The poorly conceived chicken coop upgrade...

[Jawzx2]

I am a do-it-yourselfer, sometimes to a fault. This is one of those cases.

Automatic light/remote controlled door for the chicken coop.

I have been procrastinating on finishing this job, and now that it's down to the wire I realize just how much work was involved and that I should have just bought an off the shelf part. I have been at this for probably over 100 hours, and the materials I bought for the job added up pretty close to the price of a fully built off the shelf part.

Now, I do have some features you don't get on the off-the-shelf units, stuff like serial debugging, a code base that I can edit and update, a linear actuator with 350 lb-force output, aluminum door guide rails and a beautiful "crystal" light sensor and indicator LED housing... but still, the hours I have put into this are excessive, and I am still debugging some ground bleed in the circuit that can trigger an un-called remote open trigger when the door is closed on light sensor input

I also re-pointed and sealed the coop windows and added weather stripping as well as redoing the lighting and electric for the heated water. I'm still planning to add a second door to ease access to the interior in winter, as the existing end door is a bad shape...

I also have to add some more flexible weather guards for the door mechanism (made out of hoop-old barn canvas)

sigh I have learned a bunch, but the time spent and materials cost is WAY over what an off the shelf electronic door solution would have cost It took the chickens a hilariously long time to figure out the new door, but they did eventually all get in tonight. Tomorrow is the last nice day of weather we're supposed to have, so I need to button up all the loose ends and try to figure out that ground issue in our short daylight tomorrow (as well as other farM chores)

[jminer]

@Jawzx2 This looks awesome - well done!

I've fell into the trap of rolling my own solution v buying one way too many times as well. I always learn something while at it, but also have learned to buy a little more often to save time.

[NomDePlume]

I admit to laughing at the vintage glass jar as an authentic solution for you but soooooo much the worst type of interior design holding our nation's cities in its grasp. After reading how hipstery overwrought of a solution this is you had to conduct an emergency training exercise with your chickens my eyes were getting a bit wet.

Nice lead photo, very eyecatching.