Arduino based egg incubator

In this article, we are going to make Arduino based egg incubator. With an Arduino UNO and other associative devices. To make an incubator, we need to maintain an optimum temperature and humidity with other parameters like CO2. As this is a learning project, so we’ll focus on basic incubator design. So let’s start our egg incubator circuit using Arduino.

What is Egg Incubator?

An Egg incubator is a device that maintains an optimum temperature and humidity with other parameters like CO2 as the hen maintains to hatch her eggs. It can be used in any biological sector. In common, the incubator is known in the chicken industry to help to produce a chicken from eggs. Here is a very common egg incubator that is available in the market.

And our goal to make this one our basic egg incubator:

Key Points for an egg incubator:

To make an egg incubator, the first thing to maintain is the temperature. Next the humidity and then the CO2 level. Bigger the egg capacity more parameters to maintain. Then another job we need to do to get healthy chicken is turning/moving the egg position periodically. Normally each hen does this job herself while she is hatching. Also, we need to reduce the CO2 amount from the incubator room. So the key point of this project will be:

• Temperature control.
• Humidity control.
• Turning.
• CO2 level reduction.

Here we’ll make the very basic one. So that anyone can build one for himself.

Temperature Control:

To control the temperature, we need a control system that can heat, cool, and can sense temperature. We also need to spread the heat inside properly. That is why we will also need a circulating fan. So to make this system we’ll use these items:

• A heater
• A cooling fan
• A circulating fan
• Relays to turn on/off the heater and fan
• Temperature sensor

Heater:

In the big incubator, large heater elements are used but for our small one, we will use simple incandescent lamps as our heater. A 100Watt lamp for this purpose will be enough. To reduce the light intensity, we can use lamps in series which will draw the same 100Watts and will generate the same heat but the heat will be more spread than using the single lamp. If you want to use more lamps in series, it will be less intensity of light but the heat will be more spread.

Cooling:

For cooling, we can use cooling fans. The large system needs a large fan but we can use the very known cooling fans.

This cooling fan should be positioned in the outside to the inside way[normally we use inside to outside way in most cases]. The benefits of using in this way are, that we need to cool the inside air temperature but we also need to reduce the CO2 level of the inside air. Positioning this way do these two job at the same time.

There may have a question if we use the fan in the outside to inside way then where the inside air will go? Yes, we should not make the incubator airtight. We need to heat the eggs but we must have to maintain little airflow inside from outside to supply some Oxygen to the eggs. Yes, hatching eggs need Oxygen like we breathe but not in high volume. A very small volume they need. Also, heated eggs produce CO2. This gas build-up reduces chicken production.

Circulating Fan:

We can use the cooling fan as our circulating fan. Two or Four fans will be good for our incubator. These circulating fans should be positioned inside in a circular way. This will maintain good air circulation as well as it will reduce concentrated heat build-up. A positioning like this will be enough to maintain proper air circulation.

Relay switch:

Relays are good for AC lamp switching. Although there are multiple ways to do this job as a basic one we can use a relay for both lamp and fan control.

Temperature Sensor:

There are different types of temperature sensors available in the market. You can use any of that if you wish and know how to use it. But here in our project, we’ll use an LM35 Temperature sensor.

This sensor gives 10mV/’C. From that linear data, we can calculate the actual temperature.

Humidity Control:

To control the humidity of the system, we need to measure the humidity first. To measure humidity, here in our project we’ll use DHT11 as our humidity sensor.

And to add humidity we need a humidifier. But for small incubators, we can not use the available ones to humidify because those make a high amount of fogs quickly. That is why we do not need any humidifier for a small system. But if you wish to add, that can be added in a bigger system. Here in our project, we will simply use a small bowl of clean water and some cotton balls on that.

As the inside temperature is warm and there is airflow inside, so this bowl of water will be vaporized in small amounts which will maintain the inside humidity. And the cotton ball or a piece of cotton cloth will help the process. All we need to do is to check the humidity level and water level from time to time. Although the control circuit will alarm if there is low or high humidity but we just need to check this bowl of water.

