The latest project with the help of AI

Good morning/evening
 
As you may well be aware, my husband and I are perhaps not the best at being semi retired, therefore when we started doing the miners that shall not be named, we were busy, that adapted to crypto which made us exceptionally busy as we both had a lot to learn and we both got on with it, each of us learning about different aspects and sharing that knowledge, we invested...some good and some not so good. It was great as it was something we were both interested in. Now do not get me wrong, neither of us 'knows it all', you never will in this space, but as I am happy with my portfolio, know what I want to buy and have somewhat automated that, there is not a whole lot I need to do. I could do some trading of course, I could rewrite the bot that was set up for Drift and I probably will at some point but there are times when I or we need a project, we finished the solar just a couple of months ago (I really am happy with it and will share the data soon) there are going to be a few more panels added eventually, these will not be static but more about that later. So back to the latest project that AI was used to write the code for.
 
Do you have an idea of what it could be?
 

 
 
 
The latest project is an automated chicken food feeder and an automatic door, do we need this? No not really, it is not a hard job but it was something fun to do with Arduino and with a bit of code (well quite a lot of code actually) that the AI wrote. It wrote code for the ESP on the perameters of when the food should be dispensed and how long after that the door should open and close.
 
There is a time module for the door so that it can open 30 minutes after dawn and close 30 minutes before dusk, the revolutions or steps it needs to open and close had to be carefully planned so that it does not open or close too quickly. My hens are free range and quite predictable and I do not have to call them in at feeding time because as the sun starts going down they start getting closer to their house anyway. It was more about if they would use the new automated door and be in their coop before the door closes. The door also works with a stepping motor connected to a threaded bar that makes the door rise up and close down. A driver is connected to the ESP and the stepping motor and a 12 v DC power supply. The stepping motor driver has dip switches for settings that allow you to ensure the driver gives the motor the correct power and steps, it knows when to stop as it reaches the homing switch.
 
As for the feeder to dispense the chicken food, it had to be weighed to account for any treats like sweetcorn or sunflower seeds as well as the grain and there can be random amounts of each in a scoop, there was a lot of testing here as I wouldn't want my hens to go hungry! The speed of the dispensing was also a factor that had to be accounted for in the code. knowing how much feed I give my hens, it had to be worked out how much feed 1 turn would dispense to work out the number of turns needed, the AI worked out how many turns would be needed. (Arduino IDE is the program used for coding, standard C+)
To actually do this, a stepping motor is connected to a spiral drill bit so the motor turns the drill bit and as it is winding it is pulling the hens food through a chamber, and releasing it through a hole where the food drops out. As for the time of the day by using an old ESP32 micro controller with a time module it could be programmed to activate the feeder 45 mins before sunset and 45 mins before sunrise. It is also programmed for a treat size portion where I can press a button to dispense a small amount of food.
 
The feeder
 

 
There were times when the code did not work and as neither of us can code it so there was a lot of testing before it was working correctly, but the AI was really good at telling you what parts you need and where to get them (not that we needed many as my husband has a huge box of parts for Arduino projects). There were so many tests, tweaks and code changes before it was finally working correctly, but it is now in place, feeding my hens and letting them get in and out as they want until bedtime when the door closes for bedtime lol. Just in case it is needed I also have a push button for opening the door, closing it and feed dispensing, Water stations are all over the garden and hen house too.
 
 
All the components neatly in their waterproof casing withe push buttons for manual operation.

 
So what do you think? Have we both gone a little too far lol? Have you done any projects using AI?
 
As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to comment.