John,
Very impressive. You put a lot of work into that. I'm interested to learn how you interfaced to the ZigBee HA clusters. Are you willing to share your code so I can learn from it?
This has opened a huge world for me. ZigBee / SmartThings frees me up from the presentation side I can focus most of my time on circuit design and the firmware to drive it.
John,
Oh yes, I wish to study the Prop code. As I learn and develop new Prop applications, I like to study what other have accomplished. If you could archive your project, that would be great.
Thanks
Hah, I tried my hand with several chickens last year.
Ultimately, the smell/poop problem just made it not worthwhile in the CA 'burbs.
But the sheltie sure go a kick out of them.
You've probably already gotten a solution that works, however I was thinking...
1. If you have the door lower slowly, I don't think there is any chance at all of catching a chicken unawares or that it will not get out of the way quickly.
When I was considering doing something like this, I was just going to throw on a cheap piezo speaker to give that Health and Safety backing-up beep while lowering.
2. If there are small chicks that you are concerned about, I still think the above will work. Animals are pretty good about associating sounds, I'm sure you've seen what happens when you shake a cup full of feed at feeding time.
Hah, I tried my hand with several chickens last year.
Ultimately, the smell/poop problem just made it not worthwhile in the CA 'burbs.
But the sheltie sure go a kick out of them.
You've probably already gotten a solution that works, however I was thinking...
1. If you have the door lower slowly, I don't think there is any chance at all of catching a chicken unawares or that it will not get out of the way quickly.
When I was considering doing something like this, I was just going to throw on a cheap piezo speaker to give that Health and Safety backing-up beep while lowering.
2. If there are small chicks that you are concerned about, I still think the above will work. Animals are pretty good about associating sounds, I'm sure you've seen what happens when you shake a cup full of feed at feeding time.
Threads like this are cool.
We have had an automated door on our coop for about 3 years now. That door had to be shut by pushing a button or going to a web site and tapping close. We used a web cam in the coop to check the door before we closed it.
This new solution is fully automatic and closes its self based on sunset. I just couldn't put a solution in place that didn't have some type of object detection. We have found over the years the chickens become very use to the noise the door makes and have seen them wait until the door starts to close before they run up. Its rare but does happen. The most likely thing that will happen is the chickens sometimes fight in the evening on who is going to be next to the rooster on the perch. One will get knocked off the perch and for some reason she runs out of the coop in a fuss and doesn't pay attention to the door closing.
Our old door would not only trap and smash the chicken but hold her there until the next morning's open. There is no way I would put my wife through that I would be living in the coop and her chickens would move into the house.
Comments
Very impressive. You put a lot of work into that. I'm interested to learn how you interfaced to the ZigBee HA clusters. Are you willing to share your code so I can learn from it?
Here is a post back from September of last year where I lay out the hardware requirements, Spin code, and a sample SmartThings custom device type.
http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/157233/propeller-to-smartthings-communicating-with-the-zigbee-ha-public-profile/p1
Since then I have created several devices and expanded the SPIN library for several clusters. I will be happy to share everything; code, circuits, how too as long as there is a propeller in the mix somewhere.
This has opened a huge world for me. ZigBee / SmartThings frees me up from the presentation side I can focus most of my time on circuit design and the firmware to drive it.
Oh yes, I wish to study the Prop code. As I learn and develop new Prop applications, I like to study what other have accomplished. If you could archive your project, that would be great.
Thanks
Ultimately, the smell/poop problem just made it not worthwhile in the CA 'burbs.
But the sheltie sure go a kick out of them.
You've probably already gotten a solution that works, however I was thinking...
1. If you have the door lower slowly, I don't think there is any chance at all of catching a chicken unawares or that it will not get out of the way quickly.
When I was considering doing something like this, I was just going to throw on a cheap piezo speaker to give that Health and Safety backing-up beep while lowering.
2. If there are small chicks that you are concerned about, I still think the above will work. Animals are pretty good about associating sounds, I'm sure you've seen what happens when you shake a cup full of feed at feeding time.
Threads like this are cool.
Ultimately, the smell/poop problem just made it not worthwhile in the CA 'burbs.
But the sheltie sure go a kick out of them.
You've probably already gotten a solution that works, however I was thinking...
1. If you have the door lower slowly, I don't think there is any chance at all of catching a chicken unawares or that it will not get out of the way quickly.
When I was considering doing something like this, I was just going to throw on a cheap piezo speaker to give that Health and Safety backing-up beep while lowering.
2. If there are small chicks that you are concerned about, I still think the above will work. Animals are pretty good about associating sounds, I'm sure you've seen what happens when you shake a cup full of feed at feeding time.
Threads like this are cool.
We have had an automated door on our coop for about 3 years now. That door had to be shut by pushing a button or going to a web site and tapping close. We used a web cam in the coop to check the door before we closed it.
This new solution is fully automatic and closes its self based on sunset. I just couldn't put a solution in place that didn't have some type of object detection. We have found over the years the chickens become very use to the noise the door makes and have seen them wait until the door starts to close before they run up. Its rare but does happen. The most likely thing that will happen is the chickens sometimes fight in the evening on who is going to be next to the rooster on the perch. One will get knocked off the perch and for some reason she runs out of the coop in a fuss and doesn't pay attention to the door closing.
Our old door would not only trap and smash the chicken but hold her there until the next morning's open. There is no way I would put my wife through that I would be living in the coop and her chickens would move into the house.