How to Build a Simple Egg Incubator Thermostat Circuit

An electronic incubator thermostat circuit shown in this article is not only simple to
build but is also easy to set and acquire exact tripping points at various different set
temperature levels. The setting may be completed through two discrete variable
resistors.

Introduction

The sensing range is quite good from 0 to 110 degrees Celsius.

Switching a particular load at different threshold temperature levels doesn’t

necessarily need complex configurations to be involved in an electronic circuit.

Here we discuss a simple construction procedure of an electronic incubator

thermostat.

This simple electronic incubator thermostat will very faithfully sense and activate the
output relay at different set temperature levels from 0 to 110 degree Celsius.

Drawbacks of Electromechanical Thermostats

The conventional electromechanical temperature sensors or thermostats are not

very efficient due to the simple reason that they cannot be optimized with accurate
trip points.

Normally these types of temperature sensor or thermostats fundamentally use the

ubiquitous bimetal strip for the actual tripping operations.

When the temperature to be sensed reaches the threshold point of this metal, it
bends and buckles.

Since the electricity to the heating device passes through this metal, it’s buckling
causes the contact to break and thus power to the heating element is interrupted -
the heater is switched off and the temperature starts falling.

As the temperature cools, the bimetal starts straightening to its original form. The
moment it reaches its previous shape, the electricity supply to the heater is restored
through its contacts and the cycle repeats.

However, the transition points between the switching are too long and not consistent
and therefore not reliable for accurate operations.
The circuit presented here is absolutely free from these drawbacks and will produce
comparatively high degree of accuracy as far the upper and the lower tripping
operations are concerned.

Parts List

R1 = 2k7,

R2, R5, R6 = 1K

R3, R4 = 10K,

D1---D4 = 1N4007,

D5, D6 = 1N4148,

P1 = 100K,
VR1 = 200 Ohms, 1Watt,

C1 = 1000uF/25V,

T1 = BC547,

T2 = BC557,

IC = 741,

OPTO = LED/LDR Combo.

Relay = 12 V, 400 Ohm, SPDT.

Circuit Description

We know that every semiconductor electronic component changes its electrical

conductivity in response to the varying ambient temperature. This property is
exploited here to make the circuit work as a temperature sensor and controller.

Diode D5 and transistor T1 together form a differential temperature sensor and

interact greatly with each other with changes in the respective surrounding
temperature.

Also since D5 acts as the reference source by staying at the ambient temperature
level should be kept as far as possible from T1 and in open air.

Pot VR1 may be used externally to optimize the reference level set naturally by D5.

Now assuming D5 is at a relatively fixed temperature level (ambient), if the

temperature in question around T1 starts rising, after a particular threshold level as
set by VR1, T1 will begin to saturate and gradually start conducting.

Once it reaches the forward voltage drop of the LED inside the opto-coupler, it will
start glowing correspondingly brighter as the above temperature rises.

Interestingly as the LED light reaches a particular level, further set by P1, IC1 picks
this up and instantly switches its output.

T2 along with relay also respond to the IC’s command and respectively actuate to
trip off the load or the heat source in question.

How to Make an LED/LDR Opto-Coupler

Making a homemade LED/LDR opto is actually very simple. Cut a piece of general
purpose board about 1 by 1 inch.

Bend the LDR leads near its “head.” Also take a green RED LED, bend it just as the
LDR (See figure and Click to Enlarge).

Insert them over the PCB so that the LED lens point is touching the LDR sensing
surface and are face to face.

Solder their leads at the track side of the PCB; do not cut off the remaining excess
lead portion.
Cover the top with an opaque lid and make sure its light proof. Preferably seal off the
edges with some opaque sealing glue.

Let it dry. Your home made LED/LDR based opto-coupler is ready and may be fixed
over the main circuit board with its leads orientations done as per the electronic
incubator thermostat circuit schematic.

Update:
After some careful investigation it became evident that the above opto-coupler can
be totally avoided from the proposed incubator controller circuit.

Here are the modifications which need to be made after eliminating the opto.

R2 now directly connects with the collector of T1.

The junction of pin#2 of IC1 and P1 hooks up with the above R2/T1 junction.

That's it, the simpler version is now all ready, much improved and easier to handle.

How to Make an Incubator Timer Circuit – Egg Incubation Optimizer

A timer circuit design which could be used for turning the position of the eggs in an
incubator between predetermined intervals of time was requested to me by one of
the keen readers of this blog, Mr. Eugene.

