Cooptender coop door problems help needed

[Zwillingsmama]

Solar is the only way I can charge, I do not have another charger. Since I live in CA we usually get enough sun over a 5 day period to recharge the battery- the battery should not drain empty overnight

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

@Zwillingsmama,
It might be worthwhile to send an email to the company to ask if they disable the ability to run on 120VAC power when they set up a system to run on solar. If they say "no", then mention that on yours there is an open circuit between the hot 120VAC cord connector and it's corresponding fuse.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Also, you might get a lot of mileage out of letting them know about this thread. I can't imagine a better advertisement for not buying their product than this thread. If that was my product I would have wanted to be Mr. Johnny-on-the-spot here to help you resolve your issue, rather than have this public display of the hassles of dealing with their product and of their customer service incompetence..

 

[Zwillingsmama]

Dear junbug and JT. Thanks so much for all your help. After all that time spend - yours and mine I am giving up to get that door running and will buy a different one. I read the ador1 gets good reviews and that owner is actually responsive and if something breaks you can buy the parts relatively cheap.
On a good note I got my first egg today. My 33 week BR finally laid a beautiful one.

 

[cavemanrich]

Dear junbug and JT. Thanks so much for all your help. After all that time spend - yours and mine I am giving up to get that door running and will buy a different one. I read the ador1 gets good reviews and that owner is actually responsive and if something breaks you can buy the parts relatively cheap.
On a good note I got my first egg today. My 33 week BR finally laid a beautiful one.

Here is mine. I'm totally satisfied. Change the $5 battery once per year. Open at dawn and closed at dusk. The sprocket driven door is predator proof.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Dear junbug and JT. Thanks so much for all your help. After all that time spend - yours and mine I am giving up to get that door running and will buy a different one. I read the ador1 gets good reviews and that owner is actually responsive and if something breaks you can buy the parts relatively cheap.
On a good note I got my first egg today. My 33 week BR finally laid a beautiful one.

Enjoy your $400 pile of parts.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Here is mine. I'm totally satisfied. Change the $5 battery once per year. Open at dawn and closed at dusk. The sprocket driven door is predator proof.

That looks like a great door. Price isn't bad either. I'm impressed that it runs off of a 6-volt lantern battery for a year. I'd have to modify it to also wirelessly open when I push a button in the house.

 

[cavemanrich]

That looks like a great door. Price isn't bad either. I'm impressed that it runs off of a 6-volt lantern battery for a year. I'd have to modify it to also wirelessly open when I push a button in the house.

Before I jumped in with both feet and $200 I researched and evaluated all the doors out there. This one fit my needs best. It can also be mounted horizontally.

 

[jthornton]

For anyone that googles this thread and wants to know more about this door I'm going to dispel the myths about this door. I'll start with the plug/fuse/switch. This is exactly as I surmised earlier in this thread. I've labeled the AC pins and the fuses. The top fuse in this photo is the 120VAC Hot fuse, the bottom fuse is the 12VDC Battery fuse. The switch turns both the AC and the DC on/off.



Now for the back side of the switch I've labeled that as well. Just as I thought the neutral bar has been cut so the rest of that side is for the DC.



The AC side goes to the Power Supply and the DC side goes directly into the controller.

I'm still sorting out the Solar Panel connections, I've downloaded the manual to look at it a bit today and will report back.

JT

 

[jthornton]

I downloaded all three manuals and I noticed that in the version 8.6 manual they state "Fuses are 1 Amp GMA Mini Fuses" while in the version 9.4 manual they state "Fuses are 1.5 or 2 Amp GMA Mini Fuses" which suggests to me that they found that the 1 amp fuses were too small. The 8.6 manual shows the power consumption IMHO a bit on the low side at 100mA – 120mA (1.2 – 1.4 Watts) @12V while the 9.4 manual states the power consumption at 250mA – 400mA @12 (both are for when the door is opening and closing.

JT