[HN Gopher] DIY ESP32 based chicken coop door. Control based on ...
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DIY ESP32 based chicken coop door. Control based on time, light or
via app
Author : thunderbong
Score : 120 points
Date : 2023-08-30 10:47 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| One thing I see at the very bottom, where it says "Tutorial, here
| is a video:" There isn't a video, just an image.
| yardshop wrote:
| At at end of that sentence there is a "//todo".
| dewey wrote:
| We bought something similar to that as a kit you have to assemble
| yourself. I additionally hooked up a Unifi camera pointed at it
| so my parents can check if everything is alright.
| finnjohnsen2 wrote:
| The esp32 devboards are magnificent, as it is so easy to replace
| the need for official Arduino boards
|
| - Arduino compatible
|
| - platformIO supported
|
| - very cheap
|
| - they are usually tiny
|
| - great wifi and Bluetooth
|
| - gpio pins for the different protocols (i2c etc)
|
| - easy to power (tolerance and options in usb and pins)
|
| - lots of exciting new models and active development like the
| esp32c3, the D1 minis and different models with integrated oleds
| are cool
|
| - community resources. there are massive amount of blogpost and
| YouTube videos for esp32 (and Arduino in general)
|
| cons are few;
|
| - 3.3v signal is a hassle quite often in practise
|
| - the amount of different esp32 devboards models can get
| confusing
|
| - the pins are sometimes shared-purpose and it's not always clear
| which you can use
|
| - China. Both practical for delivery time, and politically
| dekhn wrote:
| you can also drop the Arduino bit and use FreeRTOS. Also many
| of my ESP32 projects end up on a solderable breadboard with a
| level shifter to deal with 3.3v. But most of what I work with
| today is 3.3v.
| [deleted]
| tengbretson wrote:
| I have an automatic chicken coop door from the company Run-
| Chicken. It is one of the most brilliantly designed products I've
| ever owned. It has an app for setting up the opening and closing
| rules, which can be rather sophisticated, based on both time and
| light conditions.
|
| The device itself has _no WIFI, bluetooth, or a radio of any
| kind_. To program the device, you push a button to put it into a
| programming mode, then hold your phone up to its photo sensor,
| and it will flash the screen in a sequence of black and white to
| relay the encoded settings.
| nullwarp wrote:
| Have the same door, has worked flawlessly for the two or so
| years i've had it I don't even think about it.
|
| Really clever piece of engineering on the programming mode for
| sure.
| traviswt wrote:
| I have a door from Run-Chicken, mechanically it's still good but
| the electronics went out in it. I'd love to have something like
| this running it, going to give it a shot.
| hedora wrote:
| If you can rip out the old motor and tie a string to the door
| (drill a hole in the piece that moves?), you can get a
| standalone motor from chicken guard. (You'd want the pro model
| or cheaper; their new all-in-one would have you replace the old
| door)
| traviswt wrote:
| I might do this, but the servo still works. So long as I can
| still drive the servo, I think I'm good. It's open loop, so
| I'll need to watch something to determine when the door is
| fully shut.
| ofrzeta wrote:
| Nice. However the bigger problem for me is the mechanics. What
| motor do you use? Actually I think you also need some gear.
|
| We and many other people we know are using the Kerbl (not related
| to KSP) chicken coop door which is quite expensive (around 120
| Euro).
|
| https://d3w207ykk8w4lq.cloudfront.net/public/thumbnail/33/a3...
|
| You can see in the image it uses quite intricate mechanics with a
| lever and a spring. It's also supposed to detect a stuck chicken,
| however that has never happened to us (or we wouldn't have
| noticed because the Kerbl has silently resolved the problem).
| petsfed wrote:
| I love projects like these, since its typically a neophyte to
| embedded hardware design and programming a microcontroller.
|
| But just once, I'd love to see a hobby project from somebody who
| already knows what they're doing, but is using this to try out
| some ridiculously inappropriate software technique.
|
| Forget Arduino on an ESP32, I want to see somebody do this with
| FreeRTOS.
|
| It's been on my todo list for a long time. Unfortunately, we have
| too many predators in our area to let the chickens roam free
| unsupervised (I lost 5 last year to the same coyote, and I can
| hear the bald eagles squeaking most clear days), so its a
| solution in search of a problem.
| ukd4ve wrote:
| I have a similar setup, but used an actuator for the door, so it
| can't be pried open by a racoon. I use Home Assistant rules to
| open and close the door according to readings from a light sensor
| in the coop.
| enachb wrote:
| This. I have had a gravity based door mechanism for 2 years and
| eventually your door gets jammed. I started with one limit
| switch and calibrated number of turns, but even that over time
| started to get into weird conditions.
