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Our basic Automatic Chicken Door does not have "alarm clock"
settings. Who wants to punch buttons ... I don't like setting my own
alarm clock. And sunrise and sunset times change by at least one minute
every day. During some times of the year, the day to day change in
sunrise and sunset can be easily more than 6 minutes. There is no need
to have ANYTHING but a truly automatic door that obeys the sun... that's
what the chickens do. That's what the chickens want. And that's all
you want. So that's what we have. A door that obeys the sun.
INSTALL IT AND FORGET IT
Like Ron Popeil of RONCO says... "set it and forget it". Shhhhh -- don't say that around chickens...he's the one with the chicken rotisserie! Except the ADOR1 automatic chicken door is even better... you don't HAVE to set it. There are some things you CAN set but you don't have to. Just install it and forget it. OK, that's our motto then: "install it and forget it".
EXTRA.... EXTRA.... READ ALL ABOUT THE "EXTRA FEATURES"
The ADOR1 is already the best automatic chicken door and for the lowest price. Well that's what they ALL say.. but check it out! So while we are already ahead of the game, I'll tell you about our extra features. Admittedly, the accessories are not yet on our website for you to order, but get the door and you can add accessories later because the ADOR1 comes standard with an auxiliary output or "aux output".
WAIT. WHAT ARE THE BASIC FEATURES?
Read farther down for the extra features. I haven't said enough about the basic features. The basic ADOR1 was not just cobbled together by a couple retired guys who took their Christmas Tree light timer and a drapery opener or what? ... Motorized car antenna assembly? ..And fashioned up a hobby-like device and then charge $200 or $250 by the time you add the "photocell"... And the reason some are "solar" is probably supposed to get you to bite because you figure you don't have to have AC Electric wired to your coop. OK. But the ADOR1 runs long on a battery of the type you put in your flashlight! If you run "solar", what do you need? You have some 12V lead acid battery that costs $15 or $20 and when it doesn't charge anymore, then you have to have HazMat come and dispose it for you? Well, its not that bad yet, or I don't know. You can't just throw away a lead-acid car battery.. they charge you to take it.
I digress...about the basic features. To start with, the ADOR1 was
designed by an electrical engineer who has experience designing not only industrial electronic equipment, but also consumer appliances! The ADOR1 is an appliance. NOT a kit. NOT a "one-off" (in
England the say "One Off" and in Texas we say "prototype"). The ADOR1 is a finished complete consumer product. The
controller board in the ADOR1 was designed for the ADOR1 and for nothing
else. It is not both a breath-mint and a candy...not a floor wax and a
dessert topping (humor credit goes to SNL 1977)... it is not a multi-purpose thing...it is only a
custom developed controller for the ADOR1.
The ADOR1 is designed to draw only about 60 millionths of an amp, and the motor only draws around a fifth of an amp and that's usually only for 10 seconds twice a day. Will the door arm wrestle with you? Nope. You won't be cutting off the heads of slow chickens with it. It will smush them a little and then go back up, and they will take a run for it and probably learn to be quicker. The closing force is less than 8 pounds so imagine asking your chicken if you can put an 8 pound book on top of her. She can take it for a moment.
If something is keeping the door from opening or closing, such as an obstruction that fell into the doorway, the ADOR1 controller senses that the door did not reach the end. It can sense that the motor stalls and cannot overcome the obstacle. So the ADOR1 controller reverses the motor direction and backs up a couple inches and then tries again. It will retry 3 times before it stops trying. The ADOR1 will indicate this alarm condition through its soundmaker. Being that the sound is not loud, the condition that the door is stuck may not be noticed. Plan-B is to make use of the extra feature which is described farther down this page about the "external alarm".
At least if there is something in the doorway, the ADOR1 will close
down on it for the night which is the best it can do to defeat night
predators. Same for opening in the morning. If ice has formed in the
door slide channels and the door cannot open all the way, it will open
as wide as it can... which may mean it can't open. It is up to you to install in such a way to keep ice from forming in the guides by keeping falling rain from running into the door assembly.
Another feature is that the ADOR1 directly drives the door with a sprocket. When the door is down, there is a bottom rail that makes it very difficult for a smart raccoon to get his claw in there to open the door. And then he would have to really muscle it because the motor has it's brakes on. The sprocket, the gear box, the motor brakes, and the bottom rail, all help to defeat a clever predator from prying in to the coop through the closed door. We have applied for a patent on the direct drive of the door.
Another basic feature is the ADOR1 has a button that you can push to manually operate the door. You can pulse the button and the door will open or close or you can hold the button down and "jog" the door to any position you want.
Also, there is a tiny soundmaker that beeps in a very high pitch.
It beeps one short sound when it detects end of travel. It beeps two
long sounds when you command it manually. Actually it beeps codes:
Morse Code. You don't have to learn Morse Code but if you want to, you
can follow what the ADOR1 is thinking as it beeps. I don't think this is
going to be annoying because it is really subtle when the cover is on.
