Cooptender coop door problems help needed

[Zwillingsmama]

it's a 12V battery and no we always had the solar hooked up to the battery, but can try to take the solar out. Don't really want to use a car battery since I have the 12V and the solar unless I have to

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

The door will open and close with the battery however during the night (or when it is overcast/ rainy) the battery will drain for unknown reasons. We never got the door to work with AC

It's really hard to work with you because you're all over the place and don't ever give good feedback. I've spent most of my professional life solving problems with stuff like this, though much more complex, and I can say with confidence that I know how to solve these kinds of problems. What I can't do, though, is solve problems when I don't know what's going on. I've asked you to do specific things so I can systematically eliminate unknowns (which is the only way problems get solved), but I still don't have the information I need. So honestly, I really can't help you. Unless you want to start over and do specifically what I tell you, and answer every question I ask. I can assure you that you don't have the expertise to solve this on your own. I do, but I can't do it blindly.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

Forgot to mention that the door will operate when we attach the battery to the wires which are meant for the solar I will check tonight if the battery will drain that way with no solar attached

 

[Zwillingsmama]

It's really hard to work with you because you're all over the place and don't ever give good feedback. I've spent most of my professional life solving problems with stuff like this, though much more complex, and I can say with confidence that I know how to solve these kinds of problems. What I can't do, though, is solve problems when I don't know what's going on. I've asked you to do specific things so I can systematically eliminate unknowns (which is the only way problems get solved), but I still don't have the information I need. So honestly, I really can't help you. Unless you want to start over and do specifically what I tell you, and answer every question I ask. I can assure you that you don't have the expertise to solve this on your own. I do, but I can't do it blindly.

I am sorry that you feel I am not giving good feed back. I am trying to do/test what you and JT ask for.
Is there anything specific i did not answer? I think I only tested the DC part of questions for most part since we have no AC to the coop although I ran an extension cord briefly to see if that worked (which it did not).
Again I am sorry - it’s not my intention to be difficult. Electric stuff is clearly not my thing. My husband is familiar with the meter and did all the readings/measurements maybe he is better to communicate with so I will ask him to take over from now

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Is there anything specific i did not answer?

There are 3 things we need to detemine.

1. Does the switch work?
2. Does the power supply work?
3. Is the blocking diode(s) on the solar panel(s) good?

Best to work through these one at a time.

First I need you to unscrew the switch from the wood it's attached to and take a picture of the backside so that I can see how many wires there are and how they connect to the switch. What I'm looking for regarding wire connections is to see if there is exposed metal at each connection point where you can measure with the volt/ohm meter.

btw it helped me when you said your husband knows how to use a voltmeter. I wasn't sure before.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Tested on one side and there was no resistance and on the other side infinite resistance, flipping the switch made no difference

Which side measured no resistance?

 

[Zwillingsmama]

I took the picture. There is 1 red wire going to the battery all other wires are going to the power module. It looks to me that nothing is hooked up to the left side (right side in this picture from the back)

Left side infinite resistance, right side is 0

 

[jthornton]

Ok, the part number sent me to digikey and I got the schematic for that power module. So it's a double pole single throw switch that switches both the line and the neutral. From the second photo the bottom two red wires should go to the power supply I assume and when you turn the switch off it kills the power to the power supply thus killing the unit. The green wire on the top is the ground wire. What do the other two wires go to?

Edit: The power module is only $8.86 from Digikey but you would need to solder the wires on.

JT

 

[Zwillingsmama]

Ok, the part number sent me to digikey and I got the schematic for that power module. So it's a double pole single throw switch that switches both the line and the neutral. From the second photo the bottom two red wires should go to the power supply I assume and when you turn the switch off it kills the power to the power supply thus killing the unit. The green wire on the top is the ground wire. What do the other two wires go to?

Edit: The power module is only $8.86 from Digikey but you would need to solder the wires on.

JT

The “middle “ red wire is for the battery hook up. All other wires go to the power supply

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

@Zwillingsmama,
Is the red stuff on the contact points wax or hard plastic?