Hi. I’m a complete beginner so thanks and apologies in advance. I’ve read the similar forum posts but would feel more confident if I started fresh.
My coop has a guillotine door which I want to automate to go up/down at multiple set-times per day. The coop has no power so I’m looking to run off a simple solar / battery system. Note - I have an existing solar sensor light that I thought I might be able to tap into (?).
Can someone please assist with components I may require, e.g. Raspberry Pi Pico WH (?), stepper motor, etc… and anywhere I can start re. how to program.
I would advise against going down that path. Pix I note has already raised some doubt.
These lights are designed for a low current load of some LEDs and usually have AAA rechargeable cells inside. Quite a low output capability. If you start “tapping into” this sort of thing you might find nothing works at the end of the day.
So for what it is worth My advice would be to stay away from your sensor light (which is probably currently working) and start from the ground up. Estimate what power you need then double it.
Cheers Bob
The Raspberry Pi Pico is the brains and what I will need to interact with for programming purposes.
The stepper motor plugs into the Pico. The Pico will tell the motor to run for x seconds to lift / lower the door
To keep simple could I attach the string / thin wire cord / other directly onto the motor spindle? i.e. it just winds / unwinds around that? Perhaps I need an attachment to the spindle?
Power to be supplied by the solar panel. Bob, noted re. my existing solar light, i.e. I won’t go down that path.
– Assuming I need a rechargeable battery for the panel to charge? If yes, please advise what I might need and how it connects to the Pico (?)
I’ll have a go at drawing and keen to engage with the tutorials.
Thanks again
An option to look into might be a solar board like this might be worth looking into as it can be worth looking into for a lead acid batteries and something more along these lines if you’re going with a LiPo battery system.
A lead acid battery solution might be a bit more overkill for the situation but it would be able to handle quite a bit of power out where as a Lipo solution could be just as suitable. you’d just want to look at how much current is being drawn by the motor to see if it exceeds the LiPo’s ratings.
What if I wanted to just go battery powered? The commercial versions suggest:
Four standard AA batteries power the Safe Coop automatic chicken coop door. The display includes a battery level indicator, so there is plenty of warning before the batteries need replacing. Thanks to ultra-low energy consumption technology, the batteries last up to two years.
