DEVELOPMENT OF SMART EGG INCUBATOR SYSTEM FOR VARIOUS TYPES

OF EGG (SEIS)

ABU MUSA BIN MOHD ADID

This thesis is submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the
Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons.) (Electronics)

Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Universiti Malaysia Pahang

12 NOVEMBER, 2008

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project is to design and develop the system of an egg
incubator that able to incubate various type of egg named as Smart Egg Incubator
System for Various Types of Egg (SEIS). The SEIS will fill up with the temperature
and humidity sensor that can measure the condition of the incubator and automatically
change to the suitable condition for the egg. The health of egg is very important for the
development of embryo within the egg. Improper control means that the temperature or
humidity is too high or too low. In this project, the light heater is use to give the suitable
temperature to the egg. By using the water and controlling fan, it is can make sure the
humidity and ventilation in good condition. The status condition in the SIES will appear
on the LCD screen display. To make sure all part of egg was heated by lamp, DC motor
is very useful to rotate iron rode at the bottom side and automatically change the
position of egg. The entire element will be controlled using programmable integrated
circuit (PIC). The PIC is a type of microcontroller that can process a data from sensor
and will execute the control element to change the condition of SEIS. This project will
be a user friendly product since the SEIS can move to other place. It will secure by user
must enter the password before activate the system.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

TITLE

PAGE

DECLARATION

DEDICATION

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

iv

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

vi

TABLE OF CONTENT

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xii

LIST OF APPENDICES

xiii

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background

1.2

Objectives

1.3

Scopes

1.4

Project goal

1.5

Thesis Organization

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

2.2

Embryonic Development

viii

2.3

Egg Incubator

2.4

Incubating Conditions

METHODOLOGY

10

3.1

Project Development

10

3.2

Mechanical Design

13

3.2.1

Incubator casing

13

3.2.2

An egg roller

14

3.3

Hardware Design

16

3.3.1

Master Controller circuit

17

3.3.1.1 CPU microcontroller PIC18F4550

17

3.3.1.2 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

19

3.3.1.3 Keypad

20

3.3.1.4 Fan

20

3.3.1.5 Temperature and humidity circuit

20

Slave controller circuit

21

3.3.2.1 DC motor circuit

21

3.3.3

Lamp controller circuit

23

3.3.4

Power supply circuit

24

3.3.2

3.4

Software Design

24

3.4.1

Master control system

25

3.4.1.1 Initialize LCD and keypad

26

3.4.1.2 Password program

26

3.4.1.3 Sensor program

27

3.4.1.4 Lamp program

28

Slave control system

29

3.4.2.1 Main program

30

3.4.2.2 Timer

31

System execution

32

3.4.2

3.4.3

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4

PROJECT RESULT AND DISCUSSION

35

4.1

Result

35

4.2

Problem and troubleshooting

36

4.2.1 Hardware part

36

4.2.2 Software part

37

4.2.3 Mechanical part

38

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

39

5.1

Conclusion

39

5.2

Recommendation

40

5.3

Costing & Commercialization

40

REFERENCES

41

Appendices A - N

42 - 70

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background

Industrial rising of farm animals indoors under conditions of extremely restricted

mobility is commonly known as factory farming. It is done as part of industrial
agriculture which is a set of methods that changes as laws and technology change known
as industrial agriculture which is designed to produce the highest output at the lowest
cost, using economies of scale, modern machinery, modern medicine, and global trade
for financing, purchases and sales.

Egg incubator is one of the inventions that provide opportunity especially for
who want to be excellent farmer. There is one of easy and fastest way that can make a
product. This invention will upgrade the egg incubator that has already in market today.
The systems will automatically controlling the temperature and humidity of the
incubator for various types of egg. The function of egg incubator is to take over the
animal job to incubate an egg until hatching.

1.2

Objectives

To built the incubator with automatic controlling the humidity and

temperature. Improper control means that the temperature or humidity is
too high or too low for a sufficient length of time that it interferes with
the normal growth and development of the embryo. Poor results also
occur from improper ventilation, egg turning and sanitation of the
machines or eggs.

To built the incubator that able to incubate various types of egg.

Making an egg incubator that user friendly will produce more valuable
production and available for many types of egg.

