Auto Door Opener Ideas for Ramp Style Door

[swmalone]

Ok I have a question on here about ideas for auto door openers. I have seen a lot of ideas and am pretty confident I could put something together for a door that slides from side to side or up and down. The problem is that my current coop is a Chicken Ark with the ramp being the door. I would love to try to hook this up to an auto door opener but I just don't see a good place to place limit switches or anything like that. I have a bit of space on the inside or even externally that I could mount some small set-up I just need feasible ideas for the set-up.

Any ideas?

You can kind of see the ramp in this picture. Right now I have an eye bolt at the end of the ramp that runs up to a pulley and then out through the end of the coop so I can open and lower the door.

 

[fireguy56]

Hey, If ya looking to add a motor to " automate" your door...my suggestion is to do a vertical slider in a simple track. Add-a-motor is simple and easy to install and works great. No limit switchs, motor has up / down adjustments built in. Very simple, main thing is if ya got enough height to do a vertical door that rises about 12" with necessary clearence above for motor. Will need about 36" of clearence from floor of hen house for a 12" door. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but ya gotta think about the door height, plus travel height of door, plus motor location. If interested, go to my page and see my set up. My door is way big, but can be scaled down. Hope this helps.
Erik

 

[swmalone]

Thanks Erik, but that isn't an option in this type of coop design. I am considering building a more permanent coop and if I do that I most likely will have the door being a vertical lift.

 

[chicken_noob]

Im guessing that since you can close the door/ramp via pulleys (eyehook) from outside the run that it is able to lower down on its own from gravity when you give the rope slack. If that's the cases then perhaps you could rig something up using a auto timer and motor from a regular auto coop door. Now you have the same space taken up as you do now..no major mode.. and like the reg coop doors you have gravity to close (open in your case) and so on. Just my 2cents

 

[swmalone]

That is kind of what I was thinking, but I am not sure if I would be able to set up a good limit switch for when it goes up.