If I were you I would use an esp8266 or similar to turn a bright white LED on and off put it against the light sensor of the auto door and encapsulate it in something like blu tack so no other light can get to the sensor. You would of course need a usb power source but often power banks and solar panels can be combined to make such a thing or you just run a USB cable out to the coop.
Because of horrible Battery Life of my units I am forced to use 12V Batteries for Power supply. Of course Omlet Auto Door Units detect my batteries as “grid”.
Is there any way to receive voltage readings from these batteries (to be able to know when its time to recharge them).
How do you protect the battery from the chickens and the weather? I am looking at this too.
I have in the past managed to get hold of a wireless battery monitor for that sort of job - not seen one recently, but not really looking though.
I put together this HA integration for my omlet chicken coops. My coops are currently under some big oak trees so the light sensor is not always the best/accurate. I am able to use a service call every night to update the door open / close schedule to the next days sunrise and sunset time. The benefit of this approach I find is I can keep the coop in deep sleep for the entire day and only come online during a short time when I am updating the next days schedule, which is appears to help with the battery life of my two coops. GitHub - krozgrov/ha-omlet-integration: Custom Home Assistant integration for Omlet devices, enabling monitoring and control of Autodoors and related devices. Includes features like battery level monitoring, door/light control, and updates via API.
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That was one of the challenges I had - so I made sure with the integration I created I added those service action to update some of the common items via HA services.
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Hi @krozgrov thank you for making this HA integration! Could you please detail how you have your HA automatic setup as you’ve mentioned. That allows you to dynamically adjust to mins before and after sunrise/sunset (each day) to maximize deep sleep? My Omlet coop is also under a tree for shade (intentionally for relief in summer) which results in me having to manually adjust the time by a few mins each day (open and close) because I cannot use the light sensor. Thanks AGAIN.
Here is my YAML - I have all my automations setup with Triggers to reduce number of individuals automations. I use the Sunrise / Sunset and offset and to update the daily schedule.
alias: Chicken Coop - Master Control
description: Handles battery alerts, nesting box notifications, and door schedules.
triggers:
- entity_id:
- sensor.temperature_humidity_sensor_lite_4_battery_state
id: low_battery
trigger: state
to: Low
- type: not_opened
device_id: 17ee1897a72173cd750eaa100ba06a12
entity_id: 165bd7f75c9219ea5ae81db2b0b9ebb2
domain: binary_sensor
id: nesting_box_closed
trigger: device
- event: sunset
offset: "-00:15:00"
id: nesting_box_still_open
trigger: sun
- event: sunrise
offset: "01:00:00"
id: nesting_box_reminder
trigger: sun
- at: "00:05:00"
id: update_schedule
trigger: time
actions:
- choose:
- conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: low_battery
sequence:
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Low Battery
message: Temperature Sensor battery is low
action: notify.mobile_app_spacesloth12pro
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Low Battery
message: Temperature Sensor battery is low
action: notify.mobile_app_poopphone14promax
- conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: nesting_box_closed
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.nesting_box_lights_changed
state: "on"
sequence:
- target:
entity_id: scene.before_red
action: scene.turn_on
data: {}
- target:
entity_id: input_boolean.nesting_box_lights_changed
action: input_boolean.turn_off
data: {}
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: The nesting box is now closed
action: notify.mobile_app_spacesloth12pro
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: The nesting box is now closed
action: notify.mobile_app_poopphone14promax
- conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: nesting_box_still_open
- condition: device
type: is_open
device_id: 17ee1897a72173cd750eaa100ba06a12
entity_id: 165bd7f75c9219ea5ae81db2b0b9ebb2
domain: binary_sensor
sequence:
- data:
scene_id: before_red
snapshot_entities:
- light.hot_tub_lights_2
- light.wall_light_back_yard_2
action: scene.create
- target:
device_id:
- 1960320fe2aacd33be1d9119e8da2093
- b507769e01276f582761178c16a7d522
data:
rgb_color:
- 97
- 24
- 124
brightness_pct: 100
action: light.turn_on
- target:
entity_id: input_boolean.nesting_box_lights_changed
action: input_boolean.turn_on
data: {}
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: The nesting box is still open
action: notify.mobile_app_spacesloth12pro
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: The nesting box is still open
action: notify.mobile_app_poopphone14promax
- conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: nesting_box_reminder
- condition: device
type: is_not_open
device_id: 17ee1897a72173cd750eaa100ba06a12
entity_id: 165bd7f75c9219ea5ae81db2b0b9ebb2
domain: binary_sensor
sequence:
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: Nesting Box is still closed, the girls want to lay eggs!
action: notify.mobile_app_spacesloth12pro
- data:
title: Chicken Coop - Nesting Box
message: Nesting Box is still closed, the girls want to lay eggs!
action: notify.mobile_app_poopphone14promax
- conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: update_schedule
sequence:
- target:
device_id:
- 97191a38686dabe828e147c7028df45f
- 6e4f8bf80778efc66dabca31a3c87d9e
data:
door_mode: time
open_time: >-
{{ states('sensor.sun_next_rising') | as_datetime | as_timestamp
| timestamp_custom('%H:%M', true) }}
close_time: >-
{{ (states('sensor.sun_next_setting') | as_datetime +
timedelta(minutes=30)) | as_timestamp |
timestamp_custom('%H:%M', true) }}
action: omlet_smart_coop.update_door_schedule
mode: single
I’m interested in this kind of setup, could you briefly detail how you’ve achieved it ? Is it only a matter of wiring a 12v battery to the unit, using the mains connector ?
Ideally, I’d use a solar panel to keep the battery charged and forget about the whole thing.