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mstemmer edited this page Jan 3, 2021 · 34 revisions

Welcome to the hatchling wiki!

Hatchling - brooding chicken eggs the fancy way

This DIY project simply started off with wanting to learn python and basic hardware control with a RaspberryPi and developed into a full blown chicken egg incubator. The idea was to build the controller as much as possible from scratch with cheap, but reliable parts. The python code should move the eggs periodically and control the temperature via a PID controller, report temperature, humidity and current duty cycle. On top, the controller should visually show the correct values via LEDs and warn accoustically, if there are problems arising.

Features:

  • works on any RaspberryPi & possibly other controllers
  • uses cheap off the shelf or recycled parts
  • PID controlled temperature
  • simple status reporting of correct temperature & humidity via LEDs
  • acoustic warning, when values are far off the set points
  • automatic turning of eggs
  • easy to use via CLI
  • flexible incubation programs for other species (e.g.: ducks, quails, ...)
  • runs safely for days without burning down the house...
  • reports current values via plotly dash

Quick start

make sure you run python3 (>=3.7) (see Configuration )

python -m venv hatch_env
source hatch_env/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

run hatchling with:
python hatchling.py

usage: hatchling [-h] [--init] [--species] [--silent]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --init      Start new incubation. Default: resume last incubation program
  --species   Load species specific incubation program: chicken, quail,
              elephant. See inc_program.json
  --silent    Deactivate the alarm buzzer
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