Turning:

For turning purposes, you can do that yourself with your hand if you can not arrange a tray like this:

I had this tray in stock so I used it for this project but it’s your choice. But I’ll advise using this type of tray. Here there is a bi-directional turning motor that helps the tray to turn and the interesting thing is this motor is rated 220V AC. This makes the turning system easier. We need to turn the eggs from -45′ to +45′ from the middle in 30~45minutes intervals.

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Block Diagram:

Here is the block diagram of our Arduino-based egg incubator:

Control circuit:

We have all the accessories collected this far. Now it’s time to make the control circuit. We are using Arduino UNO as the controller as this is a very popular device as well as very helpful for beginners.

Download Proteus File.

Circuit analysis:

You can see that the control circuit is a very simple one. Relays are used to control lamps and cooling fans and turning motors. And ULN2003A is used as the relay driver. We also have a buzzer as an audio alarming system and to tune the temperature, we used a variable resistor. The power supply for this project is made with a 12V/3000mA Transformer (TR1), Bridge diode (BR1), and Capacitor C1. After that, we used a voltage regulator LM7812 to power Arduino. We used this to prevent Arduino to be damaged due to overvoltage.

Sensors (LM35 & DHT11) are connected to A1 and D13 respectively. A user pot is connected to the A0 pin of Arduino UNO.

Working principle:

After sensing the input parameters, Arduino decides when to turn on the heater and when to turn on the cooler. The temperature should be kept around 36.8’C. When the temperature is low, lamps will be turned on automatically. If the temperature is higher than 0.5’C from the setpoint, heaters will be turned off. If the temperature is higher than 1.5’C from the setpoint, the cooler will be on. At the same time, the buzzer will alarm at a temperature that is 2’C higher than the set point. The circulating fan is controlled according to the heater. When the heater is on, the circulating fan is on. When the heater is off but the temperature is higher than the setpoint, the circulating fan runs periodically(a few moments on, a few moments off).

The turning motor will be turned on for 3-4 seconds after every 30 minutes. I did not calculate this time preciously. Used just like a timer counter using timer interrupt. There is no exact timing to do turning for small incubators. A turn in around 30 minutes works fine.

Coding:

Here is the Arduino coding for our Arduino-based egg incubator. Code is very simple and easy to understand.

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
#include<TimerOne.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(11, 10, 6, 5, 4, 3);

#define   Heater  2
#define   Cooler  8
#define   Fan     12
#define   Buzzer  7
#define   Turning 9

#define   Heater_ON   digitalWrite(Heater,HIGH);
#define   Heater_OFF  digitalWrite(Heater,LOW);
#define   Cooler_ON   digitalWrite(Cooler,HIGH);
#define   Cooler_OFF  digitalWrite(Cooler,LOW);
#define   Fan_ON      digitalWrite(Fan,HIGH);
#define   Fan_OFF     digitalWrite(Fan,LOW);
#define   Turning_ON  digitalWrite(Turning,HIGH);
#define   Turning_OFF digitalWrite(Turning,LOW);
#define   Buzzer_ON   digitalWrite(Buzzer,HIGH);
#define   Buzzer_OFF  digitalWrite(Buzzer,LOW);

#include "DHT.h"
#define DHTPIN 13
#define DHTTYPE DHT11
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);
float Temperature = 0;
float Setpoint = 0;
unsigned int timer_counter = 0;
unsigned int counter1 = 0;


void setup()
{
  pinMode(Heater, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Cooler, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Fan, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Buzzer, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Turning, OUTPUT);
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);//cr
  lcd.print("Egg Incubator");
  Buzzer_ON;
  delay(100);
  Buzzer_OFF;
  dht.begin();
  delay(2000);
  lcd.clear();
  Timer1.initialize(100000); 
  Timer1.attachInterrupt( timerIsr );
  lcd.clear();
}

void loop()
{

  Read_temp();
  Read_setpoint();
  PrintTemp();
  Read_DHT11();
  Temperature_control();

