The Inspiration
The Chickens
The Solution
The Firmware
Sign-up for Pushbullet
Webhooks
Photon code
Video (proof
Conclusion
The chickens jumping (for extra credit

Team Me, Myself, and I:

Published November 28, 2016 © GPL3+

Eggscellent Water Level Notification System

Alerts a farmer when water has been depleted for livestock. Cheap, simple, and can be used for any container.

BeginnerFull instructions provided3 hours1,553

Eggscellent Water Level Notification System

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

Jumper wires (generic)

OpenBuilds Self-Tapping Screw

Heck anything galvanized will work for the electrodes; large screws worked the best.

Breadboard (generic)

Software apps and online services

Pushbullet

Hand tools and fabrication machines

screwdriver

Plastic Poultry Waterer

Story

The Inspiration

Honestly, I would have never imagined working on a family farm for rent my junior year of college. Among many other things, I figured I could create something to make my job easier - a water detection system aimed at sending notifications when water has been depleted. Pure water does not conduct electricity; however, the well water here has impurities and ions that do make the water conductive. Therefore, this project has been very straight forward and easy due to the incorporation of water into my electrical circuit. For the code, I just reversed what a water leak detector would do (detect water); I made it so a notification would be sent when no water was detected. As I am a noob with coding, I used Gustavo Gonnet's water detection system to reverse engineer my prototype. I only had to change a couple of code lines, so the alarm would trigger when no water was detected. His project can be found here.

The eight acre farm

The Chickens

Out of all the animals on the farm, I would say the chickens are the most labor intensive. They are loud, poop all the time, and have the tendency to hurt themselves. They also drink all their water in spurts, meaning they will not touch water until it is absolutely necessary. This leads to "KFC or bust" chickens during the heat of the summer (means they will die).

There's a reason why chickens cross the road

The Solution

I needed a system to alert me when the waterer container was empty. Using electrodes, 1 plastic poultry waterer, and a photon particle board, I can send notifications to my phone when the water level drops below a certain amount. Please note for this to work, Wi-Fi must be present on the farm (satellite tends to do the trick).

The first step was to modify the container. I used two wood screws as my electrodes and drilled them into the container. One should be located at the bottom of the container and the other where the water level is nearly depleted. You can order actual zinc electrodes for about $15 a piece off amazon as metal screws will corrode over time. Attach two wires to the electrodes (the bottom one GND) and the container is ready to go.

Simple modification to the waterer

The Firmware

For this part, I will assume you are a code noob like me. The Firmware is the coding part of the project. It involves signing up for a website, downloading a program, uploading code, and flashing your photon. So I guess I'm going to take my time on this.

The first step is to sign-up for pushbullet. Pushbullet is responsible for sending the notification to your mobile device. Sign in with a gmail account, allow access, and click sign-up your phone. Install the Pushbullet app on your mobile device from the app store. To your left click settings, scroll down till you see create access token key. Once the key is created, paste it into the code below where you see QWERTY (copy this to webhooks file). Protect this code as it is unique to you.

Yeah this is what you click; copy the code

Webhooks

So, If all of that went as expected, you have your API token access key. The file below titled "copy this to webhooks" needs to be downloaded to your computer. Head here to access the particle console and click the integration console (looks like small spheres connected to a large sphere). Click new integration, webhook, and then custom JSON file. Copy and paste the information from the JSON file into the custom editor. Make sure your API token access key is pasted in the place of QWERTY. Click the save button to successfully upload the information to webhooks. Click test to receive a message on your phone through the pushbullet app.

Webhooks allow you to send data from your connected device anywhere on the Internet

Photon code

Almost done! Now, if everything is entered in as above, the next step should be simple. Head to the build.particle.io site to enter the photon code. Make sure your photon is synced with build.particle.io. Name your project "chickenwater" and paste the code from "Particle Firmware" into the editor. It should look something like the picture below:

code should be pasted just like this

Next, click the libraries button. In the communities, library search elapsedMillis; click it and click include in app. After this you should be ready to go! Click code then select your project to head back. Hit verify to make sure the code is working properly and flash it to your device. It will flash magenta, blink blue for some time and then stay a solid blue. Wire the device in the schematic shown. When the container is empty, you should receive a message on your phone! You can change this message by editing lines 110 and 113 within the parentheses of "Chickens need water!" You will receive the message in increments of time until the waterer is filled. These notifications can be disabled via pushbullet or editing the code. The phone will alert you every 4 hours at maximum.

simple

Video (proof)

Here is a video proving I completed this project:

Proof I completed the project. Basic video

Conclusion

Overall I enjoyed this project. At first I had planned on creating a complex project, but I actually created something that improved my overall quality of life (and the chicken's lives) . I am finding that as I continue with my degree it is easier to keep things simple rather than complicate things. Plus adapting farm technology is what we really need, not a glowy toilet robot.

