Tinkering; Like Guntering for the Connected Generation.

Handy having your own scales alright. I presume you are still manually entering the weights from the scales to the sheets?

Has the clock a serial port on it? (could be internal as in needing to remove cover to access, but should be in the manual)

I put a cattle scales together after joining the BEEP scheme. Was considering utilizing the the serial port on scales to automatically read the weight into an excel sheet and now with compulsory EID tags adding an EID tag reader would completely automate recording.

Not sure where the fourth core comes in, it that scenario. Is it just 2 going from earth pin to chassis ground?

The correct config for those plugs is one earth, one permeant live and one ignition switch aux live. But in practice the vast majority are 1 permanent live and earth. You can have 2 lives with one earth without issue, but it is the load that needs consideration as long as you don't overload the pins or the wiring you won't have a problem. There can be different amp ratings between manufacturers and the amp rating of the small pin will be about half of the larger one.

If there was a question in there about the amp rating of the earth line, the current on the earth pin will be the sum of the 2 live pins, doubling up with the earth wire will increase the current rating but just using a gauge wire suitable to the application is probably the best in practice. Basically make sure you are not overloading any of the pins or wires to avoid a fire.

The farmOS software I referred to earlier stores all data to an SQL database.

A database is definitely the way to go but spread sheets can be use full too, information can always be parsed from a sheet to a database also.

Are you using MS Access yourself?

I have no intention of taking that approach, as Patsy pointed out web scraping is too prone to breaking due to format changes and security measures actively taken by sites to block it. Just simply a program to process the exportable CSV files from DAFM, could possibly be done with Excel and macros alone at least in the early stages but it may be developed further and possibly become a custom module for with farmOS later.

So basically initially read my herd profile from the exported DAFM CSV file and compare to one exported from farmOS and reformat and parse only the changes to be reimported into farmOS as births and purchases, and create a to do list of animals to be marked as on farm deaths and sales.

I have direct access to the SQL database of my farmOS instance so much of the processing there can be eventually completely automated on that side.

I added a touch screen in the Kitchen, with access to Home Assistant to monitor the House and Farm.

I like the Wavin pipe mod, simple but effective. Did you consider beam breaks? or just nothing available for Tuya eco system?

The reason why I started using Home Assistant is its ability to mix devices from different IOT eco systems which gives far more choice , also in the case of Tuya with some third part integrations its possible to control the devices locally so they still work if the cloud servers or your internet connection go down.

I've been using some image processing from my Hikvision DVR to send alerts to Home Assistant, but I'm using fairly basic cameras and it only supports smart detection on one camera and basic area detection on the others. I've the smart detection setup for the front gate and it rarely has false alarms, but the area detection on other cameras can be triggered by leaves on a windy day. I'm considering using Frigate with a dedicated processor for proper person and object detection.

Having said that, sometimes you just can't beat simple, I have a few spare PIR's lying around so might give your idea to narrow the field ago.

plan B went up in smoke, due to under rated Resistors 🔥 😧

Plans A and B will be revisited later but here is Plan C. I was avoiding this one as I thought it might not be accurate enough but initial tests are promising.

A non contact EMF sensor, surprisingly easy to make with just a resistor and a short length of wire.

Sensitivity could probably do with some adjustment, but its just a matter of using different resistor values.

Adafruit lora32u4, Has built in LoRa Module and a LiPo battery socket with USB input and battery charging circuit, I'm hoping it will be a simple job to add a small Solar panel like the micro USB ones for Cameras like Reolink use.

#define MY_DEBUG
#define MY_RADIO_RFM95
#define MY_DEBUG_VERBOSE_RFM95
#define MY_RFM95_RST_PIN 4
#define MY_RFM95_CS_PIN 8
#define MY_RFM95_IRQ_PIN 7
#define MY_RFM95_IRQ_NUM digitalPinToInterrupt(7)
#define MY_RFM95_MODEM_CONFIGRUATION RFM95_BW125CR45SF128
#define MY_RFM95_FREQUENCY (RFM95_868MHZ)


#define MY_NODE_ID 84


#include <MySensors.h>
#include <Arduino.h>




uint32_t SLEEP_TIME = 30000; // Sleep time between reports (in milliseconds)


#define CHILD_ID_LIGHT 0
#define LIGHT_SENSOR_ANALOG_PIN 0


MyMessage msg(CHILD_ID_LIGHT, V_LIGHT_LEVEL);

// EMF


int aVal=0;
int VL=0;








void presentation()
{
    // Send the sketch version information to the gateway and Controller
    sendSketchInfo("EMF Sensor", "1.0");


    // Register all sensors to gateway (they will be created as child devices)
    present(CHILD_ID_LIGHT, S_LIGHT_LEVEL);
}


void loop()
{
    aVal=analogRead(LIGHT_SENSOR_ANALOG_PIN);
   // if (aVal > 1 ) {
        VL=map(aVal,1,100,1,255);
        Serial.println(VL);
        send(msg.set(VL));
  //  } 


    


    // Sleep until interrupt comes in on motion sensor. Send update every two minute.
   //sleep(SLEEP_TIME);
}

Initial Arduino Sketch for testing. It is setup a a light sensor, as Home Assistant and MySensors don't have an EMF option.