}

void timerIsr()
{
  //Turning control
  timer_counter++;
  if (timer_counter > 16200 && timer_counter < 16500)
  {
    Turning_ON;
  }
  else
  {
    Turning_OFF;
  }

  if (timer_counter > 16500)
  {
    timer_counter = 0;
  }

}

void Temperature_control()
{
  if (Temperature >= Setpoint + 0.5)
  {
    Heater_OFF;
    counter1++;
    if (counter1 > 20)
    {
      counter1 = 0;
      if (Fan == HIGH)
      {
        Fan_OFF;
      }
      else if (Fan == LOW)
      {
        Fan_ON;
      }
    }

    if (Temperature >= Setpoint + 1.5)
    {
      Cooler_ON;
    }
    else if (Temperature <= Setpoint + 0.5)
    {
      Cooler_OFF;
    }

    if (Temperature >= Setpoint + 2.0)
    {
      Buzzer_ON;
    }
    else
    {
      Buzzer_OFF;
    }
  }
  else if (Temperature <= Setpoint - 0.5)
  {
    Heater_ON;
    Fan_ON;
    Cooler_OFF;
    if (Temperature <= Setpoint - 1.0)
    {
      Buzzer_ON;
    }
    else
    {
      Buzzer_OFF;
    }
  }
}
void Read_temp()
{
  Temperature = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++)
  {
    Temperature += analogRead(A1) * 0.5;
    delay(10);
  }
  Temperature /= 30;
  Temperature;
}

void Read_setpoint()
{
  Setpoint = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++)
  {
    Setpoint += analogRead(A0) / 25.6;
    delay(2);
  }
  Setpoint /= 30;
}

void PrintTemp()
{
  lcd.setCursor(9, 0);//cr
  lcd.write("S:");
  lcd.print(Setpoint, 1);

  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);//cr
  lcd.write("T:");
  lcd.print(Temperature-1, 1);
  lcd.write((char)223);
  lcd.write("C");
}

void Read_DHT11()
{
  float h = dht.readHumidity();

  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);//cr
  lcd.write("H:");
  lcd.print(h);
  lcd.write("%");

  lcd.setCursor(9, 1);//cr
  lcd.write("S:");
  lcd.print("86%");
}

//

As this code is not so critical, so I think you can understand it easily.

PCB:

I like to work with PCBs. So I make PCBs for all of my projects.

Result:

Here is my incubator that was finally completed. I gave this to one of my students to use. He resulted in me after one hatch is that he’s getting a 70% hatching rate. If everything is made more carefully this hatching rate will be higher. My standard commercial ones give 85% hatching on average although those are made in a standard format and with bigger capacity.

This is an open-sourced one to help you learn. But if you are interested in professional designs like this or even more, feel free to contact me.

Conclusion:

Hope you enjoyed the project and made one for yourself. If any help is required, feel free to ask. Thanks.

If you still need one but you can not make it yourself, then you can check out these incubators:

For Professional Designs or Help:

Email*

Read More:

• Connect to Raspberry Pi from your Laptop/Desktop using VNC Viewer
• How to reduce noise from DC motor
• Interfacing External EEPROM with PIC microcontroller
• Not Enough ROM/RAM error with micro-controllers
• Read ThingSpeak Channel using ESP8266 and Arduino
• Caller ID detection using Arduino
• Simple voltage protector for your appliances
• DC/DC converter using Transistors
• Simple Component Detector using PIC16F877A
• Voltage Stabilizer Circuit with 4 Relays
• 6V Lead-Acid battery charger circuit
• 5 coolest multimeters you can buy
• Top 5 bench power supplies you can buy
• Top 5 handheld oscilloscopes you can try
• Top 5 Digital Multimeters for beginners
• Digital Clock with DS3231 & PIC microcontroller
• Digital Clock with PIC16F676 & Seven Segment Display
• Digital Clock using a PIC microcontroller & RTC DS1307
• How to remove noise/garbage from the HD44780 LCD display
• How to design a voltage stabilizer using a micro-controller from A to Z
• PICKit2 colon Simplified
• Capacitor Power Supply parts calculator
• Solar Charge Controller circuit & working principle of ON/OFF charge controller
• A smart Battery charger circuit design guide