What are Mother Hen’s technical specs?

What are Mother Hen’s™ technical specifications?

Mother Hen™ is a monitoring system built on rugged hardware and AWS cloud infrastructure. It attaches to the automatic chicken door you already own — it does not include or sell a door, motor, or limit switch.

Hardware

Component	Specification
Coop Controller (Walter cellular)	DPTechnics Walter board (ESP32-S3) Cellular: LTE-M / NB-IoT GNSS: GPS, Galileo, BeiDou Power: 110V AC input (coop outlet required) Operating range: -20°C to +45°C (-4°F to 113°F) Enclosure: weather-resistant, UV-resistant
Chicken Door Position Sensor	Reads open/closed position of your existing vertically-opening automatic chicken door Non-actuating: reads the door; does not drive it V1 supports vertically-opening doors only; horizontal doors deferred
BTS-MP1 opening + temperature sensor	Hall-effect magnetic sensor (open/closed) Integrated temperature reporting Mounts on doors, windows, nest box lids, hatches, or run gates (4 screws: 2 sensor, 2 magnet) Temperature-only mode available (interior wall, near a roost, inside a brooder) Sold à la carte: first unit $15, additional units $35. Not included in the base kit.
The Egg (Indoor Alert Beacon)	ESP32-S3 microcontroller Indoor use, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi LED: green (day), blue (night), flashing red (alert) Integrated buzzer Up to 16 Eggs per coop

Cloud & Software

AWS IoT Core — MQTT device communication
AWS Lambda — alert logic, sunrise/sunset calculation, SMS dispatch
AWS SNS — SMS delivery
AWS S3 / DynamoDB — long-term event logging (door events, temperature)
Service model: First year included in base kit; $99/year renewal covers cellular data, cloud processing, and SMS delivery

Sunrise/Sunset Engine

Calculated from your coop’s location
30-minute grace window to avoid false alarms

Customer Portal

Web-based — accessible at mother-hen.com from any modern browser (desktop, tablet, or phone)
No app to install, no app store required
Real-time dashboard
Alert customization (SMS thresholds, which doors alert, quiet hours)
SMS recipient management
Event history
Free with the first year of service and renewal

Power & Connectivity

Coop power: one 110V outlet required. Any source (grid, solar with inverter, generator).
Coop connectivity: cellular-only at launch. No home Wi-Fi required at the coop.
The Egg: 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, indoors.
Provisioning: zero-touch cellular self-provisioning. No BLE pairing on setup.

Security & Reliability

TLS-encrypted device-to-cloud connections
Digitally signed OTA firmware updates
Local alerts continue even if the cellular link is temporarily unavailable

Prototype active in Tennessee and Colorado. Join the waitlist →