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How to make a simple automatic pophole opener/closer

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hillfooter:
PART 1 Introduction
Winter is fast approaching and the nights are drawing in.  Aren’t you just dreading those cold dark evenings when you have to drag yourself away from your warm fire in front of the tele and pull on your heavy wet weather gear and traipse out into the freezing nightto lock up the chicken house :(.  Don’t you wish you had an automatic system to do the job for you and open it up in the morning too :wub:  Well you can buy a ready made one you can fit to your house but the snag is it’s going to cost you around £195 per house (Forsham Cottage Arks price for the Gizmo with a timer).  However you can make your own for just a fraction of this cost and in this thread I’m going to show you how.

In this first post I’ll describe the design and what type of house and situation it’s suitable for and the skills and tools you’ll need to build it.

Because I want to make the implementation as simple as possible for the layman with no electronics knowledge or detailed understanding of electrics, I’m going for a design that can be made from pre-assembled parts you can easily buy online.  All you are going to need to do is connect them together and fit them to your house.   Because of these requirements the electrics are going to be powered by plug top DC power supplies (PSUs) which are going to require the availability of an indoor double mains socket as they aren’t intended or safe to use outdoors.  A dry garage or outbuilding with an existing power socket for example is fine.  This needs to be within a reasonable distance (say no more than 30mtrs) away from your chicken house.  Since the only cables you will be running outside will be carrying a 12V Dc voltage there’s no electrical safety issue.  However if you have to install such a mains supply that is something only a professional electrician should do and  is beyond the scope of this thread.  

Your chicken house should have a traditional shutter style vertically dropping pophole door .  The design I’m going to describe will not work with a side sliding or hinged door in common with the commercial one and if you have such a house you will need to convert it to a vertical shutter pop hole to use any simple automatic controller.

The tools you are going to need are :- a tenon saw, electric drill and drill bits, a posidrive and flat screw driver for woodscrews an an electricians small flat screwdriver for wiring terminal blocks, wire cutters (snips) and pliers bull nose and small electrical pliers, tape measure.  A electrical multimeter  will be required to identify the +positive and –negative voltage wire from the PSU.  If you don’t have one, or can’t borrow one,  you can take your PSU to any electrician who can easily do this for you and for such a trivial task shouldn’t charge you.  More on this later.

The system consists of two parts which are physically separate as follows.

1   The electrical controller – this supplies the power for the opener and generates the signal to open or close the door.  This is mounted adjacent to the mains socket indoors and consists of two plug top power supplies, the sort which are commonly used to power small electronic devices  in place of batteries, and a mains programmable timer the sort sold in IKEA or Supermarkets for operating domestic lamps etc.

2   The door actuator which is mounted on the house and is based on an electric car aerial which when the antenna is raised closes the door and when retracted opens it.  A cord attached to the antenna runs over pulleys and attaches to the door providing the linkage.  The pulleys also lower the gearing and increases the pull force from the aerial so that it can lift even a relatively heavy door like my Forsham Lenhams.  The commercial one uses a small DC motor and would require such a door to be replaced by a lightweight aluminium one but my aerial design is capable of operating most doors without replacing them.  You will have to ensure they run freely though and fall without jamming.  A little sandpapering and rubbing with a wax candle usually does the trick if they don’t.

 
One controller can power several actuators if you have more than one house.
I’ll describe the parts you need their approximate cost and where to get them in the next post.

Bye for now.
HF

Bantymad:
This is great HF, am going to print off and file it. Many thanks.

joyfull:
thanks for doing that HF, I won't make one as I get up before my chickens but this will be handy for those who do like a lie in  :)

Curlytop:
Thanks HF that is great
I have printed it and will give it to my OH after his dinner tonight  ;)

girliesx4:
 :D You are a star - have just been looking into the cost  :ohmy: as i leave home when still dark and return after dark - had resigned myself to chilly girls so thank you - cannot wait for the next installment

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