Mudd Flapp Ranch chicken coop with Arduino

Walk through of the chicken coop.

The arduino does not directly control the drill motor. The Arduino is used only to sample the light and provide and open or close signal to a set of relays. I did this because this started as just an old drill, a hand full of relays and switch, the Arduino control was really an afterthought. The switch is used to manually control the door, so if I wish to kick all the birds out to clean I can shut them out.
I used an old drill for a couple of reason, first it has a chuck which makes coupling to the drive screw super easy, second it has a clutch in case the limit switches fail, third it was available and free.
Here are the parts I used;
~Craftsman 16.8 V drill circa 1996. Any drill 12V or higher should work just fine. You will have to take the guts out, you should find a trigger switch
that controls the pulse width modulator, battery connections and a motor. I simply taped the switch so that is always on full blast. I routed the
output from the PWM circuit though the relays, which reverse the motor for up and down. And connected the battery terminals to the 12V
battery.
~24 inch 3/8-16 Thread rod for the drive screw.
~L bracket attached to the door with a 3/8-16 nut JB welded on
~3 automotive style SPDT 12V relays. I actually used ones that I have collected from many trips to the u-pull-it junk yard. They charge $1 for
a handful of them. I used one for up, one for down and one to kill power to the system when not in use. I used the 20A micro relays, but the
standard 30A “Bosch Style” will work just as well. These relays have 5 terminals on the bottom.
~2 limit switches Omron #V-153-1C25. I found them on eBay for cheap. The switches are activated by a 2 inch #10 bolt through the door that
hits the arm on the switch. The switches are wired so that the voltage to the up or down relay goes through the Normally Closed (NC) terminal.
The bolt on the door hits the switch and kills the power to the relay.
~A DPDT center off momentary switch, these are often labeled mom-off-mom or On-Off-On.
~A 12V power source. I used an old lawn mower battery with a solar charger attached. I don’t have house power to the coop, so this was my
best option. If you have power to your coop, a 12V AC-DC power supply would be less of a head ache. I am still not quite done tweaking the
power and I need to charge the battery with a regular automotive battery charger, every once in a while. Of course I would probably be better
off with a newer battery, but I am cheap.

, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/suBoeChzcp0/hqdefault.jpg

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