12-16-14, 09:34 PM | #1 |
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Keeping Poultry safe from foxes
Here in Australia we have a problem with foxes which were introduced in the first half of the 19th century for sport.
I keep poultry and have adapted a spare MTM Scientific Picaxe solar tracker board to raise and lower a door in my poultry house to keep foxes out at night. The system only uses one sensor (west) as I removed the biasing resistor to the east sensor and replaced the sensor with a 330 ohm resistor in series with a 5 volt LED to indicate when the door is open. (If the door fails to close I can see the glow of the LED from my house after dark.) I have bridged the east and west limit switch terminals and rely on timing to raise and lower the door. It took a few days to match the 'raise' and 'lower' timings to ensure the door returned to the exact same place. The circuit drives a 12 volt car windscreen wiper motor with a roller on it and a steel cable over a pulley to raise the door. Here are a couple of photos. and here is the software: 'This program controls a solar tracker relay H-Bridge using a Picaxe-08M, used in this case to open and close a poultry house door 'Output 0 and Output 1 are used to control the relays 'Input 4 (West) monitors the photocell symbol west = w1 'west is a 10 bit ADC number reading symbol sun = w3 'threshold for sun detect (Usually 93) symbol dark = w4 'threshold for dark detect (Usually 1000) symbol u = w2 'indicator of door up (1) or down (0) 'Initialize all the pins for their respective functions output C.0 'used for relay control low 0 'initialize low output C.1 'used for relay control low 1 'initialize low output C.2 'LED control low 2 input C.3 'slow/normal switch input C.4 'west photocell sun = 300 'threshold adc reading for sunlight dark = 1000 'threshold adc reading for darkness pause 1000 'pause for 1 second to stabilize power supply, etc. u = 0 'set door as down main: read b0,u 'check position of door if u = 1 then night 'if door up wait for darkness readadc10 C.4,west '10 bit adc read west photocell if west > dark then close if west < sun then open goto main open: 'Routine for raising door low 0 'strictly a blow-through preventing command high 1 'energize relay pause 9000 ‘ON time is 9 seconds to raise door low 1 'stop energizing relay u = 1 'set door indicator to up write b0,u 'and store it high 2 'turn LED on night:readadc10 C.4,west '10 bit adc read west photocell if west > dark then close pause 1000 'pause for 1 second goto night 'repeat the sensor scan close: 'Routine for lowering the door, double check signals first pause 100 'slight delay and then double-check darkness readadc10 C.4,west '10 bit adc read west photocell if west < dark then night 'Double-checking completed, proceed with the parking mode low 1 'strictly a blow-through preventing command high 0 'energize relay to lower door pause 7300 ‘7.3 seconds to lower door low 0 'stop the parking action and wait for dawn u = 0 'set door indicator to down write b0,u 'and store it low 2 'turn LED off dawn: 'Start the wait for first light to start tracking again readadc10 C.4,west '10 bit adc read west photocell if west < sun then main goto dawn 'continue looping while waiting for dawn Last edited by Bosco; 12-16-14 at 09:51 PM.. |
12-17-14, 01:42 AM | #2 |
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I like your automatic Poultry door , great idea using a old windshield wiper motor and very enginous using the solar tracker. Making it work with what you have on hand is always a task , good job !
I have been hashing over the idea of adding power to my driveway gate I also thought a cable system would work for me , using a double sided pulley to operate both gates at once with a speed controller switch. Last edited by ecomodded; 12-17-14 at 01:45 AM.. |
12-17-14, 04:04 AM | #3 |
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Hi Ecomodded
Thanks for your post. Windscreen wiper motors are ideal for lots of jobs. I use them to drive the units of my 5Kw solar tracker. (http://ecorenovator.org/forum/solar-...r-tracker.html) They are plentiful and usually quite easy to mount. |
12-17-14, 08:13 AM | #4 |
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Very cool project. I agree with ecomodded, good reuse of materials.
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12-18-14, 12:42 AM | #5 |
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Another readily available source of 12 volt motive power is cordless drills. These days it is almost impossible to buy new batteries for same and probably cheaper to buy a new drill. Hence I have seven dead drills but each could be adapted to a project that required 12 volt motive power, a car battery being a suitable source of power. An added advantage is that the chuck can be used to attach to a shaft. As for mounting, I used two exhaust clamps:
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12-18-14, 05:38 AM | #6 |
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nice , add a remote switch for on off and its speed control and its ready for action.
You could remove the trigger , extend the wires and use remotely , somewhat. |
12-18-14, 09:54 AM | #7 |
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Great project I love the repurposed materials.
Rebuild those drill battery packs. http://youtu.be/PtOS5evrqrQ |
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