How can you monitor things in the middle of a field?

[GasX]

I am building a chicken coop to house some chickens that will be on a pasture about 1/2 mile from my house. The coop will have an automatic door and I would really like to find a way to get a notification that the door has opened/closed appropriately. I don't really want my chickens to cook inside the coop on a hot Florida summer day, nor do I want them outside all night longfending off coyotes and bobcats.

I will not have power or internet on site, so that complicates things greatly. Solar power and I suppose (if it can be done cheaply) cellular communications is an option.

Any ideas how I might accomplish this?

 

[herm0016]

cheap laptop + usb 4g dongle?

or some sort of wifi solution with directional antennas to your house. do you have line of sight? 1/2 mile should be pretty easy with the right antennas.

as far as solar goes I would design your own system. I assume you need power for the door as well? a deep cycle battey, mppt controler and a couple hundred watts of solar should support your needs. for a pre-built solution look at goalzero.

i have 120 watts, an mppt controler and a deep cycle and can run my 12v compresor fridge, lights at night and charge phones and such without ever running low on power.

 

[paperwastage]

just because: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Cursed-and-ReCursed.aspx

directional antenna + battery + solar panel would be the most cost efficient way if you can get line of sight, plus something tiny like arduino / raspberrypi, 2Whr power consumption

 

[GasX]

Thanks for the goal zero mention - looks interesting...

I think a wifi enabled security camera with a AT&T mifi (piggybacked onto my current account) might fit the bill too.

Any camera recommendations?

 

[GasX]

on a related note, can anyone really trust surveillance products with "skynet" in their names?

http://www.amazon.com/Skynet-Securit.../dp/B003TP6PPW

 

[pm]

I would do basically what you are thinking... get a wireless WiFi camera with IR on it (so you can see it at night) and then set up a 20-40W solar panel and a lead-acid battery charger and then deep-cycle marine battery, and then drive the WiFi camera from the lead acid battery. Ideally the WiFi camera would run on 12V DC, but otherwise you'd need a DC-DC converter or - less efficient - get a cheap car inverter and then go from 12V DC from the battery to 120V AC to whatever the camera wants. To boost the signal across the 1/2 mile, you need a clear line-of-site with no trees of any kind, 2.4GHz doesn't penetrate water at all in the air or in the leaves of the trees. 2.4GHz was specifically chosen for free WiFi wireless because it's such a useless frequency due to this limitation. I'm not sure what size solar panel you'll need - depends on what the camera needs... but you can do the math what you need to charge the battery and cover the camera during the day and then a battery big enough to get you through the night without draining past ~50% (if you drain too far each night, the battery won't last long).

And then you will want a better antenna. Something like a "cantenna", a 2.4GHz yagi, or a parabolic antenna. Something that has some sort of directionality. A yagi would be best. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Browning-2-4-G.../dp/B003YL5WJG I don't believe the guys on Amazon quoting 25dB - so steer away from anything super cheap with high dB numbers because they don't seem realistic. You might need to put a yagi on both ends of the link - one in your house pointed at the coop and then another at the coop pointed at the house. I don't think you need to amplify it - just highly directional antennas and you should be set.... as long as there's no trees. If there are trees, you might need/want amplifiers. I'd start with a yagi on the coop first and then put one on the house if the link is too weak and then up to amplifiers if needed... but you'll need two amplifiers for each side and that will up your power budget on the battery+solar.

If you opt for this, make sure to oversize the battery substantially - you really don't want to be draining it substantially at night, and it won't work as well when it's cold, and on cloudy days it won't charge as much... so get a beefy battery because otherwise you'll be replacing it frequently (like every 4-6 months).

 

[Humpy]

How about a light on a pole, somewhere where you can see it, that comes on when the door is closed?

 

[herm0016]

How about a light on a pole, somewhere where you can see it, that comes on when the door is closed?

i was thinking a laser light that turns on and hits one of your windows. it would be cool when its foggy out!

 

[whoiswes]

I set up something similar for my stepdad at his cattle farm. Their house is about 3/4 of a mile from the main barn, and they wanted to be able to monitor their cattle during calving. We grabbed some cheap agasio pan/tilt IR cameras, a cheap switch, and some POE injector cables from Air802. That gave us single-cable runs to each of the cameras, with everything terminating in a single watertight panel inside the barn. From there, we connected to an Engenius directional client bridge (can't remember the model number, but it was similar to the ENH202) with another in the house.

The main router at the house is running DD-WRT and is set up with DHCP reservations for each of the cameras, and all my stepdad has to do is open up his iPad and he can view/pan all 4 cameras to keep an eye on the cows.

Total cost was about $1K, with most of that going to the cameras. Took about a day to set up, most of which involved running cable.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[rockmyroad]

Yea there are security packages out there that can use laser technology or door sensors to alert you of any intrusions. A good amount are wi-fi based but it does have a limit to how far it reaches.. you should Look around. What's even cooler is that nowadays, there are security systems that can allow you access of video footage right from your smart phone! So if you get the magnetic door sensors, it'll alert your smart phone if someone or in your case something has opened the door. On top of that, you can check the footage once you receive the alert. I know of a few brands that are reliable, secure, and cheap if you were curious.

 

[herm0016]

any update on what you are planning/doing?

 

[randomactsoftech]

the easy way would be the above suggested IP cameras with ethernet cable run to them. The cool way would be arduino with a Cell shield. I used an arduino with a cell shield to unlock my door when I sent it a text message. I didnt have to use solar power but a solar set up would be pretty easy and inexpensive. Whatever you decide... post some results!