Smart Chicken Feeder

What? Why?

I keep chickens since about 2 years and really love just spending a few minutes with them after I get home from work. Just to relax. I call it “chicken meditation”. I recently started live streaming my chicken camera on Twitch and to drive user engagement, I want to be able to allow the viewers to activate the chicken feeder from the stream.

But the feeder can be adapted to allow nearly any kind of integration, for example integration with Home Assistant to start the feeding as soon as the coop door is opened in the morning (door sensor) or integration with IFTTT to trigger feeding via E-Mail.

Please note: The integration to twitch is not done yet, I still need to get familiar with the twitch API but it is in the works and I will update the documentation later.

Currently it is just a simple remote control using Arduino Cloud

Hardware

The feeder uses a rotating disc (shown in blue above) underneath a funnel, driven by a 12V geared motor, to dispense the feed. So it only has 1 moving part which makes it easy to build and maintain.

The device consists of the following parts, all held together by 4pcs M8 threaded rod:

Parts and Materials

Bought Parts

You'll need the following parts aside from the printed parts:

Note: Of course you can always also source the parts locally, especially if Aliexpress is not a good option in your country because of tariffs etc.

Other materials and tools

Chances are, you have these already at home

• Wire
• Wago-Clamps (optional)
• 2-pole cable, for the 12V feed so you can place the power supply in dry conditions
• USB-C cable to program the Arduino
• Solder iron
• Basic tools
• Insulation Tape
• Threadlocker (e.g. Loctite)(optional but recommended)

Printed parts

Print settings & material

• All parts printed in PETG
• To save on material, you can reduce infill down to 5% in some areas, just keep it at 10% in the corner areas where the pressure from the threaded rod will be. Use modifier-feature in Prusa Slicer.
• Some parts need support (funnel, reservoir-top)

Printed parts list

Hardware Assembly

Assembling the printed parts

Electronics

The electronics are quite simple, the Arduino controls the relay that controls the motor, no buttons etc.

The addition of a WS2812 matrix as a display is planned and this is also the reason the bottom cover houses two cable glands. 

Also in the future a battery pack and solar panels could be added for complete wireless operation.

Assemble the circuit according to the below schematic:

You can also find the schematic here on Cirkit Designer.

Software V1

The software will be updated later and I will then post both variants here.

The current software uses Arduino Cloud as remote control, you can use the Arduino IOT-App on your phone or open the dashboard on your PC Browser.

The software features a adjustable feeding time and an adjustable lockout time to prevent multiple feedings in a short time.

Unfortunately Arduino Cloud does not facilitate the sharing of the complete project, so you have to setup your own dashboard and variables on Arduino cloud.

Dashboard

My Dashboard looks like this, setting up is very simple and intuitive.

Behind the feed-duration selection, each Button has its equivalent in ms assigned. The Lockout time is transferred as-is to the Arduino and then multiplied by 1000 in the code.

Sketch

You will find the complete sketch in the files section. Most of it is auto-generated by the cloud. Only a few things need to be made custom by yourself. For example the “feed”-function and “onTriggerChange”-Function:

void feed()
{
  lockout_active= true;

  digitalWrite(motor, LOW);
  delay(feed_duration);
  digitalWrite(motor, HIGH);
  trigger_set= false;
  
  ArduinoCloud.update();

  delay(lockout_time*1000);
  lockout_active= false;
}

void loop() {
  ArduinoCloud.update();
  // Your code here 
  if (trigger_set== true)
  {
    feed();
  }
  else{}
  
}

void onTriggerChange()  {
  // Add your code here to act upon Trigger change
  if (trigger==true && lockout_active==false)
  {
    trigger_set= true;
  }
  else
  {
    trigger_set= false;
  }
}

I know that the use of “delay” is not very elegant and frowned upon but for my V1 of the software and with the deadline for the contest approaching, I opted for this quick solution and currently it does the job.

Changelog

Misc

Picture copyright:

All pictures: © smallthings

*Product Links

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Support

If you like this printable and want to support future projects, you can contribute to my next roll of filament on Ko-Fi. https://ko-fi.com/smallthings_ch