The requested circuit has been exclusively designed by me and published here,

Let's hear the whole episode:

"Good day,

I'm raising cocks for derby and I have hen that is laying eggs. For the hen to continue
laying eggs, I need to incubate the eggs. I have researched incubator designs and
parts and I have already assembled a simple one. I have a digital 220V ac
thermostat and in order to protect it, it will only have to drive a 220V relay. This one
already worked well.

Now I have an additional info that the eggs have to be rotated or moved upside down
3 times a day in order for the eggs to hatch well. I am planning to make a rows of
eggs holder chained or builted together driven by a motor such as electric fan swing
motor. Its strong and moves very slowly and I think its quite enough. This 220v ac
motor will be driven by a 6v dc relay. Now I need a relay driver circuit and a timer
circuit that wil trigger the relay driver more or less every 8 hours for approximately 3
seconds only.

I may not have enough words to reach 300 but I think my intention is clear enough.
But if the blog requires 300 words, I will try to extend my explanation.

Thank yo very much and I hope you can help me.

Designing an Incubator Egg Timer Circuit

The circuit of the proposed incubator egg timer and optimizer is given below:

P1 should be adjusted for the long 8 hour duration and P2 for the short 3 seconds
duration.

Circuit simulation:

Looking at the circuit diagram we can see that it consists of two identical IC 4060
stages which are coupled across each other for implementing the proposed actions.

The upper timer stage is intended for producing long time intervals and therefore its
output is taken from pin #3, while the lower IC generates smaller time intervals and
so its pin #15 is chosen as the output.

When power is switched ON the following things happen with the circuit:

The 0.1uF capacitor resets the upper IC so that it can start counting, during this
period its pin #3 is at logic low which keeps the relay driver stage switched OFF, also
the lower BC547 is kept disabled, which keeps pin #12 of the lower IC at high logic
which in turn renders the lower IC inactive.

After the predetermined period is lapsed, pin #3 of the upper IC goes high, this
switches ON the relay driver stage and also the lower IC pin #12 gets reset, this
toggles the lower IC into counting mode.

After the predetermined period, pin #15 of the lower IC becomes high, which sends a
logic high to the reset pin #12 of the upper IC, resetting it back to its original
position......the cycle repeats, and goes on repeating as long as power is available.

The lower section can be upgraded for generating higher time intervals at par with
the upper section by replacing pin15 with pin3 as already done in the diagram below.

The relay contacts are wired up to the motor for shuffling the egg orientation.
Incubator Temperature Controller Circuit using LM35 IC

A very simple egg incubator temperature controller thermostat circuit using LM 35 IC

is explained in this article. Let's learn more.
An Incubator is a system where bird/reptile eggs are hatched through artificial
methods by creating a temperature controlled environment. Here the temperature is
precisely optimized to match the natural incubating temperature level of eggs, which
becomes the most crucial part of the whole system.

The advantage of artificial incubation is faster and healthier production of the chicks
compared to the natural process

Anybody involved in this profession will understand the importance of a temperature

controller circuit which should be not only reasonably priced but also have features
like precise temperature control and manually adjustable ranges, otherwise the
incubation could get hugely affected, destroying most the eggs or developing
premature offspring.

I have already discussed an easy to build incubator thermostat circuit in one of my

earlier posts, here we'll learn a couple of incubator systems having easier and much
more user friendly setting up procedures.

The first design shown below uses an opamp and a LM35 IC based thermostat
circuit and indeed this looks quite interesting due to its very simple configuration:
The idea presented above looks self explanatory, wherein the IC 741 is configured
as a comparator
with its inverting pin#2 input pin is rigged with an adjustable reference potentiometer
while the other non-inverting pin#3 is attached with output of temperature sensor IC
LM35

The reference pot is used to set the temperature threshold at which the opamp
output is supposed to go high. It implies that as soon as the temperature around the
LM35 goes higher than the desired threshold level, its output voltage becomes high
enough to cause pin#3 of the opamp to go over the voltage at pin#2 as set by the
pot. This in turn causes the output of the opamp to go high. The outcome is indicated
by the lower RED LED which now illuminates while the green LED shuts off.

Now this outcome can be easily integrated with a transistor relay driver stage for
switching the heat source ON/OFF in response to the above triggers for regulating
the incubator temperature.

