Location of Control Box

The entire system is designed to be weather-resistant and survive the harsh outdoor environment but it doesn’t hurt to mount the system inside or outside of the coop under the roof.  The wires on the arm are approximately 3 feet long so the control box must be mounted close enough to account for this.

Photosensor Considerations

The built-in photo sensor is located on the bottom of the control box.  This sensor is used to trigger the “change of state” for the coop from open-to-close or close-to-open based on the available light. Our patent-pending intelligent system will always attempt to keep the coop secured when it is dark.
If you have any lights in or near your coop such as heating lamps, overhead lights, or security lights, you may need to account for these in mounting your system control box when in semi-automatic sensor mode.

Chose Ac or Solar Power for Recharging the Battery

The CKBT Kit includes two pieces of low voltage wire in lengths of 3 ft. and 10 ft..  The 3 foot piece of wire is typically used for the included pushbutton to allow manual operation.  The 10 foot piece of wire is used to connect the AC transformer to the system control board.  

If your coop does not have an easily accessible AC outlet you can either replace the 10 foot piece of wire with a longer piece of low voltage wire or utilize our AXDP 10-Watt Solar Panel Kit instead.

You cannot connect both the Transformer and Solar Panel at the same time or your will damage the system.

Cold weather performance on solar power should be considered because a solar panel covered in snow or ice will not charge a battery and because battery performance is always degraded as the temperature drops. If your coop routinely experiences temperatures below freezing for extended periods of time, then AC power will always be a better solution and you may not be able to run the system in full automatic mode during these extreme cold periods due to lack of battery power.

Low Voltage Wire Consideration

You can extend the distance from your coop to the transformer plugged into an AC outlet by replacing the includes Low Voltage wire with our AXLV Low Voltage wire.  Up to 1000 feet of total wire can be run between the UL Listed AC Transformer and the system control board.  

If you choose to do this, we always recommend enclosing this wire inside of PVC conduit and burying it in the ground to prevent damage to the wire that would prevent your battery from being recharged.  

The AC transformer should be installed on a circuit protected by a GFCI outlet or breaker and protected from the weather in either a weather-resistant box or inside of an building.

Manual Operation

The CKBT Kit includes a non-illuminated pushbutton (like a doorbell button) and low voltage wire.  This button is designed to be weather-resistant but mounting it in a location that limits the amount of rain, ice, or animal excrement will help avoid any false activations.

A second pushbutton is mounted onto the system control board itself.  Both buttons act identically and are typically connected to cycle and common on the control board. 

Pushing the buttons to trigger a cycle causes the arm to operate in the following manner: open-stop-close-open-etc.