But it beeps "E" for "End", "M" for "Manual", "L" for "Light" and "R"
for "Reclose" and "SOS" to warn you of a problem, followed by "O" for
"Obstacle" or "B" for "Battery". It should come in handy if there's a
problem to be troubleshooted (or is it "troubleshot"?).
LIGHT SENSITIVITY SETTING - BASIC FEATURE
Then we have a couple of basic features that can be re-programmed. One feature is that you can change the light sensitivity to one of three levels. The resultant is to: OPEN EARLY / CLOSE LATE; or OPEN LATE / CLOSE EARLY; or the factory setting which is to OPEN and CLOSE pretty close to the published Sunrise and Sunset time for your location. Expect minutes of variation depending cloud cover.
LAST CALL - BASIC FEATURE
Another basic feature that is re-programmable is what we call "Last Call". The idea is some chickens may dilly dally and the door may close while they chase after a cicada or June bug, or whatever chickens may be distracted by at a time when they should seriously be thinking of entering the coop to roost. So the door closes as there's that one or two of your girls who missed the boat. No worries. Not if you have enabled "Last Call". If Last Call is enabled, then the door will open up again after a few minutes and stay open for a short period of time and then close finally for the night.
MORE FEATURES
Back to the Extra Features. By extra I mean you need some extra accessory but the feature is still basic to the ADOR1. That is: the programming is included in the ADOR1 and the "Aux Output" is included. We will have contraptions for you to buy to add on to your door to take advantage of these features, if you should want them.
These features are called: Night Light, Ova Light, and External Alarm
NIGHT LIGHT
The NightLight is a light you mount inside the coop. It should at least dimly illuminate where the chickens roost. It turns on while the door is still open, before it closes, and stays on for a while after the door closes. It helps draw the chickens into the coop and helps them see enough to find their roosting spot. Stay tuned to this web-site for this accessory. There is an electrical connector on the ADOR1 controller board where accessories are plugged into.
OVA LIGHT - INCREASE EGG PRODUCTION!
The OvaLight is an accessory you mount inside the coop where your hens will experience the light where they roost or nest. The idea is that egg production drops off in the winter because the hen's retinas are in the dark too long. That's because the earth rotates on a tilted axis that makes, up here in the Northern Hemisphere, shorter days in the winter. But you learned that before you were a fifth grader... just in case you forgot.
Hormones are stimulated through the neural connection between the chicken retina to the chicken brain to chicken pituitary via a neuro-chemical pathway and cascades toward follicle stimulation hormone (FSH) production within the pituitary. The FSH molecule is carried to the ovaries through the chicken's circulatory system. Then the chicken ovaries have little follicles from whence are created tiny little proto-ova, which are stimulated by the FSH.
Well, admittedly I made that up. I'm just an engineer. But it sounds pretty good, huh. No. All I really think I know I read somewhere that people think hens will produce more eggs if they have more light. Sounds reasonable to me.
Here's how the ADOR1 automatic chicken door OvaLight accessory works. It only works if you enable it. Factory default setting has OvaLight disabled. If it is enabled, a timer within the ADOR1 electronic controller starts when the door shuts for the night. The timer runs for approximately 8 hours. After that delay, the aux output is turned on, and if you have it connected to the OvaLight then the hens receive light starting at that time. Why not. They already got a good 8 hours sleep! More than I get. No, I'm just sayin'. Personally, I think they worked hard all summer and now they can rest a little for the winter. Seriously, I think it is a good idea to increase your production if that's what you want to do. The light stays on until dawn and automatically shuts off.
So if the sun goes down at 8PM and comes up at 6:30AM, the OvaLight
will be on from 4AM to Dawn and the hens will get an extra 2.5 hours of
light. Another way to figure it is simply the hens get 16 hours of
light every day while the OvaLight is enabled. That's not like 16 hours
of daylight though because the extra light in the coop does not have to
be so bright.
So come back to the www.AdorStore.com web site and see when we will have an add-on kit for the OvaLight.
EXTERNAL ALARM
What if a branch falls in the doorway of your coop? The door can't close all the way. What if the door can't open? What if the battery dies? A basic feature of the ADOR1 is that it has a soundmaker that taps out SOS softly to warn you the battery is low. When it does that you should swap the battery with a fresh battery and you can let the low battery live out the rest of its life in a flashlight where its end of life is more obvious and not on a "critical mission". But if you don't and the battery dies in the door, then it may have enough juice to be alive but not enough to power the motor.
The aux output comes to the rescue. You can use this option where you enable the external alarm and connect an accessory we will offer that will operate a light that you can mount where you should see it from your house. The light blinks to tell you there's something wrong. You should then go to clear the alarm by replacing the battery or by removing the obstruction.
Again, please watch the www.AdorStore.com website for this accessory being offered in the future.
MORE THAN A DOOR
So see? The ADOR1 is more than "A DOOR", and THAT is how you pronounce
it if you haven't realized it yet: ADOR sounds like A DOOR or like
ADORE. We hope you ADORE the ADOR.