VIR Electrical Engineering
Intelligent
Incubation Control
VIR Hatch is a complete incubation control ecosystem for professional egg incubators — machine control hardware and firmware, local operator software, engineering tools, and cloud & mobile monitoring, engineered as one platform.
Built to run locally. Connected when you need it.
In active development and field validation
01 / The platform
One ecosystem,
from machine to mobile
VIR Hatch is more than a temperature controller. It is a coherent set of hardware, firmware and software built around one job: running professional incubation reliably, and making it visible wherever you are.
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Available today
Machine Controller
STM32-based control hardware and firmware, configured to the sensors and actuators each machine actually has. Runs the entire cycle at the machine.
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Available today
Local HMI
The machine's own operating display: status, process values, settings, diagnostics, live prioritized active alarms, statistics and calibration — complete operation with nothing else attached.
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Available
Customer Application
Desktop software for the hatchery PC: live multi-machine overview, operator settings, automatic cycle recording and analysis.
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Available
Engineering & Service Tools
Dedicated commissioning (Tuner) and firmware-update (Updater) applications for manufacturers and service technicians.
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Implemented
Cloud Platform
Fleet monitoring across sites — organisations, roles, telemetry history and events — with the local PC acting as gateway.
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In testing
Mobile App
Monitoring-first mobile access to machines, live values, graphs and alarms. Greek and English.
The machine always remains in control. A VIR Hatch machine runs complete incubation cycles with no internet, no cloud, no PC and no mobile app. Everything beyond the controller adds visibility and convenience — it is never required for incubation.
02 / The process
The machine follows the incubation process,
not just fixed setpoints
Daily profiles adjust temperature, humidity, CO₂, egg turning and ventilation as the cycle progresses — and the final days enter lockdown automatically, without operator intervention.
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Temperature
Precision PT1000 and SHT45 sensing feeds cascade control: the air/plenum loop is driven to hold egg temperature. Heating uses controlled burst-fire operation — smooth, proportional heat instead of crude on/off switching.
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Humidity & Water
Mist humidification with day-based targets, and control designed around the temperature disturbance mist creates. Filling is electrically controlled — a solenoid valve with LOW and HIGH level sensors means the controller always knows the water state, with dry-run protection built in.
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CO₂ (optional)
Day-based CO₂ targets drive demand-based ventilation. The platform adapts automatically to whether a CO₂ sensor is installed — and if the sensor fails, ventilation falls back to defined safe behaviour instead of trusting invalid readings.
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Ventilation
Air inlet/outlet damper position and PWM fan speed are controlled to bring in fresh air when the process demands it — without disturbing the incubation environment while CO₂ remains on target.
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Egg Turning
Configurable turning through the setting period, stopped automatically when the cycle enters lockdown.
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One program.
The whole cycle.Targets change by incubation day, ventilation strategy follows the embryo's needs, and lockdown happens on schedule — the process is in the machine, not in a notebook.
03 / Safety & reliability
Engineered to refuse
unsafe operation
Protection is not an add-on. The firmware continuously verifies that the machine behaves as expected — and when a serious fault occurs, heating always moves to a safe state first.
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S-01
Airflow-gated heating
Fan operation and airflow are supervised. If the required airflow is not confirmed, heating is disabled — heat is never applied to still air.
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S-02
Sensor supervision
Sensor validity and staleness are checked continuously. Invalid or frozen measurements are never allowed to drive the process.
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S-03
Temperature limits
Independent egg over-temperature and chamber/plenum limits protect the hatch even if a control loop misbehaves.
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S-04
Power monitoring
Mains presence and power state are monitored, so the machine knows the difference between a fault and a power event — and reacts accordingly.
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S-05
Control stability supervision
If an output stays active for an excessive period while the process remains far from target, the controller raises a fault instead of blindly continuing.
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S-06
Defined safe states
On any serious fault, heating moves to a safe state first. Diagnosis comes second — the eggs come first.
04 / The machine
Designed to be installed, serviced and replaced
The controller, display and wiring architecture are engineered as machine equipment — built for the electrical cabinet, the service technician and years of continuous duty, not permanently wired into a machine.
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One platform, many machines
The STM32-based controller is configured to each machine's installed hardware — the same platform adapts to different machine designs.
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Complete local operation
The display mounts on the cabinet door, the controller inside. From the machine's own interface: status, settings, diagnostics, a live prioritized display of all active alarms, statistics and calibration.
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Serviceable by design
Connector-based sensor and board connections, a separate display/main-board arrangement, protected and individually fused 230 V outputs. Controllers and sensors are replaced, not rewired.
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Nothing forgotten on power loss
Configuration, incubation state, faults and statistics live in non-volatile memory with a battery-backed clock. A power interruption does not erase the machine's memory of the incubation process.
Preheat with confidence
A defined preheat stage clearly indicates when conditions are ready for eggs.
