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Author Topic: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?  (Read 14523 times)

happyharry

  • Joined Jun 2014
Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« on: November 25, 2014, 12:37:46 pm »
With the nights drawing in I can't always be back home in the daylight for the afternoon feed

Does anyone know of an automatic feeder, with timer, that I could load up with 2-3 kgs of pig pellets and would then dispense at a preset time.

I'm thinking of something that could be mounted behind a fence or gate and dispense via a chute into a trough or on to the ground.

I know that you can get automatic hatch doors for hen houses so, I guess, I could buy one of those and use it to make my own dispenser ?

Any ideas ??

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2014, 01:30:41 pm »
Do you need to feed them in daylight? I realise it is easier to feed them in daylight, but obviously then you are making them go longer overnight (when it is cold) with no food.
 
I don't have any pigs this year, but in all honesty, at this time of year, mine were getting fed in the dark, morning and evening! I was/am fortunate that there was someone at home during the daylight hours to give them a check over in addition.
 
Beth

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2014, 03:13:14 pm »
I often feed ours in the dark this time of year. They don't care what time it is so long as they get fed. I often find ours out and about in the dark they certainly don't go to bed early just because it's dark. And a good head torch is going to be a lot cheaper than any auto feeding system I would think.

P6te

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • South Derbyshire
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2014, 12:31:27 pm »
Hi HappyHarry,

I've been on the lookout for such a feeder for a couple of years but have never been able to locate one.  A short while ago I set about designing one and currently have it as a work in progress project.
 
My requirement was to be able to feed the pigs over say a 3-4 day period to enable us to get away for a long weekend without being entirely dependent on someone feeding the pigs morning and night.

I'm looking at a unit to feed 3 (possible 4 pigs) in a single run ... this being breeding stock we would have at the time of year we would plan on going away.

As soon as I progress the design a bit further I'll post details on here .... the tricky bit looks like being the electronics to control the feed being dispensed. I may even look at selling the electronic controller along with plans for making the unit.  Raw materials alone look like costing in the region of £160 ... if anyone knows of a suitable feeder already on the market I'd be equally interested to know about it.

Pete
Live for today
Plan for tomorrow

happyharry

  • Joined Jun 2014
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2014, 01:42:35 pm »
Pete

My reasons, and my situation, are identical to yours.

I have been unable to find something "off the shelf" apart from the collar devices that open a feed hatch allowing individual animals access to feed (used in commercial agriculture)
I've also been thinking about designing and making my own. My first idea was to utilise the automatic closing door that you can buy for poultry houses and mount that in front of a food container that would gravity feed down a chute/tube into the area where the pigs are (mine are all outdoors). The unit would be positioned outside of the electric fence and probably behind a gate or similar to give it protection. The limitation of this idea is that you only get one feed from it.
I then considered mounting a rotary valve (if you're not sure what a rotary valve is just Google it) under a small, weatherproof, feed hopper. The rotary valve will typically have 4 segments (they vary) so if we had a motor which rotated 90 degrees with every movement then this would allow feed to drop into the segment under the hopper and then drop down into a feed chute as it rotated - get the idea ?
I've got a couple of redundant rotary valves on some old plant, but they are not difficult to fabricate with a welder.
So all we need is a motor that can run off a timer, and turn 45 degrees when triggered

Pete. I'd be interested in any ideas that you've had. Maybe we could share ideas and development costs ?


Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2014, 01:52:39 pm »
Whilst i admire you boys ingenuity can i remind you of the welfare freedoms pertaining to pigs
They must have a human checking them at least once a day. You cant just bugger off for a long weekend leaving them on auto feeders & drinkers.......what if theres a power cut or a weather catastrophe or your animals go down with a lurgy?
Yes by all means look at automation but dont think its the answer to not having to tend to your animals.
I am sure you already know all this but dont be the one who turns up on the news with dead pigs bcoz they were left home alone!
Mandy :pig:

BenBhoy

  • Joined Aug 2011
  • Nottinghamshire
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2014, 02:03:26 pm »
Cant you just use ad lib hopper? After weaning we put our sows in with hoppers for a week, might gorge for a day but soon sort themselves out.

P6te

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • South Derbyshire
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2014, 02:53:36 pm »
Hi Mandy,

I appreciate the points you are making, in our instance we have 'children' still living at home 'overseeing things' (as they do) and friends and neighbours who are also happy to keep an eye on things ... power cuts are taken care of by the feeder running on a 12v leisure battery.  In our case I'm looking at an SMS add on such that I get a text message when its either about to dispense the feed or just has and I'll also be able to view the operation over CCTV on an Android or iphone app.

Water is fed underground into large troughs (in the depths of winter frozen troughs may need to be attended to) all year round.

People will check but I'll be happier if feed is accurately dispensed.   :)

Pete
Live for today
Plan for tomorrow

oor wullie

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Strathnairn
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2014, 12:38:12 pm »
I thought about this for a while then my wife got a convenient 8-5 job which meant I didn't follow through with it.

The best thing I found was an automatic game feeder (eg http://www.gamekeepafeeds.co.uk/showdetails.asp?id=1213).  Basically you fit it to the bottom of a barrel of feed and a timer controls when it chucks feed out.
Quantity can be controlled by altering how long it is chucking feed out for (I guess you would need to do a few trial runs to measure how much feed it put out per minute of operation).

