DIY Chicken Door Opener. Ideas?

[tish_matt]

So our flock of 6 hens was slaughtered over the past 2 days. All attacks happened around 4am. I work a weird schedule so i dont get up till around 12 noon sometimes, so i dont want to keep the chickens locked up for hours and hours till i wake up. So im looking for a diy way to get their door open in the morning. I dont want to spend a lot of money, as i still need to buy more chickens. The solar openers are around $130 or so, but i guesse im looking for a way to use what i have or can get easy to create something that will work.

Any ideas? Just throw them out they might inspire me!!!!

Thanks

 

[Whittni]

Inspirational idea: Pre-made one with auto-timer.

 

[VallejoSheltie]

Well, I'm in the process of building a cheap DIY that should end up costing maybe $20, however not quite there yet to help you.

If it helps to start, you can do what I did, and get a used cordless drill or screwdriver off of Craigslist for $5, or hit a garage sale, or Walmart for an $8 screwdriver.
However, the motors in these things are simple, and to reverse direction (open/close), the red and black wires have to be switched from the battery/power source + & - terminals. So that is a bit puzzling unless you want to delve into electronics for several weeks, months....

Although there might be a simpler way. *Note- I haven't built this, however it should work though the hold time of the timer may cause the motor to run for minute or two longer than needed. ** In fact, as I read what I've written below, its rather goofy, however as a proof of concept it should work, may need a bit of beefing up for continuous use.

Lets consider this.

You need power, so run an extension cord to the coop.
You need a motor, see above.
You need step-down voltage/power for your drill, so get a wall wart of the appropriate voltage, with a decent amount of current like 1 amp or so. You most likely want a lower voltage than what the drill/screwdriver normally runs at, as it lower the RPM's. This will ultimately plug into the timer and from there the motor.
You need a timer, so simplest is with a cheap timer that spins a circular dial in the middle of the box, with an outside ring that you put on/off plastic clips into.

Now, you need some way of apply +/- to your motor to open, and then later -/+ to close.
Here is where it gets a little funky, and sparky, and I'm at work so I may not complete this till later tonight.

We have extension cord to timer, timer to power adapter, power adapter wires,,,,

Put a pigtail on the power adapter + and - wires such that you have something like this ie. (+ wire) -----<===== ( 2 + wires). Same for -.
You know have 2 + and 2 - wires.

What we want to do is have the timer dial spin, and each of the ON/OFF clips will a + & - wire connected to the motor to either run forward or reverse.

I would think you could take a popsicle stick and attach it to the side of the timer.
At 3/4" height of the stick, drill a small hole and run a small bolt through with a bolt on the back. Attach the a black (-) wire to it.
At 1" height, do the same as above, however attach a red (+) wire to it.
At 1.5", do the same as above, with a black (-) wire to it.
At 2", do the same with the remaining red (+) wire.

Now, on the motor you need to add the same type of pigtails to the + & - .
Bring the wires out to the timer.
You need 2 ON clips.

One clip will be to OPEN. Attach a 1" piece of stick or whatever to the top of the clip, and attach a black (-) wire at 3/4", and a red (+) at 1"
The other clip will be to CLOSE. Do as above with a 2" piece of stock, however at 1.5" attach a red (+) wire, and at 2" attach a black (-).

If I build this, I would get very thin sheet metal to bolt to the base popsicle stick bolts and to the clip sticks bolts. Solder the requsite wires, and you should be able to line up the contacts so that they just hit as they swing by.

Aside from the possible frailty of this build, my concern would be the amount of time the motor is forced to spin waiting for the timer to move to the next 'click'. However, since one would probably be using 9, 7.5 or even 5 volts, this should slow the motor down substantially, and this would reduce torque applied. Another issue would be the wires on the dial spooling around. This could probably be minimized by having those wires come down from above, and I know there have to be connectors that allow one wire coupler to rotate within another, thus eliminating the twisting.

Can't think of anything else off of the top of my head that would do better without getting into some sort of control logic.
This is very hacky, however it would be cool if someone tried it. We're talking $5-10 for the motor, and a low voltage wallwart you probably have laying around somewhere and a $5 timer.

 

[VallejoSheltie]

OK, so I had some free time last night while waiting for others to complete their tasks, and got a little too creative.

Next suggestion, if the OP even bothers to read, would be to get a powered radio antenna for a car. Don't know how much force they can exert, however you could always attach them to a lever to increase force/torque.

 

[moetrout]

Your original idea of using a cordless drill motor would work. It would require the use of a 110v double throw relay and 2 cutout switches. If you change direction on this and want a schematic let me know.

 

[VallejoSheltie]

Hmm, good point I would guess both relays are hardwired to the motor, and you would still use both clips as relay triggers?

 

[moetrout]

Quote:
Not sure what you mean by "clips". Since the door has 2 positions (open and closed) you need the double throw relay. One side wired to the motor to cause it to go forward and the other side to cause the motor to go backward. The cutout switch would be a normally closed switch. As the door travels to the position you want it, it hits the normally closed cutout switch, engages it and the switch becomes open cutting powe to the motor shutting it off.. That's my description of how it works. As always with something like this there is more than one way to skin a cat!

 

[VallejoSheltie]

Ah, ok I get it now.

How do you trigger the relay to either open or close though? I figured you were going to use a clip on the timer dial to swing by and trigger it.

 

[jimmywalt]

I put this together for 5 BUCKS last night!!!!!!!!!!!!! Works great!!! It's from an automatic radio antenna from a car.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...a-radio-antenna-from-a-junkyard#post_11626992

My Youtube video is posted (2 minutes long) in the thread, but here's a direct link to it.......

 

[basser]

Hi. I'm using a 12 volt cordless drill motor for mine as well. I have all the parts. but I would like some more insight on how to wire the DPDT relay & limit switches to reverse the motor to close my chicken coop door. Thanks !