1.3

Scopes

Design a system and hardware for egg incubator with automatic controlled the
temperature and humidity using programmable interface controller (PIC) according to
types of egg and parameters given by user.

1.4

Project Goal

With a bit of research we determined it would be the best course of action for
several reasons:

The incubator will help farmer produce product in a short time with large
amount of eggs.

An egg incubator can be considered a replacement for incubate session of

animal.

1.5

The incubator will be large enough to avoid problems of less production.

Ideas to incubate many types of egg in one time can be tested.

Thesis Organization

This thesis is combination of b chapters that contain the Introduction, Literature

Review, Methodology, Result and Discussion and the last chapter is a Conclusion and
Recommendation of the project.

Chapter 1 is an introduction of the project. In this chapter, we will explain the

background and objectives of the project. The concept of the project and the overall
overview of the project also will be discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 2 focuses on the literature review and the project flow for the
development of the Smart Egg Incubator System for Various Types of Egg.

Chapter 3 will explain about the project methodologies of the project. The
project development consists of three parts which is mechanical design, hardware design
and software design. In mechanical design, it is about the development of the egg roller,

chassis and body. This incubator body was 70% built by using wood and 30% for egg
chassis. By using this kind of material, we can reduce the cost to build this incubator. In
this section also, we will discuss about the dimension, and how to construct and
assemble the chassis and roller. In the hardware design, they are containing of circuit
design of the controller system. That will include P-spice layout and information about
components usage. The layout consists of four circuit such as master controller circuit,
slave controller circuit, lamp controller circuit and power supply circuit. The last part is
a software development of the controller. In this chapter we will expose on how to
compile and program the PIC18F4550. The program has been built by step which is to
function all of electronic device. Lastly all sub programs will organize to execute the
flow function.

Chapter 4 discusses all the results obtained and the discussion of the project.
During do the project, many problems have accorded. Besides that, by doing some
inspection and troubleshooting, the solution has been found and all devices may
function properly.

Chapter 5 discusses the conclusion and recommendation of the project. Finally

the project has been done with the expected result. This project can be testing for the
long time period but some recommendation must be included to make sure the system
running properly without any violation.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

Incubation is the process by which birds hatch their eggs, and to the development
of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant
temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic
fowl, the act of sitting on eggs to incubate them is called brooding. The action or
behavioral tendency to sit on a clutch of eggs is also called broody, and most egg laying
breeds of chicken have had this behavior selectively bred out of them to increase
production.

In most species, body heat from the brooding parent provides the constant
temperature, though several groups, notably the Megapodes, instead use geothermal heat
or the heat generated from rotting vegetable material, effectively creating a giant
compost heap. The humidity is also critical, and if the air is too dry the egg will lose too
much water to the atmosphere, which can make hatching difficult or impossible. As
incubation proceeds, an egg will normally become lighter, and the air space within the
egg will normally become larger, owing to evaporation from the egg. [1]

2.2

Embryonic Development

Embryonic development is a continuous process that can roughly be divided into

three different phases. They are differentiation, growth and the maturation.

Typically, differentiation of organs occurs in the first days of incubation. The

growth and the maturation of the organs occur in the later phases of development. Each
of these phases requires specific incubator conditions. As the embryo grows, its
metabolic rate increases and this is accompanied by increased heat production.
Consequently, the natural pattern of the embryo and eggshell temperature shows an
increase towards the end of incubation. In the incubator we must differentiate between
the temperature set point at which the incubator operates and the temperature of the air
at the level of the eggs, which determines the temperature of the egg and embryo. [1]

At the start of incubation the embryo produces little heat and eggs must be
warmed. This means that the air temperature must be higher than the egg temperature.
As the embryo grows, metabolic heat production increases and to prevent overheating
the air surrounding the eggs must be cooled such that heat is removed from the eggs.

2.3

Egg Incubator

Novice poultry producers usually become interested in artificial incubation of

their own chicks. The success of this type project depends on proper care and incubation
of the hatching eggs so healthy, vigorous chicks are produced. Many times a producer
carefully attends to the incubation process but disregards the care of the eggs before they
are placed in the incubator. Even before incubation starts the embryo is developing and
needs proper care. Hatching eggs suffer from reduced hatchability if the eggs are not
cared for properly.

