Homemade Automatic Door Opener

[Catkittybird]

Ok, we made a door opener based on post here using a car antenna. Worked great for a couple of weeks, but now we have issues with it not opening the door. It will close the door in the evening as set by timer, but isn't opening in the mornings. Has anyone else had this issue and how did you resolve it? The only difference in our building of the door opener is that ours is hung vertically instead of horizontal. Wondering if the weight of the door while raising is the issue? ...too much for the antenna motor??
Plan on changing out the door to a paper thin one this weekend to see if that fixes the problem but thought I'd ask here if anyone had any ideas? Thanks!

 

[TN_BIRD]

Weight could very well be the issue.

Any chance you can unhook the door from the antenna and run it up and down? That might help isolate the weight issue.

 

[aart]

TN_BIRD has a good suggestion.

Could be jamming too if it isn't centered and cocks sideways when pulled up.

Are you sure it isn't the timer itself?