Automatic Egg Incubator

This is how you create your very own homemade egg incubator.

Step 1: Get a Box

Start with getting you box. I recommend a box large enough to hold all 3 pulleys and the egg carton which is at least a 15in by 20in box.

Step 2: First Pulley

For my first pulley I made it 5.5in tall and 7.62mm thick. In the paper drawing with the arrows pointing to it you have to use the line tool in solid works and draw that exact sketch. You have to make the line half of the actual size of your gear so for this one it would be 2.75in. I put holes in the pulley to make it lighter and to cut print time. On top of that gear I had to had a smaller version of the big gear because this one is pulling two gears. When you do that you want to make a plane on top of the gear then draw the exact same sketch just smaller. For all the pulleys the hole in the middle will be 4.5mm so that the axle will hold in place.

Step 3: Second Pulley

For my second pulley I made it 3.5in tall and 7.62mm thick. I learned to make the gear more efficient by cut-extruding a little bit of it out and that makes the print time a lot shorter and the pulley a lot lighter. Once I did that I learned that to put the small pulley on this pulley I would have to extrude a small circle out so the rubber band could fit on there.

Step 4: Pulley for Motor

This is pulley is very small because it just fits on the motor. I made this one 15mm tall and 7mm thick.

Step 5: Final Pulley

For my final pulley I made this one the most complex because this is gonna hold a piece that holds the egg carton. I made this one 5.5in tall and 10mm thick. The pegs stick into the holes of the holder and the holder screws onto the egg carton. By having this many pulleys it gives it a lot of torque so it moves slow and does not damage the eggs.

Step 6: Final Pulley Holder

This is the holder for the final pulley. It is 75mm tall, 105mm wide, and 4mm thick. The pegs will fit into the holes in this. The holes are 14.6mm so the pegs will have a tight fit. I made the two small holes 14.6 and the are for the screws for the egg carton.

Step 7: Assemble Your Pulleys

ThThis is how your going to assemble your pulleys to get the best possible torque. This design I did gave me a 216 gear reduction. Once you have a good test going now its time to assemble it onto the box.

Step 8: Start Your Assembly

You are going to cut two wood pieces about 4.3in tall and the width the same size of your box. Then put one on the front and one on the inside of the box and screw them in. Next make your holes for your pulleys and put the axles in the holes.

Step 9: Assemble Your Pulleys Onto the Box

Once you put your pulleys onto your box then it is time to put the motor on.

Step 10: Motor Holder and Motor

The motor I am using is a brushed DC motor that is 27.2mm in diameter. The motor head is 2mm in diameter. To attach my motor I had to build a holder for it to hold onto the cardboard. To hold the motor holder in place I put a hole on the end where a screw goes in.

Step 11: Added a Piece

The blue rubber band was sometimes slipping off so I made a white cone so that if it does slip of the back piece it will stay on the white cone.

Step 12: Final Pulley System

Once I mounted my motor my pulley system was completed and then next was to program

Step 13: First the Motor

The first thing I did was solder the red and black wires on to my motor.

Step 14: Programming the Arduino

Next I got my Arduino and went on the Arduino app and wrote a program. The program turns the motor for 37 seconds because that is how long it takes for the carton to turn 180 degrees. Once it runs that then it waits for 12 hours then does it again and repeats the process.

Step 15: Wire Everything Together

On the Arduino the red wire connects to the port that says 5v. The brown wire connects to ground and the white wire connects to port 13. Next I connect them all to the relay. The white wire connects to the source port (S), the brown wire connects to negative (-) and the red wire connects to positive (+). After that the other side of the relay with the screws is where we connect two more wires. The red wire that is connected to the motor will go into the ON port on the relay. Then the orange wire will connect to the battery. Last the black wire on the motor will connect to the other part of the battery.

Step 16: Battery and Battery Caps

To power my motor I used 4 D batteries and used a paper towel roll to hold them. It was a little to short so I had to make caps to hold them in place. Once I got the caps made then I had to make a piece that holds my rubber band. The rubber band holder go on both of my caps so my rubber band won't slide off.

Step 17: Everything Put Together

Last I assembled my parts together and built a box for my arduino and then finally put everything on the box.