Before I start, here is some background information:
English proficiency: Fluent
Experience with Arduino: None
I am a beekeeper, and one of the things we have to manage is the size of the hive's entrance. Whenever it gets to night time, the entrance needs to be closed, and during the day it needs to be open. I wanted to make something that automatically opened and closed the door based on the amount of light outside.
So I'd assume it involved a light sensor, which controlled a motor, which pushed forward a small block to cover the hive entrance whenever there was no light, and vice versa whenever there was light. It would be similar to this (but without the chickens!)
My question is, where do I start with this? I found this from my research on Arduino and Light Sensors.
Use the light sensor (LDR) to measure the light and a servo to open and close the door. Servos are easily controlled with an Arduino. Use a bit of hysteresis in the open-close function to prevent the door from "chattering".
Internet search the words "arduino chicken coop door" for the how to on controlling a door.
There are 2 types of light sensors modules that are easy to use, photo resistive and photodiode, that I would consider for this project. OK, well their are others but you are new and I want to keep my presentation on the simple.
I would opt for the photodiode modules over the photo resistive. Why? photo resistive has to much hysteresis for day to day mission critical operations; I figure keeping the bees safe is mission critical.
What MCU do you plan to use?
How will you power the project? A very important consideration as all operations revolve around power.
I have a ESP 32 running off a battery that is charged by solar cells. The ESP32 runs 2 servo motors that receive torque info from the ESP32. Attached to the solar cells are photo diodes that produce 4 signals that the ESP32 reads. The ESP32 then determines which photo diode is getting more light then the other and sends
torque values to the servos that keep the solar cells pointed at the sun. The battery, also, supplies a weather station. The ESP32's are wireless and report their status to a central location, my web site, so I can do a thing.
one of the things that always concerns us is the failure mode.
what happens when the power fails ?
I assume that in time before humans, bees did not have doors, so I am guessing that a no-door option is something the bees can live with. I am also guessing that a door closed failure is something the bees cannot live with.
If you google beekeeping arduino
It comes up with some apiarist based projects that have been built, they might give some insight into what you need to consider for your project, and what you can do with Arduino.
A light sensor is good, but they get dirty or worse, covered by wax by the bees. I would use a Real Time Clock module for this. You can find the calculation on-line to figure out sunrise/sunset for your latitude.
Having the door closed when a substantial number of bees are outside sounds very bad particularly if it happens overnight. Why do you need to close it other than for transport?
Before I start, here is some background information:
English proficiency: Fluent
Experience with Arduino: None
I am a beekeeper, and one of the things we have to manage is the size of the hive's entrance. Whenever it gets to night time, the entrance needs to be closed, and during the day it needs to be open. I wanted to make something that automatically opened and closed the door based on the amount of light outside.
So I'd assume it involved a light sensor, which controlled a motor, which pushed forward a small block to cover the hive entrance whenever there was no light, and vice versa whenever there was light. It would be similar to this (but without the chickens!)
My question is, where do I start with this? I found this from my research on Arduino and Light Sensors.
Thank you!
Sounds like an interesting idea, what climate do you live in? do you get extreme well below 0 degrees at night? Typically you should never close a hive entrance unless moving a hive, they use this to regulate temperature, create air flow to help necture turn into honey (reduce moisture level) and a tonne of other reasons.