--- title: Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment | daily.dev description: A maker named Vinnie built a reliable automatic chicken coop door using an ATmega1284P microcontroller, after finding commercial solutions impractical in harsh... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment | daily.dev og:description: A maker named Vinnie built a reliable automatic chicken coop door using an ATmega1284P microcontroller, after finding commercial solutions impractical in harsh... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9YCmkW9Js.png og:image:alt: Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A maker named Vinnie built a reliable automatic chicken coop door using an ATmega1284P microcontroller, after finding commercial solutions impractical in harsh conditions. The door uses gravity for closing (a linear actuator lifts it, gravity drops it), making it resilient to mud, snow, and ice. The system calculates daily sunrise/sunset times and uses a state machine architecture for robustness during power outages. The coop is mobile and battery-powered, operating without WiFi. Key engineering lessons include favoring state machines over schedules, keeping designs simple, and minimizing reliance on electrical and data infrastructure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Introducing The Garlic-Powered Door And Window Sensor](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-garlic-powered-door-and-window-sensor-ykz4ccou6) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone built a $10 ESP32 smart garage door opener that works with Home Assistant](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-built-a-10-esp32-smart-garage-door-opener-that-works-with-home-assistant-ohikudqvi) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Automated Mouse Trap](https://daily.dev/posts/automated-mouse-trap-db3rzrh9r) · Adafruit Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Conway's Game of Life, in real life](https://daily.dev/posts/conway-s-game-of-life-in-real-life-ns75bpoej) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#automation](https://daily.dev/tags/automation), [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js"},"datePublished":"2026-04-03T08:26:42.354Z","dateModified":"2026-04-03T08:27:03.088Z","description":"A maker named Vinnie built a reliable automatic chicken coop door using an ATmega1284P microcontroller, after finding commercial solutions impractical in harsh...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ae91261d9ea5e325dc49c14affe7be35?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ae91261d9ea5e325dc49c14affe7be35?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/chicken-coop-door-performs-in-harsh-environment-9ycmkw9js","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"general-programming,automation,iot,embedded","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment"}]} ```