Chicken Egg Tracking - Coding help

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1

I would like to use Arduino to track my chickens and when they lay eggs. I thought his would be easier, but I have found that I know a lot more about chickens than I do programming. I got the idea from the RFID Cat Door. http://www.instructables.com/id/RFID-cat-door/

I want to track the chicken when she walks through the ring to a nesting box and then when she walks away. The time she spends in the nesting box should give me a good idea as to whether or not she has laid an egg. I want to record when my hens walk through a door and when they walk back out.

The parts I think I need are:

  1. Seeeduino Stalker - http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-stalker-v2-p-727.html
  2. RFID reader - http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/125khz-rfid-module-uart-p-171.html?cPath=144_153 or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/electronic-brick-125khz-rfid-card-reader-p-702.html?cPath=144_153

Anyway, I hope that is clear as that is all I have been able to understand. I realize that I know more about chickens than programming. I would rather spend my time with them than on the computer so I am willing to pay for help.

If you are willing to help then please send me a message.

Thank you,

Stephen

2

I realize that I know more about chickens than programming.

Do you know how to make the chickens scan their RFID tags? RFID readers have very limited read ranges - typically 1 cm or less. Are your chickens smart enough to get there RFID tags held up to the reader to be read?

3

My chickens are very smart! They understand my need to use RFID instead of trap nesting. They have agreed to leg bands.

I know they use a similar type of tracking system for pigeon racing...but it doesn't fit my need.

4

But don't you first have to solve for:

Note, not tested:

if(cameFirst)
   {
    chicken = FALSE;
    egg = TRUE;
   }
 else
   {
    chicken = TRUE;
    egg = FALSE;
   }

Lefty

5

Is there one door that multiple chickens walk through, or is it one door per chicken? Personally, I would put a sonar sensor over ONE chicken nest. If the distance is large, there's no chicken sitting there. If the distance is small, there IS a chicken sitting there. I'm fairly new to Arduino and I've never used RFID, so that's how I would handle it using what I know. It seems like if there's only one door, you would need an RFID solution that worked 100% of the time or else your Arduino might think that a chicken is inside the coup when it really isn't, causing you to reboot the program or go in and fix it.

6

If you wind the RFID coil round the door so the chicken walks through the door you will pick it up. However direction detection is going to be tricky.

7

Two RFID antennas for "poulet quadrature"...

-br

8

Yeah, the two RFID sensors makes sense. The chicken will have to travel through both, then you'll definitely know if it's inside or outside of the coupe.