Super Simple Automatic Chicken Coop Door

Pet chickens like to run around and scratch up their yard during the day, but must be safely locked away at night to prevent predators from eating them. Most chicken-keepers accept the twice-daily chore of letting the hens out in the morning, and locking them up at night. This is a project to automate that task using an inexpensive sensor, an arduino microcontroller, and a linear actuator. As a bonus this project runs from a solar-charged battery!

This project is pretty hacky looking or you could say it has an agricultural feel to it, but it’s been running solid for over a month so I thought I would record it here. Bring on the bailing wire!

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Lawnie the Remote Controlled Lawnmower

Back in 2019 I made a remote controlled lawnmower. It is not a very original design, it follows closely the mower from Make Magazine and many other youtube videos, with some modifications to suit what parts I could get. I got an electric wheelchair and an electric mower second-hand, bought a speed controller and some relays, and made my own RC controller and receiver with arduinos and nRF24L01 radio set. I tried my best to keep the cost low, using as many second-hand parts or things I already had in my shop. This mower has been mowing my lawn ever since, and makes a tedious chore fun! I highly recommend building one if you still push a mower yourself.

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