The chickens jumping (for extra credit)

who knew?

Code

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include "elapsedMillis/elapsedMillis.h"

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include "elapsedMillis/elapsedMillis.h"

String _version = "0.04";

//this reads the flood sensor every 2 seconds
#define FLOOD_READ_INTERVAL 2000

//this defines the frequency of the notifications sent to the user
#define FLOOD_FIRST_ALARM 10000 //10 seconds
#define FLOOD_SECOND_ALARM 60000 //1 minute
#define FLOOD_THIRD_ALARM 300000 //5 minutes
#define FLOOD_FOURTH_ALARM 900000 //15 minutes
#define FLOOD_FIFTH_ALARM 3600000 //1 hour
#define FLOOD_SIXTH_ALARM 14400000 //4 hours - and every 4 hours ever after, until the situation is rectified (ie no more water is detected)

#define FLOOD_NOTIF "FLOOD"

elapsedMillis flood_timer;
elapsedMillis flood_alarm_timer;

int flood_alarms_array[6]={FLOOD_FIRST_ALARM, FLOOD_SECOND_ALARM, FLOOD_THIRD_ALARM, FLOOD_FOURTH_ALARM, FLOOD_FIFTH_ALARM, FLOOD_SIXTH_ALARM};
int flood_alarm_index = 0;
bool flood_detected = false;
unsigned long flood_next_alarm = 0;

int FLOOD_SENSOR = D0;
int LED = D7;

void setup() {
 pinMode(FLOOD_SENSOR, INPUT_PULLUP);
 pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
 Spark.publish("device starting", "Firmware version: " + _version, 60, PRIVATE);
}

void loop() {

    flood_check();
    
    if ( flood_detected ) {
        flood_notify_user();
    }
}

/*******************************************************************************
 * Function Name  : flood_check
 * Description    : check water leak sensor at FLOOD_READ_INTERVAL, turns on led on D7 and raises alarm if water is detected
 * Return         : 0
 *******************************************************************************/
int flood_check()
{
    if (flood_timer < FLOOD_READ_INTERVAL) {
        return 0;
    }
    
    //time is up, so reset timer
    flood_timer = 0;

    if (digitalRead(FLOOD_SENSOR)) {
        
        //if flood is already detected, no need to do anything, since an alarm will be fired
        if (flood_detected){
            return 0;
        }
        
        flood_detected = true;
    
        //reset alarm timer
        flood_alarm_timer = 0;

        //set next alarm
        flood_alarm_index = 0;
        flood_next_alarm = flood_alarms_array[0];
        
        digitalWrite(LED,HIGH);
    } else {
        
        digitalWrite(LED,LOW);
        flood_detected = false;
    }
    return 0;
}

/*******************************************************************************
 * Function Name  : flood_notify_user
 * Description    : will fire notifications to user at scheduled intervals
 * Return         : 0
 *******************************************************************************/
int flood_notify_user()
{

    if (flood_alarm_timer < flood_next_alarm) {
        return 0;
    }

    
    //time is up, so reset timer
    flood_alarm_timer = 0;
    
    //set next alarm or just keep current one if there are no more alarms to set
    if (flood_alarm_index < arraySize(flood_alarms_array)-1) {
        flood_alarm_index = flood_alarm_index + 1;
        flood_next_alarm = flood_alarms_array[flood_alarm_index];
    }

    //send an alarm to user (this one goes to the dashboard)
    Spark.publish(FLOOD_NOTIF, "Chickens need water!", 60, PRIVATE);

    //send an alarm to user (this one goes to pushbullet servers)
    Spark.publish("pushbullet", "Chickens need water!", 60, PRIVATE);
   
   return 0; 
}

Credits

William Wiseman

1 project • 1 follower

Contact

Thanks to Gustavo Gonnet.

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Eggscellent Water Level Notification System