The size and type of incubator selected depends on the needs and future plans of
each producer. Many different models are available. For continuous settings, separate
incubator and hatcher units are recommended. If all eggs in the unit are at the same
stage of incubation, a single unit can be used.

Locate the incubator and hatcher units indoors to protect them from major
weather changes. It is essential that the room has a good ventilation system to supply
plenty of fresh air. Keeping the units indoors makes it easier to maintain uniform
temperature and humidity.

There are basically two types of incubators available, forced-air and still-air
incubators. Forced-air incubators have fans that provide internal air circulation. The
capacity of these units may be very large. The still-air incubators are usually small
without fans for air circulation. Air exchange is attained by the rise and escape of warm,
stale air and the entry of cooler fresh air near the base of the incubator. Recommended
temperatures vary between the two incubators, so follow the manufacturer's
recommendation that accompany the units. [3]

2.4

Incubating Conditions

The condition of incubator is very importance element. Poor results are most
commonly produced with improper control of temperature and/or humidity. Improper
control means that the temperature or humidity is too high or too low for a sufficient
length of time that it interferes with the normal growth and development of the embryo.
Poor results also occur from improper ventilation, egg turning and sanitation of the
machines or eggs.

The components than must be control in the incubator are temperature, humidity
and ventilation. The temperature must depend on the types of egg. In order to hatch a
good percentage of fertile eggs, an incubator must be able to maintain a constant
temperature. Though different sorts of eggs require different heat levels, most will grow
and hatch well at 99 to 101F. Sure, that does sound imposingly precise, but such
accuracy isn't all that difficult to achieve. [2]

Rarely is the humidity too high in properly ventilated still-air incubators. The
water pan area should be equivalent to one-half the floor surface area or more. Increased
ventilation during the last few days of incubation and hatching may necessitate the
addition of another pan of water or a wet sponge. Humidity is maintained by increasing
the exposed water surface area.

Ventilation is very important during the incubation process. While the embryo is
developing, oxygen enters the egg through the shell and carbon dioxide escapes in the
same manner. As the chicks hatch, they require an increased supply of fresh oxygen. As
embryos grow, the air vent openings are gradually opened to satisfy increased
embryonic oxygen demand. Care must be taken to maintain humidity during the
hatching period. Unobstructed ventilation holes, both above and below the eggs, are
essential for proper air exchange. [3]

Table 2.1: Condition of the incubator for various types of egg

Incub.
Species

Period
(days)

Temp

Humidity

Do not turn

Humidity

Open vent

(F.)

(F.)

after

Last 3 days

more

Chicken

21

100

85-87

18th day

90

18th day

Turkey

28

99

84-86

25th day

90

25th day

Duck

28

100

85-86

25th day

90

25th day

35-37

100

85-86

31st day

90

30th day

28-34

99

86-88

25th day

90

25th day

28

100

85-87

25th day

90

24th day

Pheasant

23-28

100

86-88

21st day

92

20th day

Peafowl

28-30

99

84-86

25th day

90

25th day

23-24

100

84-87

20th day

90

20th day

Muscovy
Duck
Goose
Guinea
Fowl

Bobwhite
Quail

The Table 2.1 shows the condition of the incubator for various type of egg which is
consists of suitable temperature and humidity for every type of eggs. The Fahrenheit
unit can be converting to Celsius by using the Fahrenheit formula, F = [32 + (9/5) aC].

10

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

Project Development

Figure 3.1: Flowchart of the project development

11

By refer to the Figure 3.1, project development was divided into three main
sections. There are mechanical design, electronic design and software design. Then this
part will combined together to perform the Smart Egg Incubator System for Various
Types of Egg (SEIS).

The smart egg incubator is able to incubate various type of egg. The incubator
will fill up with the temperature and humidity sensor that can measure the condition of
the incubator and automatically change to the suitable condition for the egg.

Locate the incubator and hatchers units indoors to protect them from major
weather changes. It is essential that the room has a good ventilation system to supply
plenty of fresh air. Keeping the units indoors makes it easier to maintain uniform
temperature and humidity.

