Project: chick coop door opener/closer

Mar 17, 2007 6 Replies

HI all,



i have recently started to keep chickens, i have a coop with a hinged door opening outwards with a slide bolt to lock it shut. there are units out there to open and close sliding doors, but they aren't cheap and id prefer to diy! any suggestions? i was thinking of using a car battery with a automatic car aerial and a light sensitive switch, maybe a -



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got any other suggestions/ideas?



cheers!



Steve


normally brought in are frogs, who then proceed to jump around the kitchen.

I wonder if it could be made good enough to distinguish against cats who should not be allowed in because it's not their normal residence.

Hmm.... perhaps I should see what the immigration people want for one of those iris scanners that they have at the airport. They only seem to be working 50% of the time I go through there. I suspect that it's the immigration officers knobbling them to avoid being thrown out of a job. Having said that, I did see a Blue Screen of Death on the computer alongside on one occasion......

If you look at the daily activity page e.g

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seems to differentiate between two cats called Alexia and Squirrel

Having kept chickens when the kids were young I can tell you they don't all go inside at dusk. You will need to manually make sure they have gone to roost and shut the door. Opening the door is relatively trivial if you arrange it to "fall open". Simply use a solenoid to release the catch and use your light detector maybe with an amplifier to handle the current for the coil or you could use a time switch. You will have to operate the solenoid for only a brief period (wide pulse) or the battery will soon go flat.

Can't you just buy a whole bunch of them for 50p each and let the foxes get the ones who don't go in at night-time. Natural selection at work :-)

Jon.

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