- Thread starter
- #221
weather / dust proof is pretty important! The rubber seal on my door lock actuator just tore apart and I'm a little concerned that dust etc. is getting in there.
Automatic Chicken Coop Door - Auto Closes Coop - Beta Version 1.0
- Thread starter Nifty-Chicken
- Start date
Thats a cool idea, (if I understand it right)
So you use the guillotine style door, and use an actuator as a lock. Hmmmm, will have to remember that, and maybe just buy a cheap actuator that has just a small stroke.
You could always use something like this...
to protect your actuator. IDK what kind you have, but just a thought.
(BTW I think this is just for where the shaft goes in and out, not for the motor housing)
MusicMan
So you use the guillotine style door, and use an actuator as a lock. Hmmmm, will have to remember that, and maybe just buy a cheap actuator that has just a small stroke.
You could always use something like this...
to protect your actuator. IDK what kind you have, but just a thought.
(BTW I think this is just for where the shaft goes in and out, not for the motor housing)
MusicMan
Quote:
Not sure what you mean by 'tubular' actuator, but its made by HIWIN - eBay item # 160358780370. It's got up to 800N of force, which was enough to snap an M4 screw in half during testing, and certainly enough to damage a chicken if ne ever got in the way! It's also 24V, but I'm running it off 15V at the moment and everything seems fine.
Quote:
I've seen lots of those satellite ones on eBay too, though the cost to ship those from the states to the UK was kinda high. Plus is they're weatherproof - mine has a seal (as all good actuators should), but it's not rated as being weatherproof! Anyway, it's inside the hen house and will be covered with an extra wooden box thing (to keep the chicken from pecking at it should they wish to) so hopefully it'll be OK.
As for using an actuator as a lock - why not use the actuator as the actual closing mechanism - no lock required... Obviously, if a small actuators costs pennies then I see the attraction, but my experience with guillotine style doors is that a) they need locking and b) anything that gets in the way will prevent the door from closing: an actuator can get through all kinds of obstacles (straw, dust, foxes...)
Not sure what you mean by 'tubular' actuator, but its made by HIWIN - eBay item # 160358780370. It's got up to 800N of force, which was enough to snap an M4 screw in half during testing, and certainly enough to damage a chicken if ne ever got in the way! It's also 24V, but I'm running it off 15V at the moment and everything seems fine.
Quote:
I've seen lots of those satellite ones on eBay too, though the cost to ship those from the states to the UK was kinda high. Plus is they're weatherproof - mine has a seal (as all good actuators should), but it's not rated as being weatherproof! Anyway, it's inside the hen house and will be covered with an extra wooden box thing (to keep the chicken from pecking at it should they wish to) so hopefully it'll be OK.
As for using an actuator as a lock - why not use the actuator as the actual closing mechanism - no lock required... Obviously, if a small actuators costs pennies then I see the attraction, but my experience with guillotine style doors is that a) they need locking and b) anything that gets in the way will prevent the door from closing: an actuator can get through all kinds of obstacles (straw, dust, foxes...)
Only problems I can see are:
1. Power failure (unless wet-cell battery with solar charger)
2. Constantly having to adjust timer to compensate for the changing lengths of days.
An electric eye type doo-dad like on-at-dusk, off-at-dawn might work . A good one will have a sensitivity adjustment to tweak it in so no birds get left outside.
1. Power failure (unless wet-cell battery with solar charger)
2. Constantly having to adjust timer to compensate for the changing lengths of days.
An electric eye type doo-dad like on-at-dusk, off-at-dawn might work . A good one will have a sensitivity adjustment to tweak it in so no birds get left outside.
Quote:
Yup, would definitely be a problem. Not sure of your location, but here in the UK (we live close to London in the south east) power failures are very rare - can't remember the last one!! Parents are in Canada at the moment close to Calgary, and they get regular power failures - so I guess it depends where you live
Quote:
That's what this door has got - in fact it has two electric eye type doo-daa thingies - called light dependent resistors (LDR's). These are in different positions in the run and the control box just takes the average of the two readings to determine whether it's dawn or dusk. It doesn't have sensitivity adjustment on it though - I've hard coded the readings for dawn and dusk after a few experiments and the door closes 30 mins after official sunset (pretty dark by then) and opens 15 minutes after official sunrise. I've changed the values today to get the door to close a little earlier, as the ladies go inside before sunset anyway - we'll see what happens...
Yup, would definitely be a problem. Not sure of your location, but here in the UK (we live close to London in the south east) power failures are very rare - can't remember the last one!! Parents are in Canada at the moment close to Calgary, and they get regular power failures - so I guess it depends where you live
Quote:
That's what this door has got - in fact it has two electric eye type doo-daa thingies - called light dependent resistors (LDR's). These are in different positions in the run and the control box just takes the average of the two readings to determine whether it's dawn or dusk. It doesn't have sensitivity adjustment on it though - I've hard coded the readings for dawn and dusk after a few experiments and the door closes 30 mins after official sunset (pretty dark by then) and opens 15 minutes after official sunrise. I've changed the values today to get the door to close a little earlier, as the ladies go inside before sunset anyway - we'll see what happens...
Quote:
I don't know if this is a specific kind, that is just what Fergelli had theirs labeled as on their site.
Quote:
If everything is run off of AC, like if all your DC equipment was run off of AC power supplies, you could use like an APC UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), and that would give you short term back-up.
Also, if your equipment doesn't pull too many amps you could use a 12V battery with a power inverter(like the type you can use in your car) as a backup. You could set up a system with relays that when the power cuts off, a backup system kicks in. Of course you would have to use a normally closed relay, so that when the coil is energized, by the AC, your back-up system is disconnected. Just a thought.
