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Automatic chicken door solar12/29/2023 ![]() It will be a good thing to teach kids about early American history. The door needs to account for the accumulation of nesting material, droppings and feed that will accumulate in a coop and collect in places that can interfere with mechanical aspects of the coop such as at the bottom of the opening and the bottom of the door. NONE of the equipment should be exposed INSIDE the coop. Chicken nesting material is likely to be wood chips. That's swell, but you don't want swell in the coop door or it won't slide nicely. Their house is HUMID and wood is Hygroscopic - Wood can absorb water as a liquid or as vapor from the surrounding atmosphere. Anyway, I get this is a fun project for a school, not an industrial piece of equipment (heck, they just pay a farmhand to do this!), but for the sake of kids and making it work with code, I thought it was a really nice 'extension' to see how the kids would solve this! Thanks again, and good luck!Ĭhickens are terrible house keepers*. ![]() ![]() One could possibly use a strain gauge, to stop if the resistive force peaked before door was shut but perhaps a bit elaborate? Lastly, I did think it might be fun to have a 'chicken counter', in that you could possibly count in/out the chickens.I imagined this might be a job for AI, as probably a light gate will fail, as chicken flock erratically and you may get 2 for 1, etc. I considered a light gate, but chickens being messy, might get left open. I was thinking something like a micro switch, but of course the floor could have debris so this could have a false trigger. But it got me thinking how might you create a 'anti-crush' switch, just in case, (being at a school) a kid was silly enough to 'play chicken' with the closing door. I really doubt it *would* crush a chicken, they are pretty quick reflexed animals, and would be scatty at anything, so I get this is not a 'risk'. I was wondering about that 350lb force on the actuator. Hiya, this is a nice project - thanks for sharing. Alternatively, you could use battery only but I would get a larger battery than a 7AH if you do, unless you have reliable sunny days. This project used AC as the primary power source and the battery as backup with a solar charger. For these I printed mounts to keep them secure to the box. Almost all components have mounting holes except the battery and AC power adapter. Once you know where everything should go, mark the locations then drill a hole for the mounting. For this install, I had to mount components to the lid to find the best path for everything. Image all the cables you will have to run and try to find the easiest path for all of them. Next is to place all the components in the box without mounting them just to ensure everything is at its best location. Alternative is to just buy a box and return it if it doesn't work. To ensure the box I purchased would fit all of the parts, I got all of the part dimensions then drew the box in Fusion 360 with the parts inside so I could visually see where they might go. The box I chose was 7.5 x 5.5 x 5 in size with weather tight stripping and grommets for the wires exiting\entering the box. Be sure to get one that is weather resistant, IP65 or more, and big enough to fit all of your components with a little bit of breathing room. ![]() There are hundreds of project box styles, shapes and sizes.
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