A standard relay driver can be seen below, wherein the base of the transistor may be
connected with pin#6 of the opamp 741 for the required incubator temperature
control.
Incubator Temperature Controller Thermostat with LED Indicator

In the next design we see another cool incubator temperature controller thermostat
circuit using an LED driver IC LM3915
In this design the IC LM3915 is configured as a temperature indicator through 10
sequential LEDs and also the same pinouts are used for initiating the ON/OFF
switching of the incubator heater device for the intended incubator temperature
control.

Here R2 is installed in the form of a pot and it constitutes the threshold level
adjustment control knob and is used for setting up the temperature switching
operations as per the desired specifications.

The temperature sensor IC LM35 can seen attached to the input pin#5 of the IC
LM3915. With rise in temperature around the IC LM35 the LEDs begin sequencing
from pin#1 towards pin#10.

Let's assume, at room temperature the LED#1 illuminates and at the higher cut-off
temperature the LED#15 illuminates as the sequence progresses.

It implies that pin#15 may be considered the threshold pinout after which the
temperature could be unsafe for the incubation.

The relay cut-off integration is implemented according to the above consideration

and we can see that the base of the transistor is able to get its biasing feed only upto
pin#15.

Therefore as long as the IC sequence is within pin#15, the relay remains triggered
and the heater device is held switched ON, however as soon as the sequence
crosses over pin#15 and lands on pin#14, pin#13 etc. the transistor biasing feed is
cut off and the relay is reverted towards the N/C position, subsequently switching
OFF the heater..... until temperature normalizes and the sequence restores back
below the pin#15 pinout.
The above sequential up/down drift keeps on repeating in accordance with the
surrounding temperature and the heater element is switched ON/OFF maintaining
almost a constant incubator temperature as per the given specifications.

Incubator Thermostat Circuit with Hysteresis Control

The Design

In one of my previous posts I have already discussed an interesting yet very simple
incubator thermostat circuit which uses an inexpensive transistor BC 547 for
detecting and maintaining the incubation temperature. The circuit includes another
sensor in the form of a 1N4148 diode, however this device is used for generating the
reference level for the BC547 sensor.

The 1N4148 diode senses the ambient atmospheric temperature and accordingly
"informs" the BC547 sensor to adjust the thresholds appropriately. Thus during
winter, the threshold would be shifted on the higher side such that incubator stays
warmer than during summer seasons.

Everything seems to be perfect in the circuit except one issue, that is the hysteresis
factor which is completely missing there.

Without an effective hysteresis the circuit would respond fast making the heater lamp
switch at rapid frequencies at the threshold levels.

Moreover adding a hysteresis control feature would allow the user to manually set
the average temperature of the compartment as per individual preferences.

The following diagram shows the modified design of the previous circuit, here as
we can see, a resistor and a pot has been introduced across pin#2 and pin#6 of the
IC. The pot VR2 can be used for adjusting the OFF time of the relay as per the
desired preferences.

The addition almost makes the circuit a perfect incubator design.

Parts List

R1 = 2k7, R2, R5, R6 = 1KR3, R4, R7 = 10K, D1---D4 = 1N4007, D5, D6 = 1N4148,
P1 = 100K, VR1 = 200 Ohms, 1Watt, VR2 = 100k potC1 = 1000uF/25V, T1 =
BC547, T2 = BC557, IC = 741, OPTO = LED/LDR Combo. Relay = 12 V, 400 Ohm,
SPDT.

Full option egg incubator

I am building an egg incubator. This is what I have done so far..can you please tell
me what else does my schematic need, before I proceed to the code?
I will use an old refrigerator, which has double walls and 3 shelf to put the eggs on.
I will use 2 LM35 for sensing temp and humidity (I measure dry and wet temperature-
the psychometric method). For creating humidity I will use a recipient with water and
a fan to blow in it; for increasing temperature I want to use a copper nickel wire from
a warming plate and another fan to blow the heat between the walls of the
refrigerator so that I warm the entire refrigerator. In order to turn the eggs I will use a
stepper motor to lift up or pull down a bar. I am not yet sure if it wouldn't be easier to
use a DC motor and Hall sensors. The entire system will be commanded by a pic
16F877A. I will also send the temperature and humidity via USART to a computer.
Incubator Thermostat Circuit Diagram