power antenna pop door

[frank6702]

I'm currently putting together a power antenna to open the pop door for my girls. The idea come from reading threads on here. I have power to the coop and was going to wire it with timers to open and close using the power supply, but i'm not sure what to do if the power goes out in case of a power outage. it wont open or close. How would i open and close the door? is there a manual switch i could wire into it in case and not sure how i would do this.

 

[jthornton]

I assume the antenna is 12v and have no idea what voltage the timer is or how you have it wired up. Any switch will do the trick to override the timer. Make sure the door does not close before dusk and make sure your birds don't have a habit of roosting in the door. Power antenna doors can be hazardous to chickens unless they don't force the door down ie. the door floats on the antenna shaft. Then you run into the problem of can a predator lift the door up and gain access to the coop? A slick metal door that passes the bottom of the opening would prevent a predator from having a place to grab the door.

This is how I solved locking my very safe door.

JT