Quote:
Yes that would be nice. I have have a question about your picaxe.
Do you program this with a computer? Also can this be used for just one automation? How many I/O does it have?
I don't know if this is a specific kind, that is just what Fergelli had theirs labeled as on their site.
Quote:
If everything is run off of AC, like if all your DC equipment was run off of AC power supplies, you could use like an APC UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), and that would give you short term back-up.
Also, if your equipment doesn't pull too many amps you could use a 12V battery with a power inverter(like the type you can use in your car) as a backup. You could set up a system with relays that when the power cuts off, a backup system kicks in. Of course you would have to use a normally closed relay, so that when the coil is energized, by the AC, your back-up system is disconnected. Just a thought.
Quote:
Yes that would be nice. I have have a question about your picaxe.
Do you program this with a computer? Also can this be used for just one automation? How many I/O does it have?
It's got up to 800N of force, which was enough to snap an M4 screw in half during testing, and certainly enough to damage a chicken if ne ever got in the way!
Wow, 800N ≈ 180 pounds (No, not 180£, thats for you tiiiim.
)
You could put a system in that when there's somehing in the door way it won't close. Like on garage door openers. You could probably get the materials you need for that out of a cheap kids toy. Like one of those things that when something goes buy it starts singing or something.Just some Ideas.
MusicMan
Wow, 800N ≈ 180 pounds (No, not 180£, thats for you tiiiim.
You could put a system in that when there's somehing in the door way it won't close. Like on garage door openers. You could probably get the materials you need for that out of a cheap kids toy. Like one of those things that when something goes buy it starts singing or something.Just some Ideas.
MusicMan
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Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMV1Tiu2Vsc
Quote:
Yup, you write the code on the computer - its a very basic language (based upon BASIC, in fact) and is super easy to learn. The manuals (3 pdf's) are amazing and have everything you need in them. Once your code is written you just send it over to the picaxe via a cable. You can get cables for serial ports or USB.
You can automate many things with a picaxe. For example, the one in the hen house actuates the door, reads input from light sensors and switches (and soon a PIR detector) and outputs communications to another picaxe which controls the visual feedback for the user (just some LED's).
There are many versions from 08M (5 I/O pins) up to 40X2 (33 I/O pins). The main control box in the hen house has a 28X1, which has way too many I/O pins for what I need, but it allows expansion (temperature, water etc etc).
The best thing to do if you're interested is read the first few pages of the first manual - it's got tonnes (or tons
) of info: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/docs/datasheets/picaxe_manual1.pdf.
My experience with electronics before using a picaxe was limited: made a 12V->5V DC/DC converter once, and once tried a 555 timer with no success. Admittedly I'm fairly OK in coding, so that didn't pose a problem.
Quote:
I had a quick think about that, but after I got the actuator decided against it - its speed is 15mm (0.5 inch) per second, so pretty slow, and the chickens are lightening quick when they want to be!! Also, I didn't want any false triggers such as straw preventing the door from closing - I'm just counting on the ladies being in bed before the door closes!!
Quote:
Yup, you write the code on the computer - its a very basic language (based upon BASIC, in fact) and is super easy to learn. The manuals (3 pdf's) are amazing and have everything you need in them. Once your code is written you just send it over to the picaxe via a cable. You can get cables for serial ports or USB.
You can automate many things with a picaxe. For example, the one in the hen house actuates the door, reads input from light sensors and switches (and soon a PIR detector) and outputs communications to another picaxe which controls the visual feedback for the user (just some LED's).
There are many versions from 08M (5 I/O pins) up to 40X2 (33 I/O pins). The main control box in the hen house has a 28X1, which has way too many I/O pins for what I need, but it allows expansion (temperature, water etc etc).
The best thing to do if you're interested is read the first few pages of the first manual - it's got tonnes (or tons
My experience with electronics before using a picaxe was limited: made a 12V->5V DC/DC converter once, and once tried a 555 timer with no success. Admittedly I'm fairly OK in coding, so that didn't pose a problem.
Quote:
I had a quick think about that, but after I got the actuator decided against it - its speed is 15mm (0.5 inch) per second, so pretty slow, and the chickens are lightening quick when they want to be!! Also, I didn't want any false triggers such as straw preventing the door from closing - I'm just counting on the ladies being in bed before the door closes!!
- Jan 9, 2010
- 16
- 6
- 79
After reading 23 pages of this topic, the easiest and most logical (to me) application I can find on the net is this one:
http://www.fabiens.org/ckblog/?page_id=106
It has an auto closing/ auto opening/ auto latch locking and it's inexpensive too! The author has a detailed step by step WITH photos of how to build this auto coop door.
Just thought I'd pass along what I have found. I've looked at literally dozens of DIY designs.
Ron
http://www.fabiens.org/ckblog/?page_id=106
It has an auto closing/ auto opening/ auto latch locking and it's inexpensive too! The author has a detailed step by step WITH photos of how to build this auto coop door.
Just thought I'd pass along what I have found. I've looked at literally dozens of DIY designs.
Ron
- Thread starter
- #229
Ron, thanks for posting! That's a great design with a lot of very helpful pics and info!
I am still in the planning but what i am thinking is using a power motorized antenna or a power window motor..
trying to go for 12 volts so i can use a wet battery and a solar charger with it.
just need to figure how own much it would be able to lift
I have an idea going to be ordering the parts soon.
trying to go for 12 volts so i can use a wet battery and a solar charger with it.
just need to figure how own much it would be able to lift
I have an idea going to be ordering the parts soon.
Last edited:
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