For me, spending an extra $50 on parts is worth the saved time and effort - even as the $250 version that has no options for customization of behavior/interactions is NOT worth the saved time and effort. Your alternative (I'm not sure how it's more robust) solution LOOKS cheaper, but I wouldn't know how to connect the parts and would likely screw up the amps/watts enough to break stuff and require replacement parts. That's rough, but the machine doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to do as well or better than we humans do.Īs for what value does IOT add? Well, it can help confirm when it is/isn't working, but mostly it's that the cost is almost the same, at least for those of us without extensive electronics experience. It's closed sometime after chickens have entered for the night, which tends to go off of sunlight, and opens early enough that the chickens aren't literally cooped up when they want out. > The chicken coop opens and closes at the appropriate time of the day? (This has happened to us twice, and we're in the middle of suburbia, albeit the Seattle variety with more wildlife than the average cul-de-sac) Skipping the occasional visit doesn't work either - they need to get out both for general happiness and foraging, and if you don't close the door, creatures kill your chickens. My wife keeps chickens, and going out morning and night to open the doors is.certainly not hard, but inconvenient (particularly the night one, as you often remember AFTER you've settled in for the night and must head out, regardless of weather. I'm unclear on why this is a questionable usage. I wonder if you would comment on this (seemingly successful) strategy - you seem to know what you're doing. losing every previous flock to raccoons and weasels every 2-3 months. We've had our current flock for over a year with no losses, vs. It is impossible for a thing to climb the fence now without touching (and holding) at least two hot wires. There are four hot wires now, two of which form a negative (back bending) slope. In the case of our chickens, I just kept adding hot wires to the fence until nothing could get into the run. We live on a very small island of private property inside a huge expanse of open space / wilderness and thus have very heavy predation on any animals we raise. I have seen scratch marks on the sliding door indicating interested predators. They have all lost their entire flocks to foxes at least once in the time my automated door has been operational, but thankfully we have not. "We live in the country and almost everyone near me has hens, but they rely on manual opening. I have seen scratch marks on the sliding door indicating interested predators, but I think my timing is right to keep the coop closed when foxes are about. We live in the country and almost everyone near me has hens, but they rely on manual opening. My hens go to bed very early, so it closes before dark, and again at least by 7:30pm in the summer because foxes can be active by then. Too early in the summer and you're asking for fox trouble, and also the neighbours used to complain the cockerel would crow when it opened too early (sunrise can be before 4am in midsummer). It opens at 6:30am or first light, whichever is latest. I've learned that the dawn/dusk opening technique is not enough on its own, it needs to know the time of day also. Over the years I've tweaked the opening/closing times to account for the hens' habits, and for predators. A common one is straw and other mess getting jammed in the door runners, and once a broken door mechanism. It also has an XBee radio link to a Raspberry Pi which sends me email updates, keeps the Arduino's clock accurate (obviating the need for an RTC), and alerts me of any mechanical problems with the door mechanism. ![]() ![]() It spends a lot of time in sleep mode, waking every 5 minutes to check light levels, and at night sleeps until a preset time when it makes sense to start checking for daylight again. An Arduino Nano provides the main control functions. The solar panel voltage into an ADC provides the daylight reading. Since then I've added a winter trickle charge wire from the nearest outbuilding. I've had to replace that twice over the 5 years because winter tends to kill it. It is solar powered, with a 12V lead-acid battery. The door limits are detected using reed switches. I used a normal (non-stepper) motor with some gearbox I found in an old cassette player. I've had my own design of one of these up and running for about 5 years now.
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