Description

CoopCommand is a project to automate many aspects of owning chickens for egg laying purposes. What originally started out as an Arduino Nano and an L298n driver board has morphed into something far more capable.

Basic Features:
-3 x 120/240V @ 10A relays for high power load control (1 for lighting, 1 for a ventilation fan, 1 for water heat).
-Photoresistor (GL5539 w/10K voltage divider) based sensor for watching day/night light levels.
-DHT22 sensor for monitoring coop interior temperature.
-DS18B20 sensor for monitoring water temperature.
-ATMEGA328P MCU, programmable through Arduino IDE for main board control.
-ESP32-CAM (AI-THINKER BASED), also programmed through Arduino IDE.
-WI-FI connectivity with camera for monitoring inside of coop and controlling/monitoring door status.

Details

GOALS:

-Ease of installation and configuration for non-technical individuals.

-Multiple Power Options (wall wart mains power or 12-36V off-grid solar/wind/battery systems).

-Configuration settings saved in case of power-outage.

-Wi-Fi connectivity for remote monitoring and overriding of coop door.

-Camera for viewing inside of coop.

FEATURES:

COOP COMMAND MAIN BOARD:

-Pluggable Terminal Block connectors for all user-installed inputs/outputs.

-JST XH 5-pin for connection to CoopCam Wi-FI Camera Ad-On.

-DHT22 for interior coop temperature.

-DS18B20 for water temperature.

-GL5539 Photoresistor w/10K resistor voltage divider for daylight sensor.

-MAX3373 level shifting IC for Atmega-ESP32 serial communication.

-7805 "footprint" - Actually uses either one of the drop in footprint compatible buck convertors or my own "MEGA7805" buck converter that can output up to 3A cont.

-TI DRV8871 Motor Driver IC w/3.6A current cabilitity & voltages up to maximimum working voltage of CoopCommand.

-20x4 LCD.

-I2C backpack integrated.

-3 user input buttons.

-EEPROM for saving user settings.

-LayLight Relay for supplementing daylight hours to keep chickens laying even with less than 14 hours of Daylight.

-Ventilation Fan Relay for cooling the coop in the summer.

-Water Heat Relay for heating the water in the winter.

-ATMEGA328P in DIP configuration, easily programmed through Arduino IDE.

ESP32 COOPCAM:

-ESP32-CAM AI-THINKER based.

-Custom PCB for ESP-32-CAM to socket into, breaks out remaining GPIO's, breaks out serial header for programming and boot button as well as on-board bulk capacity (200UF).

-JST XH 5-pin Connector, identical pinout to mainboard side to allow cable to be plugged in either way.

-Wi-Fi connection through Blynk.

-Serial connection to main board.

BLYNK:

-Override door open or closed.

-Take a picture with the CoopCam and email it.

-Monitor door status (Open, Closed, Opening/Closing).

Files

MCU.png

Schematic for mainboard, page 1

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 103.15 kB - 04/20/2021 at 15:28

Preview

SensorsAndOutputs.png

Schematic, page 2, for the main-board.

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 63.89 kB - 04/20/2021 at 15:28

Preview

Gerber_PCB_CoopCommandHVTacoIntegragtedLCDRev1.zip

Gerbers for mainboard.

x-zip-compressed - 310.01 kB - 04/20/2021 at 15:28

Download

PickAndPlace_PCB_CoopCommandHVTacoIntegragtedLCDRev1_2021-04-19.csv

Pick and Place file for Main Board assembly.

ms-excel - 18.42 kB - 04/20/2021 at 15:28

Download

BOM_CoopCommandHVTacoIntegragtedLCDRev1_2021-04-19.csv

BOM for main board.

ms-excel - 5.25 kB - 04/20/2021 at 15:28

Download

Project Logs

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Installation

hms-11 • 05/10/2021 at 13:12 • 0 comments

Hey Everyone! Thought I would post up some pictures of CoopCommand installed in my coop.

I use a Dodge Caravan power seat motor with the gearbox re-tapped to threaded rod for the door motor. It is nice and robust, but also so slow it makes it impossible for a chicken to get caught by the door and squished. Opening/Closing of the door takes over a minute.

The main CoopCommand is installed in an metal enclosure for weather protection directly above the coop door. CoopCam is mounted in the coop itself for imaging the roosts. As you can see, read switches are used for reliability and weather resistance for the door sensors.

First Git Release!

hms-11 • 04/20/2021 at 12:35 • 0 comments

LOG 01:

First release on Github!

The first release is ready for someone other than me to test and use it. I think I've attached all details needed to build but feel free to let me know what I've missed.

https://github.com/hms-11/CoopCommand/releases/tag/v0.9.0

Discussions

Per Jensen wrote 10/24/2021 at 09:44

Hi. I was thinking about giving your project a go. I guess just go for the newest main PCB that has the I2C expander built in? For some reason i found your other repository for the coop(dash)command and had the PCB's made and then found out that there was no documentation and code avaiable. Ooops. The naming of the files are a bit confusing - what does "HVTaco" mean? Also there is a typo in "Integrated" - I also don't see on the boards where a 7805 (or switching variant) will go - this changed to an onboard switching regulator i guess? Please update the instructions. Regarding the case, the STL doesn't seem to match the PCB. The PCB has two buttons on top and one on the bottom. The case is different ...

Are you sure? yes | no

Steen wrote 05/09/2021 at 13:50

Congrats on a design and implementation of pretty much any relevant feature I can think of! On the door, I see you have a DRV8871 driver, but would you have recommendations on the motor itself? I have seen cable, rod extenders (like car radio antenna's), etc so unclear which would be most appropriate.

Are you sure? yes | no

hms-11 wrote 05/09/2021 at 17:58

Hi, thanks for the comment!

I'll upload a video and pictures of it in action but I essentially built a linear actuator out of a dodge caravan seat motor and a length of threaded rod.

Are you sure? yes | no

hms-11 wrote 05/10/2021 at 13:13

Hello! Just wanted to let you know there is now a project log with video and pictures of the coop in operation.

Are you sure? yes | no

Dan Maloney wrote 04/20/2021 at 16:25

Impressively complete! Best not show this to my chickens -- they make do with no automation and they might get jealous ;-)

Are you sure? yes | no

hms-11 wrote 04/20/2021 at 16:31

Thanks! I'm gonna be honest, figuring out how Git works has been one of the more challenging aspects of this project for me hahaha but I wanted to document it as well as possible. For someone with no formal education in any of these fields, the nomenclature has been very confusing!

Are you sure? yes | no

CoopCommand

Description

Details

GOALS:

FEATURES:

COOP COMMAND MAIN BOARD:

ESP32 COOPCAM:

BLYNK: