Published July 30, 2021 © MIT

Bird Feeder using IoT alert

Be it Bird or your pet, automate their meal time according to proper routine. And receive an alert whenever you need to refill the meal.

BeginnerFull instructions provided8 hours1,979

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Digilent IR Proximity Sensor

SG90 Micro-servo motor

Bolt IoT Boltduino

Bolt IoT Bolt WiFi Module

Android device

Arduino UNO

Software apps and online services

Linux Termux

Story

I live in an Apartment and as a result, the birds that are around me chirp and are always in search for food. Whenever I get a chance, I give them some bird seeds which they live to have.

It's necessary to reach out to these species who might run out of existence if we don't provide them with some food that they deserve. After all, humans have taken most of the land right?

Pre pandemic, there was a gradual decrease in the sparrows around us, I used to watch them every summer, but slowly there was a point, where I didn't see any around me. The depleting population of sparrows is also attributed to the increased use of packaged food. Unlike the earlier days, when women used to clean grain outside their houses and sparrows would have plenty of food from there, the bird is either starved or forced to eat leftovers from the packaged foods. Extensive use of pesticides and insecticides in farms and gardens is also killing the bird’s primary food source: insects.

Thanks to the curfew that acted as an agent to bring them back to the cities and live easy. I see them again chirping and hoping to find some food. And since I cannot really wait for them to come over or waste the already put food in the deck, I made a device to automate the whole process. And with IoT, I'll get a notification (SMS), in case the food has finished and needs to be refilled.

STEPS TO BUILD

STEP - 1 (Food Container)

I have used a plastic bottle as a container, which definitely is reusable and I recommend it to whoever reading this. Its saves the time and effort to find and make a container by yourself.

STEP - 2

We will make another box out of cardboard or sun board sheets which will work as a shelter or a protective layer for the sensor, modules, and safeguarding the food in case of any heavy rain or storm.

STEP - 3 (Fitting the device and sensor)

If you scroll below for the circuit diagram, you'll notice 1 IR sensor, connected to a digital pin to sense the presence of a bird nearby. There is also an actuator, i.e. servo motor that works as a valve for the flow of food, which is triggered when it senses any bird nearby.

THE ALGORITHM

1. The valve has a delay of 5 mins, which means, once it has opened to flow the food, and then closed, it will NOT open again for the next 5 mins. Even if you trigger the IR sensor, it will not open the valve for the next 5 mins. This is to prevent overflow of food in case there are multiple birds present.

2. Once the limit (15 for half, 30 for full) of openings of the valve is reached, it will NOT open the valve. By it reaches that point, there is no food left in the container. The whole code will be sent to an infinite loop, after sending a notification alert through the Bolt Wifi to the user's phone. This is to prevent further usage or loop through the code and overuse of the servo at times of an accident.

CheckOut the Video Below and see how it works!!

Let me know if you attempt to build this!!

Code

#include <Servo.h>

Servo servo;
int pos = 30;
int door, food;
int open = 0;
int val;

void setup() {
  pinMode(13, INPUT);
  
  servo.attach(9);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void exit(){
  int ret = 1;
  while (ret >=1){
    ret++;
  }
}

void loop() {
  door = digitalRead(13);
 
  servo.write(30);
 // Serial.println(door); 
    
  if (door == HIGH){
    for (pos = 30; pos >= 0; pos -= 2) 
    { 
      servo.write(pos); 
     // Serial.println(pos);               
      delay(15);                       
    }
    open++; 
    
    Serial.println(open);
    
    delay(500);
    for (pos = 0; pos <= 30; pos += 2) 
    { 
      servo.write(pos);  
     // Serial.println(pos);            
      delay(15);                       
    }
   // Serial.println(food);
    delay(5000);
  }
  
  
  if (open >= 15){
    exit();
    //Serial.println("detected");
    if (Serial.available()){
      Serial.println(open);
      //Serial.println("RF");
      exit();
    }
  }
}

import sms_conf, bolt_conf
from boltiot import Sms, Bolt
import json, time, requests

mybolt = Bolt(bolt_conf.API_KEY, bolt_conf.DEVICE_ID)
sms = Sms(sms_conf.SID, sms_conf.AUTH_TOKEN, sms_conf.TO_NUMBER, sms_conf.FROM_NUMBER)

limit = 15

print ("...............")

print ("Bird-Feeder On")

print ("...............")
print(".")
print(".")
print("The door will open " +str(limit) + " times before sending Refill Alert")

responseA = mybolt.serialBegin('9600')

while True: 
    
    
    responseB = mybolt.serialRead('10') 
    dataB = json.loads(responseB) 

 #   print("Sensor value is: " + str(data['value']))
    try: 
        error = str(dataB['value'])
        

        if error != 'Command timed out' and len(error) != 0:
            door = int(dataB['value'])
            
            print(door)
            print(".")
            print(".")

            if door >= limit:
                    
                print("Time to Refill the Food")
                print(".")
                print(".")
                print("Total no. of openings = " + str(door))

                response_sms = sms.send_sms("Refill Bird Feeder Box !!  Total times opened - " + str(door))
                print("Response received from Twilio is: " + str(response_sms))
                print("Status of SMS at Twilio is :" + str(response_sms.status))

    except Exception as e: 
        print ("Error occured: Below are the details")
        print (e)        
    time.sleep(5)

Credits

Akshayan Sinha

28 projects • 26 followers

Robotics Software Engineer with a makermind.

Bird Feeder using IoT alert

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

STEPS TO BUILD

STEP - 1 (Food Container)

STEP - 2

STEP - 3 (Fitting the device and sensor)

THE ALGORITHM

Schematics

Circuit Diagram

Code

BirdFeeder

Python Code for Wifi

Credits

Akshayan Sinha

Comments

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Bird Feeder using IoT alert

Bird Feeder using IoT alert

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

STEPS TO BUILD

STEP - 1 (Food Container)

STEP - 2

STEP - 3 (Fitting the device and sensor)

THE ALGORITHM

Schematics

Circuit Diagram

Code

BirdFeeder

Python Code for Wifi

Credits

Akshayan Sinha

Comments

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