|
| Cheap linear actuators from Amazon with built in limit switches
| are the way to go IMHO: https://www.amazon.com/ECO-LLC-
| Actuator-Mounting-Brackets/dp...
| jack_riminton wrote:
| "Certainly, here's your code snippet presented in a more readable
| manner:" Using ChatGPT to do your README is a good idea, just
| need to proof read it ;)
| bbarnett wrote:
| [flagged]
| btbuildem wrote:
| How do you not have photos (or a video!) of the finished project
| in operation??
| xavxav wrote:
| A project I've always toyed with in my head is a fancier version
| that would count / verify the checks have all entered the coop at
| closing time and warn you if not. With my parents coop
| occasionally a chicken will decide to brave the night outside,
| often to disastrous consequences.
|
| Figuring out how to build a low-energy version is challenging,
| but necessary since the whole system runs off small solar panels
| and a 12v battery.
| zwieback wrote:
| I had that problem with the camper chickens (that end up
| getting eaten by raccoons) and also sometimes additional guests
| like possums or skunks would enter the coop.
|
| In the end I always closed the coop at night manually and let
| the auto coop door open in the morning, that way I could sleep
| in in the summer.
|
| Next level of coolness would be a full coop monitor with non-
| chicken intruder detection. Alas, all my chickens have passed
| on by now so it'll remain a fantasy.
| lhoff wrote:
| I haven't played with rfid tags or bluetooth beacons myself but
| I could imagine a solution build around one of the two
| technologies. I think it should consist of an entry tunnel with
| two sensors, one at each end. The tunnel and the two sensors
| could be used to determine the direction the chicken goes. It
| the chick first triggers the inner and then the outer sensor it
| is checked out and when it goes the other way its checked in.
| sudobash1 wrote:
| I would suggest that you don't need to count the chickens. You
| could also just verify that none are left out. There are
| presence sensors (such as the ones that turn lights on when
| someone comes into a room, or off when everyone is gone). If
| you had one that worked on chickens pointed into their run, you
| could close the door when there are none left (plus a time
| cutoff if Henrietta really wants to keep her trist with the
| raccoon).
| leejoramo wrote:
| This is a project I have long thought to try. Relatively simple
| task, but requires Designing a reliable system and sourcing
| quality components
| blitzar wrote:
| and chickens ...
| fullstop wrote:
| and land
|
| Technically I could keep chickens as long as I keep five or
| less. Realistically my neighbors would hate me. Also, there's
| a lot of foxes in my area and I don't think that my five
| chickens would be around all that long.
| leejoramo wrote:
| I actually live downtown in a small city. We have a small
| backyard but enough room for hens. They make minimal noise,
| much less then dogs. And they not make cause any unpleasant
| odors.
|
| In the 9 years we have had the hens, no one has complained.
| However many people bring their kids by to watch them
| through the fence.
| uxp100 wrote:
| My neighbors across the street (3 miles from downtown of a
| medium size american city) have chickens and most days I
| forget they are there. I grew up with chickens as well, and
| they really aren't a nuisance. We also have foxes and uh,
| the time I did't forget they were there was when I heard a
| strange yowling at dawn, clearly a chicken and yet so
| different from their normal noises. I assume that was due
| to a fox.
| GravitasFailure wrote:
| Yeah, hens aren't loud or smelly, so as long as you take
| measures to curb issues with pests they attract, they're
| fine. Just don't get a rooster.
| blitzar wrote:
| > I could keep chickens as long as I keep five or less
|
| Is that a specific chicken clause in a contract somewhere
| or a general head of livestock / pets clause.
|
| 5 chickens != 5 dogs != 5 horses
| fullstop wrote:
| I looked up the ordinance, and I was wrong about a few
| things. Livestock or poultry may be kept provided that
| there are no more than 4. So I was wrong about the limit
| -- it's less than five and not five or less.
|
| Also: * I need to have a 1 acre parcel,
| and I have only a bit over 0.25 * It needs to be 25
| feet from all property boundaries and fenced in, which
| limits placement options
|
| So my options, for this plot, are nil.
|
| I don't recall the 1 acre limit when I looked before, so
| I'm wondering if this has been updated.
| kortex wrote:
| I have 12 on a 1/2 acre plot, about 2/3rds of which is
| backyard they can access (so call it 1/3 acre of
| roaming). That amount seems more than ample, though these
| are pretty bougie chickens. Four in even 1/8 acre should
| be fine.
| fullstop wrote:
| I shall forward your message to my township officials.
