Automated Chicken Feeder

construction and installation

A sunny sunday is all it takes to go shop for the needed tools and install the system.

Just before installation I have decided to change the transport system to version V1.0. It no longer uses the drill as the actual worm. The whole thing worked fine until a piece of stone (chickens eat that to grind the food in their stomach) got cought between the drill and the wooden block. Since stone, steel and hardwood all are pretty tough, it was the motor who had to make the sacrifice. Result, the system jammed and I had to turn it backwards to remove the stone. In real life this would mean that my chickens would starve.
The solution to this was a simple spiral turning freely in the much bigger pipe. The spiral has a diameter of 10mm the pipe is 22mm. If I knew this before the start of the project it would have saved me an expensive drill, but hey, that's always nice to have.

• Drill a hole of the same size in the sidewall of the house exactly where the transport tunnel will come
  
• The transport block is installed in the corner of the house using L-shaped mounting plates. It is needed to drill a hole in the hardwood first where the screws will come because getting a standard screw in is impossible.
• The motor will be mounted against a large L-shape mounting plate that already had a slot of 10mm width where the shaft fits in. I had to add a small piece of wood because the part where the shaft came out was slight bigger then 10mm.
• A small piece of tube and two clamps will firmly connect the spiral to the shaft of the motor.
• The spiral is passed throught the tunnel and the motor is mounted so there is enough space to let the clamps turn freely. Because we used platic tube to connect them, it can buffer any variations in the movement.
• At the sides of the transport block there is are two L-shaped mounting plates that were bend to a much bigger angle of about 165°. These will hold the sideplate to create the food silo.
• Inside the silo a triangle is installed to bring all the food to the transporter (my photo's will explain that much better)

That's about all what is done now. So the harware contruction is completed, tested and working fine. Next step is the controller that will turn the system on in the morning to provide the food. The design of that is only in the first stage but you will find more progress here soon

posted by Miyagi @ 8:13 p.m.