I am just going back to school to become an electrical engineer. While i am currently taking lots of pre reqs i am doing my best to learn on my own. I am new to this site and hope you guys will be helpfull in the future. I thought i would post my current project here for all to see. Maybe you guys will have some ideas and helpful tips.
A few nights ago i had a raccoon get in with my chickens. While none were killed, one was hurt. I decided i need to make an automatic door for their coop. They normally have an open door to come and go as they choose when they choose. This was the week link, and at about 2 am i was chasing a raccoon out of the coop with a flashlight. Never again! I'm not in an area where i can use a "simple" pop boom solution. I have an arduino (one of the first off the presses Duemilanove) that i have decided to put to use. I will be using a small harbor freight solar panel, a second hand store drill, an old motorcycle battery, my arduino, an H-bridge, a locking wood chicken coop door and a handful of other parts. I am adding a speaker to play a song so the chickies know its bed time, and a light to help with egg production. It is a relatively simple project but a great learning one for me. I am still learning coding so for simplicity i am using ArduBlocks for the coding. This has aloud me to rapidly prototype my project. I am waiting for a few parts to show up and i will begin the project in earnest. I will post photos and hopefully video as i go. Until then, here is my extremely messy teaser photo.