The 2 things I thought would need to be adapted were 1) to control the direction - they are designed to spray feed in all directions for game birds, I was thinking about some way of chanelling it into a trough and 2) making it pig proof - most pigs would see a barrel of feed suspended just out of reach as a challenge!

Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2014, 02:21:16 pm »
Hi Mandy,

I appreciate the points you are making, in our instance we have 'children' still living at home 'overseeing things' (as they do) and friends and neighbours who are also happy to keep an eye on things ... power cuts are taken care of by the feeder running on a 12v leisure battery.  In our case I'm looking at an SMS add on such that I get a text message when its either about to dispense the feed or just has and I'll also be able to view the operation over CCTV on an Android or iphone app.

Water is fed underground into large troughs (in the depths of winter frozen troughs may need to be attended to) all year round.

People will check but I'll be happier if feed is accurately dispensed.   :)

Pete

Good to hear pete just some people think its ok to leave animals & kids home alone not saying anyone on TAS would but theres always the odd numpty who might lol
Mandy  :pig:

happyharry

  • Joined Jun 2014
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2014, 03:30:09 pm »
Mandy
Like Pete, I understand and appreciate your points and like Pete, I have someone who will check welfare, water, etc but not necessarily at feeding times. No fear, I've been involved with livestock long enough to know the potential pitfalls
I'm really looking for something to cover those days when I'm working away and not getting back til 8 or 9pm, or those odd weekends when my relief pigman isn't available to cover. I'm not looking for something to feed them 6 days a week and me just cast an eye over them on Sunday's .

Ben
Yes, ad lib is one possible solution but these traditional breeds will soon pile on the fat if fed ad lib. Weaners up to 10 weeks maybe, but adult pigs ?

Willie
I've just looked at the game feeder via the link you provided. Game feed tends to be whole cereal or small pellets. My girls are getting sow rolls and I'm not sure the game feeder would be man enough. However, the idea of a revolving disc under a hopper calibrated by measuring how much food it dispensed per minute (or along those lines),and then linked to a timer, might have some design potential  (somewhat similar to the old fertiliser spinners)

Pete
Keep me posted on any design thoughts. I'll do likewise. I'm guessing it will need to be 12volt power in order to facilitate mains with battery back up ? 12 volts does present limitations as I'm sure you'll appreciate

In the meantime any other contributions welcomed

Harry

« Last Edit: December 01, 2014, 02:59:41 pm by happyharry »

P6te

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • South Derbyshire
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #11 on: November 30, 2014, 08:14:31 pm »
Hi HappyHarry,

Here is an update on my Pig Feeder Project.  The photos below show the main body with the feed tubes.  There are 12 tubes and each will hold sufficient for 1 feed for 3 pigs.  The tubes are  underground drain pipes cut into sections. These are sandwiched between plywood ... 2 pieces top and 2 pieces bottom (bonded together).  One holds the pipes in place and the other sitting on top / bottom of the pipes with a hole passing straight through.

The entire assembly sits on a plate with a single outlet which is rotated 1/12th per feed by a 12v motor that will be powered by a leisure battery. At the heart of the unit is the electronic controller ... this is still being developed.

Pete





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Plan for tomorrow

farmvet

  • Joined Feb 2014
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2014, 10:56:46 pm »
Have you looked at the cat/dog ones available? You could maybe use the electronics eghttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Automatic-Feeder-Recorder/dp/B0032O7VTE  There's more pictures of the lcd etc on ebay.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2014, 10:30:30 am »
That looks fantastic! I never would have thought to have separate chambers for each feed like that.
 
Since the valve disc only needs to turn very slowly, you'll get by with quite a small motor, highly geared too. Thinking about it, do you need an electronic controller anyway?  Would it not be enough to just have the motor geared so that the wheel makes one complete turn over the duration of the day?  then you could just leave it running the whole time and there's far less to go wrong  :thumbsup: .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

P6te

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • South Derbyshire
Re: Automatic Feeder with timer ?? Anyone help ?
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2014, 12:19:05 pm »
Hi Womble,

If it were as simple as that it would be great.

The entire assembly could feed upto 11 feeds. Depending in how its programmed this could be 11 morning feeds or 11 evening feeds or 5 1/2 days of feed.  The odd number of feeds comes in because one tube has to start empty.

The motor does need to be programmed such that it turns on at the predetermined time ... the only way this would work otherwise was if one revolution took 5 1/2 days with the motor constantly running which isn't really desirable.

As you say, it does only need a small highly geared motor, this is the one I'm using:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281473610206?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D281473610206%26_rdc%3D1

The motor will take a few minutes to move from one tube to the next but when its aligned with the next tube (that has just emptied) the motor has to stop until the next feed time. This is where the electronics comes into it.

The Andrew James timer unit (previously mentioned) may be able to trigger the motor but the tricky bit (at the moment) is working out how to make it 'park' whilst still able to re-start without instantly thinking its arrived and parking itself again (if you follow what I mean!)

..... to be continued!

Pete
« Last Edit: December 01, 2014, 12:27:36 pm by P6te »
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