| :-)
|
| Seriously, though, I have to abide by the local
| ordinances.
| hedora wrote:
| The minimum square footage per "cage free" chicken is
| only 1.5 sq ft, (in California, which passed a ballot
| initiative to increase it to that number)
|
| https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_12,_Farm_A
| nim...
|
| So, 1/8 acre could hold 3,630 "cage free" chickens, in
| theory (I am not condoning this).
|
| In you don't need much space to keep chickens happy.
| However, they produce a lot of dust, and can't be kept in
| a house.
| kortex wrote:
| > However, they produce a lot of dust
|
| This was actually the most surprising thing about first
| time chicken ownership. I was expecting the poop, I
| wasn't expecting the dust and the dust bathing. They will
| pick one or more parts of the yard and crater it and use
| it for their dust baths, meaning that soil will transport
| elsewhere and you'll need to replenish the sand. You can
| kinda suggest where they do it (they prefer overhung
| spots that don't get rain, so it stays dry and dusty) but
| like cats and cat beds, they decide where to do it. I
| intended the under-coop space to be used for this, but
| they decided they like under my gazebo-tent was
| preferable.
| traviswt wrote:
| As for neighbors, just don't get a rooster. Hens do make
| some noise but they're not bad at all.
|
| As for foxes, you can use a mobile coop+run. Move it once
| per day to provide fresh grass and distribute the
| fertilizer byproduct.
| fullstop wrote:
| Yeah, if I did it I'd want the area to be fenced in
| because one of my neighbors is nosy. It's a 1/4 acre
| plot, so not exactly a huge amount of land.
|
| I know that my neighbors down the street have chickens
| because I occasionally hear them, but their yard is
| completely fenced in. I only know them well enough for
| casual greetings when we see them in passing, and there's
| a language barrier preventing more in depth conversation.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Do you think there is a reason they are getting away with
| ignoring the rules? Maybe you could too - just ask the
| neighbours first?
| fullstop wrote:
| They might not know that the rules exist at all -- you
| have to go looking to find them. I'm sure that they're
| getting away with it because nobody cares and the yard is
| fenced in and nobody sees the chickens and because none
| of their next door neighbors care.
|
| I don't talk to them much besides "hello", as
| communication is difficult since they don't speak much
| English and I don't speak much (any) Swahili.
|
| The coop is somewhere in here:
| https://i.imgur.com/t6FqF6G.png
| Symbioquine wrote:
| A design with limit switches instead of counting turns seems like
| it would be much more reliable. e.g.
| https://www.floweringelbow.org/automated-door-from-an-old-wi...
|
| That way the software can be nearly stateless:
|
| 1. Check time and determine desired state (open or closed) 2.
| Compare desired state against limit switches and run motor until
| the limit switch is hit (or it times out which is an error)
|
| On the other hand, a turn-counting strategy can lose power in the
| middle of opening or closing and "forget" where it is in the
| process.
| hedora wrote:
| Chickens are incredibly dirty animals. The limit switches would
| probably be fouled (fowled?) pretty quickly.
|
| Commercial versions of this can measure motor load (via
| current), but still require manual calibration. I wonder if
| they thought they could get away with manual calibration, but
| couldn't make it reliable.
|
| I think these people are the market leaders:
|
| https://www.chickenguard.com/
|
| Note that the commercial version latches the door shut, so
| raccoons can't open it from the bottom (they would have to
| learn to pull the string, and then also stick a hind leg or
| something in the bottom to wedge it open after the string was
| released).
|
| The new 2023 model replaces the string with what appears to be
| a high tolerance gear system. That auto-calibrates once, then
| remembers the set points.
| mtreis86 wrote:
| Limit switches for all sorts of terrible environments exist.
| These would probably work
| https://www.mcmaster.com/products/switches/environmental-
| rat...
| wiredfool wrote:
| I used something like this:
| https://www.mcmaster.com/products/lever-
| switches/subminiatur...
| Symbioquine wrote:
| Yeah, it would be interesting to get an update on
| FloweringElbow's implementation to see how often the lower
| limit switch is getting fowled :p .
|
| I think it's also possible to design it such that both upper
| and lower limit switches are placed higher up on the edge of
| the door, rather than strictly at the top and bottom, which
| should help with the fouling.
|
| Practically though, any automated system will be vulnerable
| to fouling/blockage and require regular maintenance to keep
| the mechanism clear and clean enough to avoid premature
| corrosion (chicken poop being pretty acidic). In my opinion,
| it's a pipe dream to have a fully automated coop in a
| backyard setting and not eventually/occasionally have
| failures that require manual intervention or lead to neglect
| and losses due to predation. Better to think of such systems
| as tools to relax the timing requirements for manual care.
