Hi all!
I have decent mechanical abilities, and decent electrical abilities as far as house wiring, but have not done a tremendous amount with component circuitry.
I am trying to build an automatic chicken coop door opener, that raises a door vertically by using a small DC gear motor to wind a thread around a shaft.
I have two DC transformers (wall warts) that are plugged into two basic lamp timers. In the morning the "up" timer will turn on and the motor will raise the door until a NC magnetic switch is tripped at the top of the run (magnet on the door, switch affixed to the door frame). The timer turns off after about 15 minutes, so the relays and circuitry aren't sucking up power all day. In the evening the other timer turns on activating the DPDT relay coil and switching the polarity of the motor so that the motor closes the door again until the magnetic switch is activated.
Does this look good as far as the circuitry goes? Am I missing anything?
On more of a curiosity note, my first attempt was largely the same but had no DPDT relay, just two sets of leads attached to the motor, each from a timer/wall wart with only one set active at a time. It didn't work...any idea why? Presumably some circuitry inside of the non-energized wall wart was still active despite not being switched on by its timer?
Thanks everyone!
I have decent mechanical abilities, and decent electrical abilities as far as house wiring, but have not done a tremendous amount with component circuitry.
I am trying to build an automatic chicken coop door opener, that raises a door vertically by using a small DC gear motor to wind a thread around a shaft.
I have two DC transformers (wall warts) that are plugged into two basic lamp timers. In the morning the "up" timer will turn on and the motor will raise the door until a NC magnetic switch is tripped at the top of the run (magnet on the door, switch affixed to the door frame). The timer turns off after about 15 minutes, so the relays and circuitry aren't sucking up power all day. In the evening the other timer turns on activating the DPDT relay coil and switching the polarity of the motor so that the motor closes the door again until the magnetic switch is activated.
Does this look good as far as the circuitry goes? Am I missing anything?
On more of a curiosity note, my first attempt was largely the same but had no DPDT relay, just two sets of leads attached to the motor, each from a timer/wall wart with only one set active at a time. It didn't work...any idea why? Presumably some circuitry inside of the non-energized wall wart was still active despite not being switched on by its timer?
Thanks everyone!
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