[Mostlygeek]

I built a little robot that props open a door when the av cabinet gets too hot. It has a temperature sensor, two fans and a linear actuator. It even has a small webui so I can manually enable/disable cooling. Been working for several years.

[guiambros]

Ha, that's a great idea. I have a smart exhaust fan in the av closet, but it still lacks air circulation, so opening the door slightly every now and then (particularly when there's high load / heat dissipation) could be a nice extra feature.

How did you mount the linear actuator? I need to retain the ability to manually open/close the door. Maybe using a magnetic latch.

[swizzler]

Some one else used a stepper motor actuated cam to open a dishwasher, could be used instead of a linear actuator: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/diy-automatic-opener-f...

[Mostlygeek]

The door hinge has a spring that will self close if it’s not opened too far. I mounted the actuator so it pushes the door open just behind that point. That turned out to be simplest solution.

[guiambros]

Love it, will do the same. Thank you for the inspiration!