Actually, this project consists of three elements that should be controlled. There
are movement, temperature and humidity. In this project, the light is use to give the
suitable temperature to the egg. The percentage of the humidity in the incubator need to
consistent by control the fan and water through in the incubator, it is can make sure the
humidity and ventilation in good condition. The status condition in the incubator will
appear on the LCD screen display. To make sure all part of egg was heated by lamp,
stepper motor is very useful to rotate iron rod at the bottom side and automatically
change the position of egg.

The entire element will be controlled using programmable integrated circuit

(PIC). The PIC is a type of microcontroller that can process a data from sensor and will
execute the control element to change the condition of incubator. This project will be a
user friendly product since the incubator can move to other place.

12

Figure 3.2: Flow chart of the project

From the Figure 3.2 shows the system of the incubator working. Firstly user
needs to insert the correct password. That is for system protection from other
disturbance and makes the system functioning constantly. After that users must select
the type of egg. The system will operate under the type selected. The data of various
types of egg was inserted during system development. For all various type of egg, there
have difference incubation period until hatching. For this project development, 3 types
of egg were selected. There are chicken eggs, duck eggs and quail eggs. The
condition of egg has explained in table 1.1. In order to give good heating on an egg, the

13

egg should change their position 2 or 3 times per day. This important to make sure all
position of egg heated by lamp. Humidity of the incubator was control by water
container to give some fresh air flow and fan controller to make the suitable humidity in
incubator.

3.2

Mechanical Design

The project development was started with the mechanical design. It is consists
the development of incubator casing and built an egg roller.

3.2.1 Incubator casing

To build the egg incubator system involves lots of concern in terms of the
temperature, humidity and movement in order to care the health of the egg. The
important thing that should know is how to change the position of the egg during the
period of incubation. It is should get along with a mechanical egg-shifting system. The
eggs in the incubator need to be shifted slowly and smoothly, since jostling would
disturb the development of the chicks. By using the DC motor, the PIC should be
programmed as long as stepper motor running in shifted slowly.

The construction of the incubator will begin with the built the casing of the
incubator. A good quality material was used such as hardwood. The hardwood was
choose because is preferable rather than softer wood. The softer wood will warp during
the incubation process. That will affect the humidity of egg. This incubator can fill up to
20-25 eggs. Dimensional measuring of the incubator is 39cm long x 48.4cm wide x
48.4cm tall. 4 bulbs were placed around the wall inside of the incubator. The bulb usage
is 5 Watts that supply heat to the egg.

14

There are two stages for the incubator that call first drover and second drover.
First drover is where amount of egg were placed. It fills with the egg roller, bulbs and
fan. For the second drover, it is for water that to make fresh air flow in the incubator.
This incubator becomes user friendly because it can move to other place. By use the
board transparent plastic make easier to owner look inside the incubator.

Figure 3.3: Casing of incubator

3.2.2 An egg roller

The egg roller is very important in order to change the position of eggs. The
position of egg must be change two times every day until hatching. An idea to designing
the egg roller such as conveyer which is needs some bearing and belting. It needs to
change the position of egg in smoothly. The material used to build the egg roller is an
aluminum plat and aluminum rode. It will reduce cost of construction because about
60% the material usage from cycle material.

Before construct the egg roller, all measurement was record since to make sure it
really fix when put inside the first drover.

15

Figure 3.4: An egg roller design

Figure 3.5: An egg roller

16

3.3

Hardware Design

In this chapter, the circuit explanation consists four major parts. There are master
controller circuit, slave controller circuit, lamp controller circuit and power supply
circuit. The master controller circuit was interface to the temperature and humidity
circuit, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Keypad, lamp circuit and fan. For the slave
controller circuit, it interface with DC motor circuit that running the egg roller.

Block diagram figure 3.6 shows the connection all part of system. There are
consisting of input, CPU and output. The inputs of the system are keypad, temperature
and humidity sensor and also power supply. The PIC18F4550 will operate as a CPU
which is the main controlling system. For the output element consist of LCD screen
display, DC motor, fan and lamp.

