Poultry Feed Controller Timer Circuit

The article explains a timer circuit specifically designed for detecting a poultry feed controller ON time period, and alarming a buzzer once the set time elapses. The idea was requested by one of readers of this blog.

Technical Specifications

Hello, I am a broiler poultry farmer. I have no electronic knowledge or skills.

I am looking to make some kind of relay, switch, vibration sensor that will alarm when the feed lines run for a certain amount of time which indicates that I am out of feed.

This is causing damage to my equipment.

I need something that will trigger a timer to restart every time the automatic feed line comes on.

Basically I need something that will alarm if the feed line runs over 20 minutes. Could you post a schematic for something like this?

The Design

The designed circuit of a poultry feed controller timer may be understood with the following points:

As can be seen the given circuit diagram, it basically consists of two stages, the upper transistor latch stage, and the lower IC 4060 timer stage.

Initially when power is switched ON the IC 4060 circuit is held switched OFF since the BC557 transistor is unable to conduct.The two transistors BC547 and BC557 are configured in the form of a simple latch circuit.

The MIC is placed such that it is able to sense the vibrations of the poultry feed mechanism as soon as it activates.

When the vibrations are picked, the MIC allows  an instantaneous pulse to enter the BC547 transistor activating it for a fraction of a second.

The above conduction of the BC547 in turn activates the BC557 latching the stage via the feedback resistor from the collector of BC557 to the base of BC547.

Once latched the IC is allowed to receive the required supply voltage for its operations.

The IC immediately starts counting and after a predetermined time period set by the 1M pot, pin#3 of the IC becomes high which latches the IC via the diode to pin#11.

The process actuates the connected buzzer which begins alarming regarding the lapsed time.

The circuit can be reset for repeating the cycle by switching OFF the power and switching it back ON.

In case only the IC is required to be reset, the given "reset switch" may be utilized.

Circuit Diagram