Hey all, I'm new here and I'm trying to find away to open a gate automatically everyday at the same time. I don't know much about electronics. I was think some sort of solenoid hooked up to a timer ran off a battery with solar charger. Any one have any ideas?
I have lots of ideas, but many are application specific... I take it there is no power nearby thus the need for batteries? What kind of gate? Do you want it to simply unlatch or swing? In short, it's time to spit out a lot of details before anyone can really give you suggestions beyond the most basic generic ones...
No there's no power nearby. It just needs to unlatch. It's gonna unlock a small gate made of 2x4 frame and wire welded fencing. It has a cheap door latch on it u get at any hardware store. It's to let my ducks out to graze in the morning. Don't really have any other specifics. I like tinkering with things and this is my next project. Any vague or specific ideas are welcome, I'll look into any ideas.
Well I would likely start with something like this...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-H...800?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d035cee78
And then devise a latching system that will work within the movement of that device... It doesn't say what the stroke is, so it's kind hard to get into many details...
That actuator can either slide a bolt type latch or even just pull up a hook type latch...
Once you get that part done, then it's just a matter of making a 24 hour clock that will trigger it once a day... Lots of options here from a total DIY design to hacking an over the counter alarm clock or timer... Hacking an over the counter clock will take a little bit more circuitry, as you would need to convert what is likely a multiple repeating alarm signal into a single shot to activate the actuator...
For the battery, since this is low current drain a 12V motorcycle or garden tractor battery would work well... They will have plenty of juice to run the actuator and plenty of reserve power as well... If you want to have solar charging those little dashboard solar chargers will likely be enough to keep the battery topped off for this circuit... But it might be just as easy to bring the battery in once a week and top it off with a regular car charger...
The question now is do you want to go at designing your own 24 hour timer or kit bashing/hacking something over the counter?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-H...800?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d035cee78
And then devise a latching system that will work within the movement of that device... It doesn't say what the stroke is, so it's kind hard to get into many details...
That actuator can either slide a bolt type latch or even just pull up a hook type latch...
Once you get that part done, then it's just a matter of making a 24 hour clock that will trigger it once a day... Lots of options here from a total DIY design to hacking an over the counter alarm clock or timer... Hacking an over the counter clock will take a little bit more circuitry, as you would need to convert what is likely a multiple repeating alarm signal into a single shot to activate the actuator...
For the battery, since this is low current drain a 12V motorcycle or garden tractor battery would work well... They will have plenty of juice to run the actuator and plenty of reserve power as well... If you want to have solar charging those little dashboard solar chargers will likely be enough to keep the battery topped off for this circuit... But it might be just as easy to bring the battery in once a week and top it off with a regular car charger...
The question now is do you want to go at designing your own 24 hour timer or kit bashing/hacking something over the counter?
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