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Automatic chicken door time input (low power, simple)
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Ian.M:

--- Quote from: Amper on January 16, 2019, 02:56:06 pm ---Yes, thats on my list of things to try as well. Im just still not sure if its good to keep using hard timing because i cant risk locking animals outside over night. They are more or less pets and not livestock, so it would be horrible to loose one while trying stuff or doing some sub optimal thing. The perfect solution would be to rfid tag all of them and close the door only when all are inside but i guess thats a bit much for now  ;D

--- End quote ---
RFID used as you describe would be a really *DUMB* idea.  If a fox gets one, the henhouse door wont close till that tag goes past the sensor, so at best the fox has free access, or at worst, if the fox swallowed the tag, it'll lock the fox in with the chooks!

OTOH a remote alarm in the house that goes off if the system hasn't logged in all the tags by door closing time could be worthwhile.     RFID bird rings are pretty cheap, but you'll need two sensors with a tunnel between them to make sure the chook goes past both so you can determine whether the chook is going in or out.

As for setting the door timer, consider a battery backed  RTC module mounted in a plug shell that can be taken up the house and programmed in comfort, to set its clock, and also set parameters stored in the RTC RAM for opening and closing times.  e.g. Your code could calculate sunrise and sunset times from the RTC calender then apply monthly offsets for open and close times stored in 24 bytes of RTC RAM.

Another option would be a weatherproof exterior button you could press to enable a Bluetooth module for the next five minutes (as leaving it on 24/7 would probably be too power-hungry), then use a custom app on your smartphone to change  the door settings.
Amper:
Mh, the fox stealing a tag is something i havent thought of xD Also yes, it would be difficult to implement. My idea would be to put the reader not on the door but to the ladder were they sleep. The downside obviously is if one decides to sleep somewhere else or sit on the eggs it wouldnt close. Those are the reasons why i decided not even to look at rfid as it would only produce more problems than it solves. 

An app or module would be a little overkill, its not that uncomfortable to stay in that place. I just want to reduce the effort to a minimum. I noticed from movement sensored ligts in and around the house. Some had really horrible settings and turned off after only seconds. Still i would rather be pissed off over several years and wave my arms in the air to get the light to turn on again than to just get a ladder and a screwdriver and adjust the stupid thing. Thats what id expect if setting new times is more work than just opening the lid and turn a knob. Just horrible laziness but thats how people work...

Also i really love machines that work without attending to them. Its absolutely facinating to have built something that does its job without any human interaction for years or even decades at a time. Just really satisfying.
nsrmagazin:
Your option is good, but unnecessarily powerful. If these are pets that you care for, you should know that chickens are not from the smartest animals, they can't get back inside after more than a few meters of distance and when it begins to get dark they just snug somewhere and fall asleep.

You can try these options, i have not tested them so I don't know how well thye work.
https://electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects/hardware-diy/daytime-running-lights-controller

https://www.instructables.com/topics/How-do-I-make-an-automatic-door-openercloser-for-/

A solar cell might be a better option than a sensor, but they produce current, not voltage.
Amper:
Thanks for your concern ^^
The cylinders look huge but the pump behind them is using only 2W of power, no worries of crushing a chick. They have 200x200m of space to run free but so faar they have pretty much always come back, usually even before its dark.
Doctorandus_P:
The predominant mechanisms for chicken scoop doors seems to be 2 cantilevers and a small winch.
The winch rope is connected to the canilevers which get unlocked if the winch starts:



For the timer you have a multitude of options.
There exists a sun up/down algorighm, just plug in where you are on this sphere but it has a bunch of sines and cosines.
Much simpler and good enough would be 2 tables with sun up / down times for the first of each month, with a piecewise lineairly interpolation.
Add a light sensor, with an algorithm that changes the open/close times at most most 10 minutes each day.

For more fancy algorithms you can monitor the actual behaviour of your chickens.
With a sensor like the VL53L0X you can measure if chickens are entering or leaving through the door and you can count them, and only open the door in the morning when the chickens want to get out (or anticipate half an hour earlier).

But that sensor might get dirty, maybe use 2 for redundancy?

You can also use a weight scale and put that near the door opening.
Put something above it, so do don't accidentally step on the scale yourself, which would ruin a 5kg or 10kg kitchen scale.
HX711 is an "arduino"-esque chip. Cheap and easy to interface.

With a search for "chicken scoop door" on youtube you can also find purely mechanical systems.
No electricity.
They work by using the pole the chickens sit on and a lever.
If all the chickens are sitting on their pole it is heavy enough to tip the balance and the door is closed.

With the electronic sensors it is probably a good idea to monitor the behaviour of the chickens for a few days.
If they walk (wobble) in and out of the door during the day, you can use that to auto callibrate your timing intervals.

If you want to go real fancy you should add redundancy. Use 2 uC's which check each other behaviour.
If you use an ESP8266 you can connect to WiFi and send an e-mail if a malfunction is detected.
(You can extend the range of WiFi with a Cantenna, but put it under an angle, so do don't irradiate your neighbours).

ESP8266 is fun to use, cheap also.
The "Wemos D1 Mini" boards are compatible with the arduino environment. I've written a small demo program with them and platformio in half an hour. But you have to be carefull with these. ESP8266 is 3V3 only and is easily damaged by overvoltage.
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