Interlocked UV sanitation
UV cleaning runs only under safe conditions — no active cycle, door closed, for a controlled duration.
Machine lighting
Cabinet lighting with automatic switch-off after about 30 minutes.
Controlled communications
The PC connects over RS-485/Modbus and writes only what the machine configuration permits. The machine remains the authority.
05 / Local software
Your whole hatchery
on one screen
The VIR Hatch Customer application runs on a hatchery PC and connects to machines over RS-485/Modbus. Multiple machines, one fleet view — temperatures, humidity, CO₂, fan status, incubation stage, operating state and alarms.
Representative interface concept — not a screenshot of the final software.
Fleet overview
Every machine at a glance, with per-machine detail one click away.
Operator control, machine authority
Normal operating parameters can be adjusted where the machine configuration permits. Engineering access stays separate.
Built to reconnect
Automatic connection, reconnection and RS-485 machine discovery — designed to recover, not to be babysat.
Version-aware
Software and machines verify communication compatibility before trusting each other's data.
06 / Cycle data
Every cycle becomes data
you can revisit
Each incubation cycle is recorded automatically into its own dataset on the local PC — so a question like “what happened on day 14?” has an answer, days or weeks later.
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Engineering-grade graphs
Multi-channel visualization with zoom, pan, event markers, time inspection and A/B cursor comparison.
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Compare cycles
Load previous cycles alongside the current one and compare behaviour across hatches — spot drift before it costs a hatch.
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Export freely
CSV export for analysis in your own tools, image export for reports where supported.
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Yours, locally
Local cycle archives remain available independently of cloud retention — cloud history currently covers about 35 days.
07 / Cloud
One fleet, many sites,
clear roles
The local PC can act as a gateway to the VIR Hatch cloud: fleet monitoring, telemetry history, events and connectivity state for every machine you are responsible for — across organisations and sites.
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Machine
Incubator
Setter or hatcher — the physical machine and its actuators.
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Available today
VIR Hatch Controller
Autonomous closed-loop control at the machine. Fully functional without any external connection.
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Available
PC / Gateway
Local monitoring, control and cycle recording — and optionally the bridge to the cloud.
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Implemented
Cloud
Accounts, organisations, roles, machine claiming, fleet monitoring, history and events.
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In testing
Mobile
Monitoring-first visibility from a phone, currently in testing.
Loss of internet does not stop the machine. Cloud connectivity adds visibility across sites — local incubation never depends on it, and old or stale data is clearly marked instead of being presented as live.
History at every scale
Cloud graphs from the last 6 hours up to 35 days, per machine.
Organisations & roles
Owner, administrator, operator, technician, viewer — each user sees and does what their role allows.
Built for the channel
Manufacturer → distributor → customer organisation → users. One platform supports the whole commercial and service chain without mixing anyone's data.
Honest connectivity
Machine and gateway connection states are always explicit — you know when data is fresh.
08 / Mobile In testing
See the machine from anywhere.
Control remains local.
The VIR Hatch mobile application — currently in testing — brings machines, live and recent values, graphs, events and alarms to your phone, in Greek and English.
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M-01
Monitoring-first, deliberately
The current application does not send commands to machines. Remote visibility without casually exposing machine control over the internet is a design decision, not a missing feature.
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M-02
Push notifications — in validation
Alerts for machine alarms and for loss of machine or gateway communication are currently being validated.
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M-03
Fleet in your pocket
Machines, detailed status, graphs, events and organisation information where your role allows it.
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M-04
Remote control — future
Remote machine commands are a future capability with a dedicated safety and security design of their own. They are not part of the current version.
09 / Engineering tools
For the people who build
and service the machines
Two dedicated applications support manufacturers, installers and service technicians — separate from the customer software, behind protected access levels.
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T-01
Tuner — commissioning
Live telemetry, commissioning parameters, full parameter upload and download, saved configurations, automatic data recording and CSV export. Commission once, save the setup — reuse or restore it when needed, instead of rebuilding it by hand.
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T-02
Updater — fail-safe updates
Firmware updates in the field over RS-485, with no programmer in the customer's hands. Signed, integrity-verified firmware with dual slots and automatic rollback: a failed update should not mean a dead machine. A technician-level recovery path exists as well.
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T-03
Protected engineering access
Operator, technician and manufacturer functions are separated by controlled access levels. Advanced engineering and factory settings are protected from accidental or unauthorized change.
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T-04
Reproducible machines
A proven machine setup becomes a stored configuration — so the tenth machine behaves like the first, and a replaced controller behaves like the one it replaced.
10 / Status
In active development
and field validation.
The machine platform, local software and engineering tools are working today; the cloud platform is implemented and the mobile application is in testing. If VIR Hatch intersects with what you build, sell or operate, we would like to hear from you early.
- Incubator & hatchery equipment manufacturers
- Distributors & service networks
- Pilot installations
- Technical partnerships
- Early commercial interest