Fantastic job with all of it… much better job of documenting the build than I did.

Kudos, Mate!

Thank you again, Herbert, for sending me the updated Fritzing diagram and sketch. I’m looking very forward to seeing your pictures of the coop.

Cheers!

constructing your chicken coop door and controller I’m still waitung for some parts…

So, having a little time, I tried to make a fritzing from the complete controller, including sensors, LCD and Relais.
The ‘Huehnerino.fzz’ I would like to send you by Email, if there are not perfect things in it, its great if you can change it.
Pictures from door and coop I send further…
Thank you for this great project!

Herbert (Southern Germany, near Lake Constance)

I have code I have written using an Ethernet shied and it works. It you would like a copy I will supply. I have a webpage written that supplies all the variables I used in the code to run the functions that control the coop. I quit trying to do this as it is very easy to cause a lag on pass times. The lags in past times cause great problems to the stability of the door function. The article that Dave refers to is good in that it defers the hosting of a page to a bigger separate system. I think this is very good advise. Experience talking here. I would use TCP for communications to a larger server and send just the data you want in the host server webpage

Mark

Hi Pol… yes, absolutely do-able. I’m planning on the same thing. I found this article in which to help me: https://alexdglover.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/arduino-project-5-internet-control-without-ethernet-shield/ Maybe it can help you as well.

Cheers!

Ah ha! (normally open vs. normally closed switches) Excellent question…

10 bucks says that your switches were perhaps different than mine and your code then had to be the reverse of mine. (I went through that experience as well) =)

Here’s a quick vid to explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN_kV2h-a04

As far as not shutting off, the debounce argument is probably not being invoked (light levels) Meaning, you should make sure your light levels are actually hitting the on/off levels (truly dark or truly light and not anywhere in between) And you have to check to make sure that void openCoopDoorMotorB() and void closeCoopDoorMotorB() are exactly opposite of each other (with the 1 and 0)

//D

// open the coop door (motor dir open = counter-clockwise)
void openCoopDoorMotorB() {
debounceTopReedSwitch();
// digitalWrite(directionCloseCoopDoorMotorB, LOW); // turn off motor close direction
digitalWrite(directionOpenCoopDoorMotorB, HIGH); // turn on motor open direction
analogWrite(enableCoopDoorMotorB, 255); // enable motor, full speed
// *************this had to be 1 not 0
if (topSwitchPinVal == 1) { // if top reed switch circuit is closed
stopCoopDoorMotorB();
}
}

any idea why i had to change it to a 1. I’m new to this and now i’m confused.

thanks

Hi Bo,

Thanks for the comment…

I’m not really familiar with the Pro Trinket but I do see that it’s similar to the Uno.

Few things that first occurred to me to start checking:

– Pin assignments (analog vs. digital / Trinket vs Uno) http://21stdigitalhome.blogspot.com/2014/10/comparing-adafruits-pro-trinket-to.html I have a suspicion that at least part of the problem may be in there.

– What ~exactly~ happens when you tried testing light levels.

– Have you looked at the serial monitor while testing? If so, what exactly did the serial monitor report (I spent a ton of time working out my kinks this way)

Just fyi, as I started building mine out, I did a massive amount of research, and asked tons of very specific questions.

Since you’re using a completely different board, I’d try and track down experts on Pro Trinkets. I’m sure you can find some out on the Arduino Message Boards. https://id.arduino.cc/auth/signup (I’ve spent more than a few hours out there myself) Remember to give as much info as possible in your question (errors, processes followed, etc etc) or your question(s) will most likely be ignored. =)

Hope that helps point you in the right direction.

Cheers,
//D