Wake Your Flock Up Before the Crack of Dawn.
The smart lighting controller that simulates sunrise to keep your hens happy and productive all year long.
The smart lighting controller that simulates sunrise to keep your hens happy and productive all year long.
See your flock's entire day at a glance.
The CRACK OF DAWN™ interface features an intuitive 24-hour cycle ring that visualizes your farm's specific day. No more messing with timers!
Designed by farmers, for farmers. No more remembering to adjust mechanical timers.
Automatically adjusts to maintain total lighting objectives.
Mimics natural sunrise by slowly increasing light over 25 minutes, reducing stress.
Enter your GPS coordinates for precise local sunrise/sunset times, 365 days a year.
Enter the hatch date and Pullet Mode takes care of the rest. Your pullets will be ready to lay when the time comes.
Verify your setup at any time. Put your system in Test Mode to run an accelerated cycle to check that everything is working properly.
Connect your phone or Wi-Fi device to configure, check status, or update firmware. No router or internet required.
Keep your controller current with OTA updates. Download the firmware files and load them to your CRACK OF DAWN™ controller.
Stores all settings in permanent memory. Includes a backup battery to maintain the date and time in case the main power fails.
Gain valuable insights into your controller's vitals. Monitor real-time metrics including internal temperature, memory status, and system uptime.
Data you can trust.
Curious about exactly when your lights turned on this week? The History page provides a detailed log of your system's performance.
Supply power to the controller and wire the 12VDC lighting through the controller.
Connect your phone directly to the CRACK OF DAWN™ Wi-Fi. (Internet connection is not required.)
Complete Setup and Lighting preferences. The device handles the rest, 365 days a year!
Select the option that fits your farm's needs.
Perfect for existing 12V setups or DIY*.
Prewired solar ready kit.
The Crack of Dawn lighting controller knows the sunrise and sunset for your location on every day of the year. It then calculates the additional supplemental lighting and start time required to meet your goal. Artificial lighting is added in the early morning before sunrise and turned off shortly after sunrise. Your hens roost for the evening with the natural sunset.
The Crack of Dawn is designed for 12V DC systems (commonly used with solar setups or coop batteries). 12V DC dimmable (PWM) LED light bulbs are required. While the controller can handle up to 100W of lighting, we strongly recommend lower wattage to maximize battery storage. Our kit includes (2) 6W LED bulbs which can run for 2 weeks on a full charge.
Sunrise times vary wildly depending on location. The Crack of Dawn uses your coordinates to calculate the precise sunrise and sunset times at your farm for every day of the year.
Just enter your address into an online mapping tool like Google Maps. Two decimal places will be within a few minutes, while three decimals is accurate within a few seconds.
Fixed Mode allows you to simply set the total lighting requirement from 8 to 16 hours. CRACK OF DAWN™ automatically calculates and addes supplemental lighting in the morning to meet the requirement.
Pullet Mode follows a typical commercial lighting schedule for hybrid (sex-link) pullets. It slowly increases light each day to stimulate egg production naturally. After 17 weeks, it automatically converts to hen mode maintaining 16 hours of light.
Press the "Start Test" button to run through an accelerated lighting cycle. The lights quickly ramp up over 30 seconds, followed by a 5 minute lights on period. This gives you a chance to test your setup and lighting at any time of the day.
Chickens don't observe DST and neither does the CRACK OF DAWN™. It operates on Standard Time year-round to keep your flock's biological rhythm consistent. If you are setting the time during DST (summer), subtract one hour from your current time.
The controller is an Access Point (AP) only. It can not be connected through a router. You can connect a WiFi enabled device directly to the netword SSID created by the controller when in range.
The maximum range under ideal conditions with direct line of sight is 500 ft. In reality, you will likely need to be within 300 ft of the controller to connect via a smartphone. Rest assured, the system functions fully without a connected device; WiFi is only needed to change settings, view history, or check system performance.