always good to know specifically which ones you like. It might be that a BirdBrain can leverage external IP cameras if the hardware is cheap.

Having power in your coop really does open up the options of the tech that can be used. I guess I have to work out if I want to press forward with a solar-optimized design or go for a feature packed wired setup. I think wifi would have to be required otherwise you'd need sim cards for the gear and cell phone subscriptions. Not sure if this should be a driver, but going solar-only does narrow down the other solutions I'd be pitching against.

Something I'm also taking from your comments is that lots of cameras would be helpful. One for the nesting boxes, one for outside and one to check they are all in the coop at night. Also that you should make this modular so you can provide different entry and feature levels.

Many thanks for sharing details on your system.

Best,

Steve

These are the cameras, I like them so far

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716XZT7Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The issue with solar is I do not think you can keep water from freezing without a huge system.

Wifi, I use google wifi, it is a mesh system you can use them in a combination of wired or wireless, I ran a wire to the garage to boost my signal near the coop.

Gary

 

[ChattyChickens4Life]

I think this would be amaaaaaaazing! For me, monitoring the feed intake, temperature, and door control are my top priorities. Maybe you could incorporate a sort of alert when feed is eaten but the chickens are locked in the coop. That way the owner could insure no animal got in. I think this is a great idea, and you should totally patent it! Keep working because this will be awesome!

 

[Molpet]

Thanks for both of your specific feedback. This is a list that I can work with. For the heated water presumably that would be something you'd want solar powered? On that note how about a kit that would retrofit a water cooler to provide insulation and hence reduce the power input needed from the solar system?

I would need solar water and a kit to retro a cooler would work for me. Also a big cost of the solar I have seen is a battery.. so something that could be hooked to and charge a locally sourced deep cycle marine battery would work for me too.

 

[cholland]

I would suggest designing to be 12v. Then is can be solar or easily adapted to AC current. Or even have a battery backup.

Multiple switches for lights, doors, etc.
Monitoring of electric fence, especially battery voltage if it is also solar powered would be good.

Most people just want an auto door and maybe a light. So a basic inexpensive setup that can be expanded as wanted would appeal to more.

What type of a "brain" are you working with? They are a few users on here that have already done some of this with a Rasberry Pi3.

 

[Molpet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/diy-12vdc-water-warmer.64409/