→ Home Automation

 2020-05-09 -  ~2 Minutes

During the COVID-19 pandemic   I decided, while working endlessly from my home office, to resurect the hanging bird feeder outside my office window. I like having the birds visit, but I’ve noticed one problem… starlings! They are cranky, bully bastards and chase all the welcome visitors away, if I let them. Well, I don’t intend to let them anymore. 😁 I won’t go into details here but my remedy involves removing the screen from my office window, and occasionally opening the window itself.

There are two issues with the window… it’s a big, double casement window with a pair of crank mechanisms for opening, and the one that I need to open most often is situated behind my mini-fridge. It’s difficult to get to the opener crank, and even hard to open or close it “gently”. The other issue is that while the window is open my office door needs to be closed so that our house cats won’t wander in and decide to “escape” through the open window. 😾 I suppose the cats could provide some extra starling deternt, but they are not as selective as I am. If it moves, they want to catch it. 🐈

The solution, I hope, is to build and install an automated window opener, one that I can control without getting out of my seat. It would also be nice if I had the same option to open, or at least close, my office door. I have a spare Raspberry Pi Zero W   and some related parts so that’s a start. I’ve also just purchased a little High-Torque DC Motor   and a RPI-compatible motor controller   .

Web Resources

This post captures the resources I’ll use (or used, depending on when you read this) to set my plan in motion. The first step, my OneTab   that holds my initial web resources: https://www.one-tab.com/page/0fj_WcQ0TkG256iDV3EE2g   .

My Build

Check here for some follow-up soon, I hope.