Puppy Incubator

Introduction

If you have a new litter and you are in need of a puppy incubator but you don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a commercial one, this project is for you.

This incubator project currently has the following features:

• Automatic temperature control, using DS18B20 temperature sensors and a heat source (IR lamp, or even a regular incandescent bulb) activated through a relay accordingly to rules set by you.

• You can monitor the current temperature and humidity accessing the IP of the D1 mini Pro board (it has a webserver).

  

• You can log the data to a database with an ETL process since it also provides JSON output trough an HTTP connection.

  

• If for some reason the temperature goes out of control (based on preset limits) it sends Push notifications to your cellphone using the IFTTT service and Webhooks.

• It broadcasts the temperature status over MQTT messages.

• An additional Wemos D1 mini board with a NeoPixel shield, receives the MQTT message and displays informative colors accordingly to the current temperature status (Hot, Normal, Cold).

• The same board logs the temperature status (MQTT message) on an SD card and serves the .csv file through a web server.

• It supports OTA updates on the same LAN.

Materials

• X1 - Big enough plastic container
• X1 - Light socket
• X1 - Heat lamp
• X1 - Lolin D1 mini Pro board
• X1 - Wemos D1 mini
• X1 - Wemos NeoPixel shield
• X1 - Wemos SD shield
• X1 - SD Card
• X1 - Tripler Base from Wemos
• X2 - DS18B20 probe temperature sensors
• X1 - DS18B20 shield from Wemos
• X1 - DHT11 shield from Wemos
• X1 - Relay shield from Wemos

Further development

Next steps to improve this project would be:

• Adding a FAN to lower temperature or decrease the humidity inside the incubator.
• Adding a humidifier to control humidity levels inside the incubator.
• Adding an IP camera with a separate ESP32 modulo to remotely check on the puppies.