I love eating eggs. I eat at least 12 of them a week I love them so much. This brought my thoughts to the cost of the eggs and how much I must be spending a year to eat that much. So I added it all up. $4.50 per dozen x 52 weeks in the year = at best $234 a year. These eggs would be full of beneficial nutrients and organic. But then I started thinking that there are more benefits to having chickens than just the eggs. I can have them run around and eat the unwanted bugs around the garden and make some awesome compost for the garden as well. So I am settled on getting chickens. But then I learned that chickens need to be safe inside a coop at night so that predators don’t get them. To be safe in a coop the chickens have to have to be put in at night and then let out in the morning. . . at 5am. Not my idea of a good time.

This has led me to look into building a chicken coop door that works automatically and locks to keep out the bad animals.

If you would like to build along with me then you can buy the parts I use on my Amazon Store.

Lets get started with the build of the door.

Part 1.

In this video I show you how to build the base frame of the door. The frame is made from pine.

Part 2.

The second part of this build concentrates on installing the locking mechanism and Reed Switches.

Part 3.

This part of the build covers the installation of the motor and making the spool for the rope to wind around.

Part 4.

In part four I install the Arduino Uno control board and the l298n motor controller. Then I get the rope guide and rope installed.

Part 5.

In this step I install the wiring to the components. I use a digital diagram to show the connections then I move to the actual wiring. … Do remember that the digital and analog grounds must be kept separate.

Part 6.

In part 6 I walk you though the code that makes this door work. Do keep in mind that the timing will have to be changed when the door is installed in the coop. Also keep in mind that this code does not have error handling. … For instance if there is something that keeps the door from closing all the way the motor will wind up the other direction and the door will get stuck in the up position. When I get this door installed I will be adding this error code.

Get the ARDUINO CODE HERE! Get the RAW CODE HERE!
(The arduino code is an arduino program that you will need to un-zip. The raw code is just a text file that you can copy into the Arduino program.)

Part 7.

In part 7 I step back and give the chicken door a test run. It works well but there is a little issue with the locking mechanism timing. Adding an additional 1 second fixes that issue. (This change is already in the code that you can download above)

—-Thank you for checking out my chicken coop door build. There are a few things that can be done to make this a better build such as adding a water proof coat to the whole thing. Also there needs to be some code added for the error that could occur when the door does not stop at the bottom.

Please comment any likes or issues that you might have.