| Instead of doing all the work at the right times, one can
| confirm that the animals are out/fed/watered/in/etc as part
| of doing the normal morning/evening rounds/chores.
| bagels wrote:
| Problems I've had with the chickenguard (I still use it, and
| probably won't stop, it's good enough with modifications)
|
| The tracks will get warped over time if exposed to moisture.
| I don't live in a particularly wet place, and it's partially
| covered, but the wooden tracks warped, and the door would get
| jammed.
|
| The string will get tangled and quickly finish off the
| batteries if the door is jammed or the batteries get low.
|
| Modifications made:
|
| I routed a painted solid wood doorway to provide a wider
| track to prevent the track from warping, and to improve
| tolerance to dirt, leaves and twigs, which has eliminated
| door jams.
|
| Battery replacements every 6 months are now on my calendar.
| petee wrote:
| One problem I see with this is not stranding chickens outside if
| they didn't return fast enough; I guess you could count by
| breaking a light beam, or stepping on a plate.
|
| Second would be adding a good lock to the door -- raccoons are
| _very_ crafty, and love stealing eggs
| Petersipoi wrote:
| > and love stealing eggs
|
| and chickens.. in my experience
| wiredfool wrote:
| I did this in the Raspberry Pi 1 era.
|
| * Pi for timing/wifi/status/webserver.
|
| * Opened at 8am, closed at civil twilight. Or whenever I hit the
| button on the webserver, or the switch board.
|
| * Limit switches.
|
| * Mechanical swing lock for raccoon protection
|
| * Electric drill + rope for the vertical sliding door
|
| * Relay for direction, power mosfet for the drive controller.
|
| * Intermediate board between the 3.3v controller and the 12V
| power board.
|
| * Lead acid battery + charger for the power.
|
| The door was pretty hefty, and was _solid_. 1/2 or 3/4 ply IIRC.
| The drill wound up being a mistake, because the power was too
| high, managed to fry some relays before I got everything worked
| out. The limit switches were generally pretty good, but they were
| also pretty well protected by the door design.
|
| The best bug was that the wifi worked really well during the day,
| but not at night. Turns out that the LOS between the wifi dongle
| and the AP went through the roost, and chickens absorb enough
| wifi signal to drop it off the net. So one 3m usb cable later,
| and the dongle was on the other side of the roost. Solid
| networking from then on.
|
| Sadly I left it in the coop when moving out.
| daveevad wrote:
| > Turns out that the LOS between the wifi dongle and the AP
| went through the roost, and chickens absorb enough wifi signal
| to drop it off the net.
|
| That sounds like a chicken motion detection system to me.
| wiredfool wrote:
| Chicken presence anyway.
|
| I tell you the bugs you see when deploying something in the
| real world...
| djbusby wrote:
| Field work always finds the "what the heck" bugs that lab
| work never could.
| thelastparadise wrote:
| And the chickens will eat the bugs when you deploy them to
| the real world..
| mk_stjames wrote:
| What happens if the door closes at night and one or more
| chickens aren't already inside? Is that a thing that happens?
| Do they pretty much always go inside at the same time every
| evening? Is it bad if one gets left out alone?
|
| I know nothing about chicken coops.
| wiredfool wrote:
| It wasn't really an issue, They'd go in between sunset and
| one of the twilight light levels, and that was that. When we
| did it without the automatic door, there was a lot more
| chasing type manual labor just getting them in if it was
| early, or we'd forget and it would be super late.
|
| Didn't ever lose one at night, but there were definitely
| daytime predators that were an issue. (mainly raptors)
| elromulous wrote:
| A former colleague of mine spent a bunch of time adding
| computer vision to his coup control project for exactly this
| reason.
|
| But turns out, chickens just naturally go into the coup at
| sunset and it's completely unnecessary.
| iamthepieman wrote:
| If a chicken isn't in the coop by the time the sun is
| setting, then they don't want to be in the coop and you would
| have to manually intervene anyways. It's always the same
| chicken(s) too. They want to roost in a tree or on the roof
| or something. If one of your chickens develops this habit,
| the best way to break it is to keep them locked in the coop
| for a few days as soon as you realize what's happening.
|
| But barring that situation, chickens always go in the coop. I
| can tell it's 15 minutes to sunset when the chickens start
| ambling up the ramp.
| ofrzeta wrote:
| It happens that one might get left out and it's no problem
| unless a predator shows up :)
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(page generated 2023-08-30 23:01 UTC)