Chicken Coop Automation System

9/23/25

In an effort to automate our little chicken coop, I built up a electronics box with various components. Everything is DIN mounted inside a basic ABS all-weather enclosure. Some of the mounts (like the solar controller and Relay mount) I had to design and print DIN rail clips. 

Granted, right now its basically a glorified power distribution box until I get the ESP32 system working. However it's been up all summer and thus far (knocks on wood) everything has been functioning as intended.

Power:

A external 12vdc PSU provides constant power to the system. In case of a power outage, the system uses a RB1224 relay to automatically switch over to a battery backup. This battery is charged via solar panel to allow for theoretically indefinite run time. I had to also print a small self for said battery to keep it from interfering with the wire routing

A USB hub drives all the Wyze cameras. A basic buck convertor converts the 12V input to the 5v required by the hub. 

A DIN railed mount terminal block switch allows for manual individual switching of power. 

Wireless monitoring and MCU

An ESP32 based system is installed. I haven't yet gotten it setup up and programmed yet. Unfortunately I ran out of time in the spring when I was getting it setup and haven't had the time to revisit. In theory, this system will monitor things like temperature/humidity and allow for remote system control of devices (doors, fans, and etc). It functions over wifi and has a external antenna installed. 

I want to add additional sensors to monitor chicken water levels/temps and such. I would like to also add in various other sensors for weather monitoring too at some point. Rain detection, pressure sensor, and etc. Clearly this is an on going project, but the backbone is there when I want to start tinkering again.