Alright, let’s talk about this little project I called the “Rooster King”. It wasn’t anything super fancy, just something I cooked up out of necessity, really.
Figuring Out the Problem
See, I’ve got a few chickens out back. Great for fresh eggs, but man, they need feeding. Every single morning, sometimes pretty early. And if I wanted to go away for a weekend? Forget about it, or you gotta hassle a neighbor. I got tired of that routine. I thought, there has to be a way to automate this, right? Make a machine do the work. That’s how the idea for the Rooster King automatic feeder started buzzing in my head.
Gathering the Bits and Pieces
So, first things first, I needed parts. Didn’t want to spend a fortune, so I started digging through my junk bins. Found an old plastic container, perfect for holding the feed. Then I thought about how to get the feed out. Decided a simple motor turning something would work. I ended up ordering a cheap little geared motor online and one of those screw things, like an auger bit almost. And for the brains? I grabbed a basic Arduino board I had lying around – simple enough for this job. Oh, and a real-time clock module, so it knows what time it is. Didn’t need much else, really, just some wires and a power supply.
Here’s roughly what I rounded up:
- Big plastic tub
- Small geared DC motor
- An auger bit (food grade plastic one)
- Arduino Uno board
- Real-Time Clock (RTC) module
- A relay module to switch the motor
- Some jumper wires
- A 12V power adapter
Putting It Together
Next step was the messy part: building the thing. I cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic tub. Had to be careful to get the size right for the auger thing to fit through. Then I rigged up a little mount for the motor, right underneath, so it could turn the auger. This took some fiddling, believe me. Had to make sure the auger didn’t bind up and that the motor was secure. Used some scrap wood and screws for the motor mount. Getting the alignment right was key, otherwise, the feed wouldn’t come out smoothly.
Then came the wiring. Connected the motor to the relay module. The relay acts like an electric switch that the Arduino can control because the motor needs more power than the Arduino can provide directly. Hooked up the relay input to one of the Arduino pins. Wired up the RTC module to the Arduino too – that needs a few connections for power and data. Finally, plugged the Arduino into the power supply. It looked like a bit of a rat’s nest at first, not gonna lie.
Making It Smart (Sort Of)
With the hardware kinda slapped together, it was time for the code. Fired up the Arduino software. I needed it to do basically two things: check the time using the RTC module, and if it was feeding time (say, 7 AM and 5 PM), turn the motor on for a few seconds to dispense the feed. I found some example code online for reading the RTC and controlling a pin. Stitched them together. Set the times I wanted. The trickiest part was figuring out how long to run the motor. Too short, not enough food. Too long, they get fat and waste feed. I started with maybe 5 seconds.
Testing, Testing, and More Testing
Loaded the code onto the Arduino. Put some feed in the container. Turned it on. Waited for the time I set. And… the motor whirred! Feed came out! Success! Well, kind of. The first test dumped way too much food. Okay, back to the code. Changed the motor run time to 3 seconds. Tested again. Better, but maybe still a bit much. Tinkered with that duration a few more times until I got an amount that looked about right. Had to let it run for a full day cycle to make sure both feeding times worked and the clock was keeping time properly. Lots of little adjustments.
The Reign of the Rooster King
Finally got it dialed in. Mounted the whole contraption securely in the coop. Filled it up with feed. And you know what? It just worked. Every morning, every evening, right on schedule, the motor hums for a few seconds, drops the food. The chickens figured it out real quick. They hear that motor and come running. I call it the “Rooster King” because it kind of rules the roost now, dictating meal times. It’s been running for months now, pretty reliably. Saved me a lot of early mornings and hassle. Pretty satisfying build, even if it looks a bit homemade. It does the job, and that’s what counts.