Arduino Homesteading Projects

Arduino Chicken Coop Controller

An Arduino-based chicken coop controller on Instructables.

At the risk of putting high tech in our low tech, I just took an introductory Arduino class at Crash Space along with the folks at Zapf Architectural Renderings.

An Arduino is a simple, low cost microcontroller thingy. It’s got a bunch of digital outputs, analog and digital inputs and a programmable microchip. You download a program onto the chip (either one you’ve written yourself or one of thousands of programs others have written) and then hook up electronics to the inputs and/or outputs. The Arduino can then be disconnected from your computer to run autonomously.

Aruduino Leonardo

You can get a nearly infinite number of devices, called “shields”, that plug into the Arduino–to give the device, for example, GPS or wireless capabilities. And there are vast libraries of programs for Arduinos–useful for non-programmers such as myself.

In the class we used the $24 Leonardo model of the Arduino, which is commonly used for prototyping. Once you figure out what inputs and outputs you need for your project you can get a cheaper Arduino with fewer features for use in, let’s say, your automatic chicken coop door opener.

I thought I’d compile a list of Arduino based project related to the “low-tech, home-tech” subjects covered on this blog. I’ll keep updating this list as I hear of more projects.

Chickens
Chicken coop controller

Gardening
Garden Bot (information about “an open source garden monitoring system). Includes links to other Arduino based gardening projects.
Gardening moisture sensor/watering controllers
An Arduino waterer that tweets!
DIY Hydroponics
Weather station

Homebrewing
Homebrewing Automation With Arduinos (Homebrewing.com article)
Arduino Controlled Homebrew Stir Plate
DIY UberFridge Controls Homebrewing Temperatures

Cooking
Sous-vide cooking
Kitchen Timer

Security
Garage door monitor
Arduino Security Hacks

Communications
Fun with a rotary phone!

Miscellaneous
Led candle (would look great in my hacked solar light)

And a shout out to the amazing bloggers at Holy Scrap, masters of using microcontrollers in clever low-tech ways. Follow their blog!

Please leave a comment with a link if you know of other projects that should be on this list.

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7 Comments

  1. I really like this article and would like to see more like it, but the cost vs benefit on a lot of those projects just does not look very good.

  2. Pingback: My Word with Douglas E. Welch » My Favorite Things for March 2013 – Douglas E. Welch

  3. I wish I had this when childers were growing up. I could have had an automated lock down system for their bedrooms.

    I am storing this for dog and cat door on future house. Amazing idea. Not as overwhelming as you first think.

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