Installing the Controller

The Controller is mains-powered and lives inside the coop. Before you start, confirm there is a 110V outlet inside the coop — the Controller is not battery-powered and does not run on solar. If you do not have an outlet in the coop, stop here and run power first.

Mounting

Mount the Controller on an interior coop wall, somewhere dry and out of direct splash from waterers or rain through a vent. Wood, plastic, or any non-conductive surface is ideal. If the coop is built from sheet metal or lined with hardware cloth, use the included isolation pad between the Controller and the metal — the cellular antenna needs a non-conductive backdrop to work reliably.

Pick a spot where:

• The 110V outlet is within reach of the included power supply.
• The Coop Climate Sensor (and any sensors you plan to add) will be within roughly 20 to 30 feet, with reasonable line of sight. Metal walls and hardware cloth between the Controller and a sensor will shorten that range.
• The antenna can point up or out, away from large metal surfaces.

Antenna routing

Thread the cellular antenna through the included rubber grommet, then through the enclosure, and tighten the antenna nut snug. Do not over-torque it — finger-tight plus a quarter turn is enough. The rubber grommet keeps the antenna isolated from any metal mounting surface, which matters more than you would think: a metal coop wall in direct contact with the antenna base can detune the radio and silently cut cellular signal.

If the coop is metal-walled, route the antenna so it sits outside the metal, not inside it. The grommet seals the pass-through.

Wiring the chicken-door limit switch

The Controller has a built-in limit switch input that connects directly to a vertically-opening automatic chicken door — the kind where the door panel slides straight up and down. Run the two limit-switch wires from the door to the Controller and attach them to the labeled terminals.

Vertical-only is a real constraint in the V1 product. If your automatic door opens horizontally (swings to the side, or slides sideways on a rail), the built-in limit switch will not read it correctly. Horizontal-door support is on the roadmap but not shipping yet. A manual chicken door of any orientation is fine — you would monitor that with a Coop Climate Sensor instead, exactly like a human door.

First power-on

Plug the Controller in. The status lights cycle through a stepped color sequence as the Controller boots, finds a cellular signal, opens its connection to the cloud, and finishes provisioning. When the Controller is online and operational, the lights settle on solid green. See Reading Controller lights for the full sequence and what each color step means.

The cellular modem on the Controller connects on demand — it is not always on the air, and that is by design. You may notice the lights settle on green and then no further activity at the Controller for long stretches. That is the Controller idle and waiting; it wakes the cellular session when a sensor reports a change or the Controller has data to publish.

Once you see solid green, move on to Installing Coop Climate Sensors.

Last updated: 2026-05-14.