ChickenDoor

This is a chicken door automation designed for our two Eglu Cube and one Eglu Go chicken houses. Operated by an ESP8266 microprocessor featuring a RESTless API, it can be easily integrated into a home automation system.

Features

• can be added (almost) without modifying the chicken house
• controls a motor to open / close the door
• controls a light to attract chickens to move in
• supports several commands using a RESTfull API:
• door status
• open door
• close door
• light status
• turn light on
• turn light off
• button to open and close the door manually
• displays door status using two LEDs

Other Sources

Besides this repository, the 3D printable parts are provided on Harry's Prusa Prints.

Electronics

The plan is provided in plan.svg. It combines an ESP8266 with a stepper motor driver, two LEDs for status display and a button allowing manual operation. In addition, a 12V LED can be added.

Software Installation

Start with setting up your Arduino environment. When using the electronic parts I have used, here are the basic steps to follow:

• install support for your ESP8266 board
• install RemoteDebug library required for our own libraries

chickendoor is based on the Bolbro library my projects are based on. It comes with a number of convenience functions including WiFi, preference, time, web server, and log handling.

• copy library/Bolbro to your Arduino library directory; on macOS, this is ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries
• restart Arduino IDE afterwards

Now, you are ready to compile and flash the sketch. chickendoor requires a customization to work:

• rename chickendoor.ino.customize to chickendoor.ino
• edit the call to Bolbro.addWiFi() to add the local WiFi to connect to
• search for other entries marked with "customize" and change as required

By adding a WiFi made up from an SSID and a password, it will be considered as a connection point of your local network. In case you have more than one, call addWiFi() multiple times. The best one will be choosen.

Finally, the sketch:

• compile and flash chickendoor

See the 3D Model description for instructions how to operate the system.