Figure 3.6: Block diagram of the hardware design

The operation of the system will start while user selects the type of egg by press
the code on the keypad. After that controller which is PIC 18F4550 will set up the range
of the temperature and humidity of the incubator. If any changes for the ventilation of
the incubator, the temperature and humidity sensor will measure and send data to the

17

controller as a feedback. LCD board will display any changes that might occur. The
controller will control the speed of fan, light and flow of water until the ventilation of
the incubator back to the condition needed. The controller also controls the shift rotation
of the DC motor. This allows the egg change their position to care the growth of the
embryo.

This system will run until the egg hatching. To make sure the system always
running, the battery charge is needed. The battery as a backup power supply will supply
their voltage whiles the system going breakdown. The breakdown might be occurring if
main power supply was blackout.

3.3.1

Master Controller circuit

The master controller circuit schematic is shown in appendix A. The function of

master circuit is to controller the input data from keypad and display on the LCD screen.
It is also read the input data from temperature and humidity sensor and store in variable
before display on the LCD screen. The master circuit also controls the output fan. When
the CPU detect the value of temperature is high than suitable value, the lamp will off
and when the CPU detect the value of humidity is high than suitable value, the fan will
on. It can make the suitable condition in good status for egg incubation process.

3.3.1.1 CPU microcontroller PIC18F4550

The microcontroller is an entire computer on a single chip. The advantage of

designing around microcontroller is that a large amount of electronics needed for certain
applications can be eliminated. This makes it the ideal device for use with large system
and other applications where computing power is needed. The microcontroller is popular

18

because the chip can be programmed easily to perform different functions and is very
inexpensive. The microcontroller contains all the basic components that make up a
computer. It contain a central processing unit (CPU), read-only memory, random-access
memory (RAM), arithmetic logic unit, input and output lines, timers, serial and parallel
ports, digital-to-analog converter, and analog-to-digital converters. There many kind of
microcontroller in market such as Motorola, PIC, Basic Stamp and etc. But, in this
project, the PIC18F4550 is chosen because of the functionality, lower in cost,
robustness, easy to program and troubleshoot.

PIC is a family of Harvard architecture microcontrollers made by Microchip

Technology, derived from the PIC1640 originally developed by General Instrument's
Microelectronics Division. The name PIC initially referred to "Programmable Interface
Controller", but shortly thereafter was renamed "Programmable Intelligent Computer".
PICs are popular with developers and hobbyists alike due to their low cost, wide
availability, large user base, extensive collection of application notes, availability of low
cost or free development tools, and serial programming (and re-programming with flash
memory) capability.
Harvard architecture is computer architecture with physically separate storage
and signal pathways for instructions and data. The term originated from the Harvard
Mark I relay-based computer, which stored instructions on punched tape (24 bits wide)
and data in electro-mechanical counters (23 digits wide). These early machines had
limited data storage, entirely contained within the data processing unit, and provided no
access to the instruction storage as data, making loading and modifying programs an
entirely offline process. The PIC18F4550 have characteristic such as below:

Harvard architecture (enhanced flash & data EEPROM) 40 pin configuration

Cristal 4 MHz 48 MHz (to provide pulse for the PIC) internal 8Mhz

Have 5 ports (A-E) that can make it as input or output

Provide internal Analog to digital converter

Flash Memory 32 Kbyte, Data memory 2 K byte Provide internal PWM.

19

Figure 3.7: PIC18F4550 pin configuration

3.3.1.2 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

LCD screen needs to display the current value of temperature and humidity.
Based on LCD module of the industry standard Hitachi HD44780, it connects to 7 pins
of one port, and operates in 4 bit 'nibble' mode to save I/O pins. For this project, the
LCD is connected to Port B. By connecting to Port B we have to use a pull-up resistor
(R1) on RB4, and are unable to use RB5 (which is only an input), however this frees all
of Port B which will allow us to use some of the extra hardware available on Port B,
along with the LCD. The potentiometer P1 is for adjusting the contrast of the display,
and if incorrectly adjusted can cause the display to be invisible. By using 4 bit mode we
can connect the entire LCD module to one port, it uses exactly 10 pins (just right for our
Molex connectors). In 4 bit mode we don't use pins 7-10, which are used as the lower 4
data bits in 8 bit mode, instead we write (or read) to the upper 4 pins twice, transferring
half of the data each time.